Faith to Act

This past week has absolutely been the CRAZIEST WEEK OF MY MISSION. I have never had so many perks to the job but also so many responsibilities. Yikes! With great power comes great responsibility right? (It says that somewhere in the scriptures I am sure. ;) This week started with a surprise temple trip with the outgoing missionaries and ended with me holding the microphone for Elder Bednar. Holy Cow. It’s been a crazy little run! In between there have been solo car rides, lunch with president, driving  the transfer van, late nights and so much more. If it sounds like I am being an extremely disobedient missionary, I am sorry. I am not. Promise. It’s part of the job. It’s crazy. I love it though. There is always something going on. It’s been really fun. I love love love getting to know president and his family and I have loved being here and seeing a different side of the mission.

Spiritual: This week we were able to teach Jackie. She is an 80 year old tax lady who did taxes for a member and then the member invited her to come and watch Meet the Mormons with her and then invited her to take the missionary lesson. She agreed so we have been able to teach her and it has been fantastic. We taught her the plan of salvation this last week. After teaching her it was impressed upon my mind something that Elder Bednar taught us this past week. He taught us a lot about how to learn and a new style of teaching. The pattern went like this. He had us read three talks and prepare then he stood up and told us how the spirit is the real teacher and not to write anything down that was spoken. Only write down what the spirit whispers to you. I loved that idea. He then simply asked the question "What did you learn?" He then asked a few follow up questions about each statement and would expound on certain points from time to time. The spirit was so strong and we all came out learning new things from the spirit. It was incredible! One of the things that he talked about a lot and that sunk into my heart was the concept of faith being a principal of action. This is best reflected in Joseph Smith going to the grove and not asking what church was true but what church he should Join. The principal of faith being that you pray to act. Elder Bednar invited us to not anymore ask people to read and pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true, but to read and pray to know if they should join the church having the pure intention to act on the knowledge that they receive. Jackie really impressed me with her intent. When she prayed, she prayed with the intent to act. She was truly finding out if this was the path she needed to take and then she was completely willing to act on that answer. I fell in love with the pure example of faith that this 80 year old tax lady demonstrated. It’s been more and more of my focus to key into this concept of asking to act or in some cases acting and relying on the Lord. I would invite you to pray with the intent to act. If you want help on a test, pray then get up and work. He will help you! He lives. He has all power and the best part of it all is that he actually LOVES US. That means that He is willing to help us when we have faith in Him. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Funny: We had both the new missionaries and the old missionaries stay at our apartment this week. It was quite the experience. When we walked into the apartment with the outgoing missionaries they were jumping around and were being really loud. Someone was showing how to do Karate and there was a lot of yelling. The next day when the newbies came in, we walked in and they were all sitting there reading scriptures. It was so cute. I love it.

Where I am at: Almaden! This is a VERY affluent area. There are a lot of really solid members and a lot of good people here. It’s really been cool to serve here so far! The hard part is just juggling our time to make sure that we still do missionary work. We have made a goal to baptize here. It’s going to be amazing. I am really excited. There are a lot of really good things happening here. It’s strange to have your mission president in your ward, but it’s pretty cool as well. I love where I am at. Things are going so well. I am learning a lot. It’s a new experience for me for sure. I love you all!

With some Murray friends at the Elder Bednar training in Oakland. 

 Ammon and Elder Giles at Super Missionaries for Halloween.