Cleaning & Change:
So this week has been pretty cool. We (I mean I) have been cleaning the apartment top to bottom, bit by bit during our lunch our. I am going to get a new companion in a week and a half, and I want everything clean so he knows what to expect, haha. Little nervous about getting a new companion. I love my companion now like a brother, and over the past 3 months, I have gotten over all of the little things that bugged me or drove me insane, and we are a darn good team, now. I don't really want to have to go through all that again, but hey, aint' any other way to grow except by change.We had a pretty cool experience this week. We were just walking behind these houses in a dirt alleyway, and we saw this man doing some yard work with a shovel. I didn't really want to talk to him (middle aged white guys doing their yard don't have a good track record with us) but my companion was already walking up to him. (He has no fear, he doesn't have to talk to the guy. No one but me can understand his English.)He was super grumpy when we started talking to him, and said something along the lines of "Don't worry about me, I ain't interested. I know God, and I pray to him, even if it aint always the right way." I was just going to hand him a card and leave without wasting any more time, but the spirit just made me talk, and I just asked him a question. Forgot the question exactly, but it was something like "Why do you say it isn't always the right way?" Not the question most grumpy guys would want to hear, but it was amazing, he just opened up. He started telling us about his whole relation ship with God, about how he felt the Spirit the first time he held his daughter, about how the first time he prayed to God with real intent was to take away his mother's pain due to an illness, and when she died two weeks later, he heard a voice and felt a feeling of peace and comfort say "I took away her pain, she is safe with me." All we had to do was ask an occasional specific question, relying on the spirit, and he told us his fears about the world and where it is going, his doubts and wanting direction. Then I just asked him what he would ask a prophet, like Moses, a real guy who received revelation directly from God. He said he never exactly thought about it like that, and when I explained we have a living prophet today who received direct guidance from God for the world, it blew his mind a bit. He had a million questions about how this prophet is chosen, how do we know it's a prophet, and a lot more, but I just asked if it would be alright if we could come back and teach his family.It was the funniest thing, he stopped, took like 30 seconds to respond, and said "You know, I don't think I have ever talked to someone about my life like that, I'm a pretty closed man, and I honestly have no idea why I did. But yea, you guys can come back."The spirit is so tangible, so amazing, and I love every day getting the chance to see the Lord's Hand working. We don't do anything, we don't open them up, the Spirit does, and works through us. And the whole experience just reaffirmed in my mind how important having a prophet is, to guide us when everyone else in this world is in such confusion. When we came back a few days later, he told us he didn't have time for our whole "spiel", he just wanted to know about the prophet thing. Funny he asked that, we answered his question by teaching the entire restoration lesson. He was skeptical at first, thinking the next prophet is voted in or something, but when we explained it, and how no one in the church is paid, and how every member has the right to sustain the prophet and ask God if he is actually his servant, it was like a door opened for this guy. We told him he could know the truth by that same feeling of peace and love he felt before, and it was awesome! When we asked him, right there in the first lesson, "If you receive a confirmation through The Holy Ghost that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that this is the Lord's only true church, will you be baptized?' He responded ,"Who in their right mind wouldn't, if they received an actual response from God?!"It's moments like that that make the mission, and only grow my testimony. We are so blessed that God has given us a guide, his voice of direction, council, and comfort in these days. Because God loves us. And what is so amazing is that if we have doubts, and we ask God in honest, sincere prayer, and search the scriptures for an answer and remain firm in our covenants, even members since birth are entitled to that same spirit to testify of the unyielding truth that this is the Church of Jesus Christ, and the only one that deserves to hold his sacred name. And God has promised that if you continue on in faith, that answer will come. And I can say that with certainty and unapologetically, because I have felt that same Spirit of God testify to me of it's truth. And he continues to do it every single day.Love you guys, see you next week.
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