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.It's a balmy -2 this a.m.
Dear Family,
It is so great to hear from you all once again! These weeks are just flying by and the blessings still roll forth even in Eastern Canada. Thank you all for your prayers. Please make sure that you are praying for your own missionaries by name, daily. They will see the progress and you will be blessed. To be honest, this week was one of the hardest weeks of my life, mentally and spiritually, I will spare you the details and explain without exuberance later on, but missions are tough. The words on this page won't convince you of that. I remember reading JT's letters and thinking that life was just peachy for him, but
in all honesty, missions are hard, every day, for two years. And then apparently life gets harder. It's interesting how we don't understand spiritual things fully until we experience them. To explain the atonement is simple. Christ died for our sins so that we could live again. But we don't understand the atonement by the words in the Book of Mormon. We understand the atonement for when we are faced with trials. When we don't know how much harder the Lord asks us to push: live the gospel and deal with our challenges. Moroni said is perfectly: Faith is things hoped for and not seen, therefore, dispute not because ye see not, ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
in all honesty, missions are hard, every day, for two years. And then apparently life gets harder. It's interesting how we don't understand spiritual things fully until we experience them. To explain the atonement is simple. Christ died for our sins so that we could live again. But we don't understand the atonement by the words in the Book of Mormon. We understand the atonement for when we are faced with trials. When we don't know how much harder the Lord asks us to push: live the gospel and deal with our challenges. Moroni said is perfectly: Faith is things hoped for and not seen, therefore, dispute not because ye see not, ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
We don't know how we will accomplish living the gospel and facing problems, but this is a false dichotomy: Living the gospel will give us the strength to overcome our trials. Think of Christ in Gethsemane: He knew the God had given Him the strength to die for the sins of the world, the hardest part was enduring the time of matchless pain. Bottom line: Spiritual things are understood by experience.
So with that being said, here's the quote of the week!
*With Brother Little, the ward clerk who happens to be less-active as to why we are visiting him
Elder McGuire: So why do you belong to our church when you think that other churches are true churches?
Brother Little: The Mormon church aligns slightly with my beliefs. I believe that we are descendants of an ancient alien species.
St. Stephen Elders:.......
First package arrived!
First package arrived!
So yes, this ward, although considered a ward, it functions more like a branch. There are people that have callings that just don't have testimonies. Frustrates me to the guilds. When the ward doesn't step up to the plate that's when missionaries have to carry the load.
I am putting together an attack plan for how to fix this ward, because there are a lot of less-actives and I have decided that we need new less-actives to work with. Less-active members are a lot like investigators. If they aren't progressing, then you drop them. I didn't really put two and two together until a few days ago. It's a great thing to be a missionary because if people aren't progressing towards baptism then you drop them and trust that the Lord will provide new people to teach. With that being said, I am now phoning through the ward list and getting to know this ward as much as I can, because once I know all that is going on with the ward then I can serve it better. I want new less-actives to work with and to be honest I want to reactivate three people or families by Christmas. I can do this.
With understanding how the ward is and functions that'll give me a better idea of which members to bring to lessons. We are creating effective time by using the area book and facebook to understand what kind of missionary work has been done here in the past. Just understanding that and getting up to speed with the town makes me feel less-stressed that I can put together a plan to get more people to sacrament meeting. 28 people just isn't cutting it for me. I want a ward, not a branch.
So lately, I am noticing that Heavenly Father is cleansing His sheep. Those that can't get with the program and come to church we won't spend our time with. It's also interesting to see how much I can take on as a person. I can sleep when I'm dead. What I'm trying to say with all of this, is that the ward mission leader is going inactive and surprise. I have a new calling! So now I am printing off and studying just about every word that has come out of Clayton M. Christensen's mouth. There's this great story about this congregation in Augusta, Maine who called proselyting families to come to church and their branch evolved into a large and strong stake. I will establish the church in New Brunswick even if it kills me.
Now as district leader I get the responsibility of training the rest of my district to be better missionaries. At zone conference, President Leavitt was really driving home on using the fundamentals from Preach My Gospel. So I'm going to go over a fundamental a week. It's interesting how not a lot of missionaries are inviting people to be baptized. We are their door to the Celestial Kingdom. I want my district to be extending baptismal invitations more often. Even if we have to ask people on the street to be baptized then I am content with that. They even did that in the Tokyo mission and people agreed to be baptized! Somewhat of a pipe dream, I know, but hey, I am fired up to get things going.
Zone conference 5 bx challenge! (5bx is the exercise that all the missionaries do in the morning and then text their times into President Leavit) President was showing the ZLs how things are done
Speaking of inviting people to be baptized. I woke up Thursday morning and knew that I needed to put someone on date. We were meeting with Jason that afternoon and we were struggling to find a member to go with us (What do you mean you have a job and a life and agency?!?!?!) but nevertheless, we went anyways. Although we only read a few verses from the Book of Mormon, Elder Wolvers and I bore our testimonies about how the Book of Mormon can answer the questions of our souls. Sat their and cried for a little while before I asked Jason and his girlfriend, Wendy, to be baptized. They said yes and we are having a baptism on DEC 20!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!
It's hard for me to relax and sleep at night, but Mom, thank you so much for those oils. They were a game-changer. The fish oil is great at sustaining me and keeps my mental energy up. Alyssa messaged this to me a few minutes ago, that I can't give people testimonies. They have to figure things out for themselves.
Speaking of people figuring things out for themselves. Brother Wood is a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father. He phoned us up the other day and was going on and on about how he received answers from the Book of Mormon about the priesthood. He is preparing to be ordained and I am excited for him. He gives us referral after referral (Give your missionaries referrals!!!!!!!!) and calls our investigators up to ask if he can drive them to church (Brother Wood drives a taxi). He just has no problem sharing the gospel with all of the people he drives and I don't know if I've mentioned this, but he referred us to one of our new investigators: Debbie Cheyne.
About our investigators, we're meeting with Debbie this Tuesday with Brother Wood to teach the restoration and invite her to come to church. She wants to come to church but she's afraid she'll be judged for it. Getting people to church is now my entire life. If I have to phone every last member or stalk them on facebook to ensure they are renewing their baptismal covenants, then I will. GAH, "oh that I were an angel and could speak with the voice of thunder crying repentance unto this people!"-Alma
Scripture:
Ether 12:6
And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
I love you all, you inspire me and lift me up when I've been met with additional trials. Fight as hard as you can to live the gospel, no matter what it takes, I promise that your Heavenly Father will bless you.
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Elder McGuire
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