Dear Family and Friends,
I feel like a
completely different person than I was last week when I wrote. I don't
know how to compose this email because I feel that words are not enough
to capture all that I experienced this week.
I'd
say the climax of this week was yesterday. Yesterday we had a tri-zone
zone conference with Elder Klebingat. Elder Klebingat is one of the
leaders (from the quorum of the 70) from the church. He is from Germany
but came from Salt Lake to tour our mission. The experience I had at
zone conference yesterday changed my life. I look at the world with
completely new eyes now.
Prior to zone
conference it felt a bit like we were plowing through the week. It was
one of those weeks where we kind of just had to run on fumes with the
faith that our efforts were amounting to something, even if it wasn't
visible to us. We talked to a lot of people and spent a lot of time at
bus stops, but I had gotten to the point where I knew that I personally
had fallen into a rut. I said the right things and went to the right
places but I wasn't doing those things with hope.
When
we went to zone conference Elder Klebingat began by teaching us who we
truly are through the doctrine of the plan of salvation. Even though the
plan of salvation is something I have been taught since the day I was
born, it clicked in a new way. Because we lived with God before this
life we trusted in Him completely and we trusted that Jesus Christ would
have the power to save us. No situation is truly without hope because
Christ broke any chains that could possibly hold us back. And it is by
choosing to accept His help that we are able to become a new person. One
scripture that has stuck in my mind this week is Mosiah 27:25-26. It
says "And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men
and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born of
God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of
righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming His sons and daughters.
And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this they can in
nowise inheret the kingdom of God." It's so amazing that because of
Jesus Christ we are able to change and be freed from any bad habits,
mistakes, sadness, difficult circumstances. Anything.
Anyways,
I don't think I can adequately convey all that I learned, felt, and
experienced yesterday. But I do know that it changed everything about
the way I work. Yesterday after zone conference we went to look for new
people to teach. I met this girl from Osaka Japan and started talking to
her. I don't know how to describe it, but I felt the spirit so strongly
from the conference that I could feel God with me guiding our
conversation more than I have ever felt before. We talked about her
family and about God. Being from Japan, she didn't have much of a
knowledge about Jesus Christ. I took out a pamphlet that teaches about
the gospel of Jesus Christ and showed her some of the pictures inside of
it. The spirit prompted me to ask her what she felt when she looked at
those pictures. She told me that she felt relieved. I asked her how the
pictures made her feel relieved and she said "because I can feel that He
is someone like my mom. He is someone I can rely on." The spirit was so
strong and it just blew me away that someone who didn't even know the
name of Jesus Christ could recognize from a 5 minute conversation that
He is someone we can rely on. It was amazing.
Everyday
we go from place to place, meeting with different people and teaching
them the gospel. I've seen so many different family situations and life
stories but one thing I know is that no matter what your situation,
Jesus Christ has the power to change and help you.
My faith has grown to the point where it rests in Jesus Christ, not in any outcome.
