What a crazy week! In case any are wondering what a election is like for a missionary..it basically means all the plans you thought you had that day become plans that you don't have anymore haha
But luckily our investigators wanted to meet with us enough to schedule for a different time this week so that was awesome!
As far as our work Elder Candland and I are really trying to be escalator missionaries, which essentially means that we aren't just focusing on one investigator and then get them baptized and then realize that we have no one to teach now haha so instead we are going up the stairs with them and then going down to grab more people and its been awesome! The work is hastening here in the United States and truly the world.
I pray that the members can understand that the missionaries need the members to start planting seed of the gospel more so than ever, because thats how the Lord needs us! We have our usual two investigators that always without fail ask questions that you never see coming so its fun to go home and study up to understand doctrine of the Gospel that you thought you knew pretty well enough to answer questions, but nope. There is never enough! which is awesome! Because do we ever really know everything when it comes to this Gospel? By this Saturday we will find out if our investigator Oredi will be baptized or not so thats way cool! We are shooting for the 26th of November! So its amazing and awesome to be a missionary!
I have a few thoughts and insights from this week that I would like to share with you all.
The thing I would like to direct peoples thoughts to is the beauty of how the Lord works with his children. If we look closely there is a beautiful, but simplistic pattern that can be seen in many many different things. For example the pattern of the Plan of Salvation. Since Adam and Eve we have been leaving somewhere great, out into the world or wildness of some sorts so that we can be guided and led to a promised land! Which is the exact same pattern we see with Lehi, Moses, our Savior, and even us as we left God so we could come back just like Him and to be with him forever! The pattern I would like to focus on is the pattern of Faith.
I won't lie to you all and say that this week was perfect. In comparison to my other weeks in the mission this one wasn't bad, but it felt a tiny bit off. I wondered to myself what was going on. While I pondered this subject I came to some very powerful insights. One thing that has made a pretty big impact on the mission is simply the end of daylight savings! You would never think right! That daylight savings affects the missionary work, but its true! When the sun goes down. No one wants you around haha so I believe as we have been trying to do missionary work during the hours of 6-9 I have allowed myself to doubt that anything will happen. And I was right! Nothing happened.
Thats because without the faith then of course nothing is gonna happen. Since I'm not trying to make anything happen, nothing will happen! I'm grateful for Church, because within that building you can receive answers from any single person. And my answer was faith. I pondered this concept and realized that what I underwent is what we read about in Jacob 5:70 "And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few."
We will labor diligently in the vineyard and only a few other servants will be brought back to the Lord with us.
Then it opened up to me to ask the question: what will happen to us when darkness and the workings of the adversary will surround us so much so that there wont be anyone to turn to? Just like while we are out trying to meet people at night and its dark, cold, and empty. I imagine as we get closer to the Saviors second coming we will experience a much similar experience where it will become just us in that dark environment surrounded by the adversaries workings! There will only be a few that will truly be ready to take it and it all comes down to our faith.
Do we believe something can happen? In the Bible Dictionary "Miracles" it states, "Miracles are a part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If miracles cease it is because faith has ceased." I am indeed appreciative of all the thoughts and words of encouragement that I receive from everyone and its amazing to see how inspired what you wrote to me was what I myself have been thinking about or needing to hear! One of the only places we will always be able to go to for refuge is and will be the Temple!
This week is going to be awesome, because I chose to believe its going to be!
Keep Smiling
Elder Gerrard
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