California Dreamin'

"Be still and know that I am God" - D&C 101:16

Monday, August 19, 2013

I hope that you all had a good week. Our's was a little slow as far as teaching went, but it was a good week for learning things, at least for me. One of the biggest things was that impressed upon me was the acceptance of other faiths. Allow me to explain: before now I had been struggling with other Christian faiths and whether I should be supportive or distrustful of their views. I know as missionaries that we are to build up everyone around us regardless of their faith, and that we are to add upon the knowledge and truth that they already have and not tear them down. But it wasn't really until this week that I realized just what that meant. I likened it to the parable of the talents; but instead of money, the servants were given truth. The servant that was given the smallest amount of truth chose to hide it and to close himself off from the accumulating of more. The other servants, however, chose to increase the truth that they had been given; and they were blessed for increasing the knowledge that they had. So it is with us - as members of the restored church, we have been given so much truth and are encouraged to seek it out where ever it may be found. We also encourage those around us that have been given a little truth to increase their knowledge and testimony of Christ and His plan for us. It helps me in teaching people to then see their sincerity and devotion to Jesus Christ and God, help them expand that, and to always encourage them to come closer to their Father in heaven.

I also learned that many people have lives and literally don't have time for the missionaries to talk to them. On Thursday, every single person we had planned to see wasn't home, so we ran around for no reason. I learned a very important lesson in trying to call people to see if they are even home at the time we are hoping to see them, instead of running around and getting nowhere fast (hence today's title).
We also were able to take part in a parade on Saturday. The wards had put together a float and some flyers about being prepared in case of disaster. They also had the idea to staple pass-along cards to the flyers and hand those out as well. They asked the missionaries to hand them out during the parade, and I'm sorry to say that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The Gospel is so dear to my heart that when I share it, I want it to be with sincerity, not in some mass produced flyer that I'm throwing at people as I'm running past them. The flyers were still handed out (almost 400 of them), and we had a great time. I just felt sick to my stomach when I tried to hand them out. That was an interesting day.

We also have an investigator that is ready for baptism, we just need to coordinate schedules now. I'll keep you all posted!

And let's try these pictures: