Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was really good. President Houseman talked about distractions and how we need to be completely focused on our mission. He said, "Distractions will take away our excitement, hope, and will bring challenges and disobedience."
This is true not just for missionaries but for every day lives. We have our goal which is to return to live with Heavenly Father. But the adversary will throw distractions into our lives to try and take away our focus, distract us, and make us sad. But we can't let these distractions (sin, temptations, vain things of the world, cell phones, social media) distract us from our proposito (purpose?) here on earth. Every one of us has a mission. We need to always work to hear the Spirit and know what God wants us to do so that we can fulfill our mission on earth.
But just as the adversary gives us distractions, God also gives us distractions for good. As we study the scriptures, participate actively in our church meetings, fast, and keep all of his commandments, we are being focused. God is showing us His will in our lives, and it will help us to be strong enough to resist any temptation.
I know that God talks to us. We need to learn to recognize when he does.
Things are going well. We were able to teach 19 new investigators this week, so that definitely will help us to get a new group going. Elder Montiel is doing great. He has more time in the mission than I do, so it feels a whole lot easier to have someone with experience on your side. We are running all over the place, and we don't really have much time to think. Just work. Which is really good.
I got to see Elder Price this week. It was the first time that I got to talk to him in about 9 months. We bought a ball in the CTM with a minion inside. We each paid one real for it. So now we switch it every time that we see each other. And it had already been with him for 9 months.
Saturday as we walked through the streets in the center of Paulista, there was a group that met up, and they were having a preaching service, with rock music and everything. One of the pastors stood up and started talking. "Hello everyone. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to meet with you and to praise God here in the middle of the street. If we are able to bother everyone when we are in church, imagine how many people we can bother here in the street."
I couldn't help but laugh at that.
I really liked that story that you shared from Brother Bodily. This is something that I am trying to learn to do. Something that I am trying to be familiar with. President Houseman taught us about Goals of Faith. How a lot of times we set a goal that we are already in a good position to hit or that we can see how to hit that goal. Maybe we call them realistic goals. But to set goals of faith, we need to reach for the things that we can't see. Our goals with faith should have a part that we can't see how we can accomplish them without God's help. He explained how we can leave some room for God to work with.
In his mission, President Houseman set a goal to baptize 20 people in a month. But it wasn't just a goal he set. He felt prompted with his companion that this was the goal they needed to set. They worked and worked, and baptized all 15 of the investigators in their teaching pool. They still had 2 weeks to have 5 more baptisms, so they prayed and showed their works to God and asked for his help so that they could find the people that he had for them to baptize. They found a family and they were baptized. He baptized 23 that month. But only because he followed the inspiration that God gave him.
This is a trait I studied this week, and learned that the gift of discernment can be to discern the whispers of the Holy Ghost too, not just to know the thoughts of the people. I know that my patriarchal blessing says I have this gift of the Spirit, so now I am working to develop it.
I hope that you guys are doing well, and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Nielson
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