Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great week and was able to watch conference! General Conference is always so, so good. But I realized unfortunately, that before my mission I didn't realize the full significance of having modern day prophets speak to us. The eternal truths they tell us today are no less important than the things we read in the Book of Mormon or Bible. They receive revelation directly from God to guide us in today's world. Imagine if Nephi or Alma or Moses came to speak, I don't think so many of us would "accidentally" fall asleep as we do during regular conference. But the words they speak are no less powerful and true than the words of all of God's past prophets and revelators.
The biggest change this week is when I first got here we had this thing called 777. Which means we get 7 new investigators, 7 people asked to be baptized, and 7 people on date for baptism. And that was our standard. And our zone leaders and presidents were all super concerned that we get those numbers. And that was how they decided if we were being effective or not. At one point I was told that if I wasn't getting the standard I should just go home. And I was honestly confused because we are supposed to be teaching people. Not statistics. Teach repentance, baptize CONVERTS. Not just not having enough numbers so committing a group of drunk people to baptism at the last second. But now, through inspiration, they have decided to throw out the 777 and concentrate on working through members and baptizing true converts. So that'll be great! Everyone who has been here for longer than me says this is changing everything. So, hopefully, we will all start to be more effective!
We also had a FHE with some of the active members of our branch. It's the first time I've actually gotten to know a lot of them. They are all so kind and nice! I love all of them. We sang silly songs and played games and Elder Jones and I gave the lesson. Oh it was great! We are planning to do FHE lessons at least once every week and start inviting less active and investigators :)
This weekend was Conference. It was all so good! I encourage all of you to review and read the talks over and ponder what they say.
I don't have a lot of time so this one will be a little shorter, I really hope all is going well and I appreciate the support and prayers!
Also! I got my first member meal Sunday night! It was so nice to have real food... It was a testimony builder for sure.
We went after dinner to give a lady a blessing because doctors found a tumor. She is from Thailand and her son is deaf. But they were both so, so kind. I am loving meeting all these different kinds of people. She was continuously thanking us. We also went to meet this guy. We called him before we left and when we got to his trailer, he went off about how he had been trying to live his life good but had gone back to making some of the bad decisions he made before he was baptized. He said that he had realized that he wanted Christ in his life and was trying to find a way or sign he could change. And then we called. We gave him a blessing and reconnected him to the gospel. He went on to watch conference and I really think he is sincere in changing. So many cool stories happen like this every day.
I love my mission and am so happy I decided to go. I love these people and this work. I love and miss all of you! Until next week.
- Elder Wood
No comments:
Post a Comment