Hi Family!
Que dice la buena vida? (so that John knows, that means "how´s life?")
I really just put that line in to help John out a bit...
This week...wow. I can´t believe that it´s already gone. It FLEW by. Wow. It´s already next week. It´s already the last week of this transfer. Time flies. Two years really is no time at all. I have no time to waste.
This week was really odd. I was with my companion about 2 days, and that´s it. On Tuesday, I did a work visit to another elder, on Saturday a Zone Leader did me a work visit, and two other days we did splits. I was almost never with him. We didn´t even plan to do divisions this week, but the members came to us and asked if they could, so we didn´t tell them no. It was a good week. We worked really well and were able to teach more lessons than any other week. It was awesome!
This week didn´t have a lot of big moments, but it had a few tiny, spiritual moments that I´d like to share.
One was in District Meeting. President is making a latino give a talk in english every week to help them learn, and this week a sister talked, and said a quote by Pres. Hinckley. It said "faith is the power, Obedience is the price, Love is the motivation, the spirit is the key, and Christ is the reason" That´s so simple but so true. It is the base of our life. Because we have faith, we have the power to do anything and everything, because we obey, God blesses us. Because we love, we choose to do it. The spirit guides us in the path. And Christ and His atonement are the reasons that we do it. Because without Him, we would have no life. I love that. I felt that in a lesson yesterday. We were teaching a couple of less active recent converts. They got baptized in November I think, and went to church for about 2 weeks before going inactive, because they started to work and go to college. We were talking to the 19 year old son that goes to college and he said it feel restricted. He tries to go to church (he really does), but something always happens. One time his dad came and visited (his parents are separated) and got drunk and started to beat his mom, so the kid stayed home to save his mom´s life. Something always happens, so we taught him the power of the atonement, if we live the gospel of christ. Christ suffered for everything. EVERYTHING. And we just have to live his gospel to accept his sacrifice for us. It was a powerful lesson to teach and remember the truth and power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Another awesome moment was on Friday. I interviewed on of the Sister´s investigators. He was athiest, and he´s starting to believe in God, but he wouldn´t accept a baptismal date (and he´s already gone to church several times), so I interviewed him to see why not. So I started the interview, and asked him "do you believe that God is your Father in Heaven?" And he couldn´t give me a straight, 100% sure answer. He just told me "I feel it. I think so. But I´m not sure. I just feel good when I think about it, and I believe now that there is a god. But I´m not sure yet if he is my father." And I asked him the second part of the question "do you believe that Jesus Christ is your savior?" and again he told me that he didn´t know. So I invited him to pray. Because it truly is the key to recieve an answer from God. And I told him to ask a super specific question. I told him, in every prayer that he says, I told him to ask God is He is his father and ask if Jesus is the savior. Questions super specific so that there are only two answers, yes or no. And at the end, when he prayed, he asked those questions, and a couple more things I told him to ask. His prayer was so humble. He used such simple language, but it was so sincere. He truly talked to our Father in heaven. He didn´t just talk TO him, he talked WITH him. Wow. It really humbled me to see his childlike faith. At the end of his interview, he accepted baptism. I´m so grateful for being able to help him feel the spirit. I didn´t teach anything, the spirit taught. It was a powerful moment than truly strengthened my testimony of God.
This weeked, my stake had stake conference, and an area seventy came, Elder Camaro (I think). He was really powerful. He said a lot, but I just want to put two quotes I wrote down. He said "we really don´t need to ask for blessings, we just need to ask for opportunities to obey" and he also said "it´s sad that there aren´t more laws and commandments to obey to make God bless us more". Those two lines are so simple and powerful.
Mom - so for your question from last week. I would only really want 1) more music. like more than anything the song of me, dave, zach, and jord singing "I love the lord" on a cd or a usb. whatever. and i´d like a rubik´s cube. mine broke. But if you send it, have somebody like dad, WD-40 it before, so it spins well. And I like mint m&m´s. That´s pretty much it. Because really what I miss is home-made food and that just can´t happen...and your week sounds super......................fun. haha
Dad - how many marathons have you run now? and that´s the fastest you´ve run right?
John - see above to learn what "que dice la buena vida" means. and good luck this semester.
Jordan - did John ask you what "que dice la buena vida" means? and if he did, did you not know?
Tashita - the flying joke. Great. Loved it. your letters are like statistical reports.
Shaylee - are you alive?
Another thing I forgot was something president taught us in a zone conference this week. He taught us what is the plan of happiness. The plan of happiness has two parts, two keys. And they are 1) obedience and 2) faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If somebody isn´t happy, it´s becasue he´s not obeying or he doesn´t have the faith that he needs. It´s such a basic idea, but it´s so true. If you want to be happier, obey and have faith, and I know you will be happy, because you will have the strength of the lord.
Love you all!
Elder Schouten
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