So I guess for my spiritual thought of the week I might come back to something that I've already talked about: our divine potential. We have the capacity to do anything and Heavenly Father has given us all the tools we need to accomplish what we were sent here to do. But something we've had a glimpse of this week is when people don't use the tools they've been given and so their potential stays untapped to its full extent. It is so sad for us to see that when people don't progress even when they know it's all true and have had spiritual experiences. But as it says in the Old Testament many times, his hand is still extended to us even when we have turned away from him. So study out who you truly are and find out for yourself what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about :)
Monday 23rd:
We had another double header FHE night. First we were with Mathis and the Levesques. We watched some mormon messages about our potential and choices but then we finished by teaching them how to play Don't Eat Pete. It was a blast haha! They got way into it and for them I can imagine it was rather suspenseful haha! But then with Fr Boulanger we went to Mara's and had another one there. It turned into me playing guitar with her son while the rest had a calmer lessons. I was ok with that haha :)
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| Guitar at Mara's :) |
Tuesday 24th:
We had a great day full of teaching! We taught Reynold some of the basic commandments of obedience, prayer and scripture study. My favorite part though is that he brings it back to that he knows he's in the right track and that he's not giving up. We ate with the Gallais's that night which is fun. Have I mentioned how big their bear dog is? He's huge!!
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| At the Gallais's with their dog :) |
That night we had a lesson fall through and then some back up plans but it's interesting how he ended up where we needed to be teaching Cheri and her friend :) ( I was also very grateful for the many envelopes of music, articles, and recipes :) I loved the "Mom tested and approved note haha!)
Wednesday 25th:
How have I already hit 9 months?!? Crazy! The sisters that came in with me are at their halfway mark!! Whaa! But anyway I really enjoyed reading the talk by Elder Holland titled "MIssionary Work and the Atonement" that I received. Something he said was this: "Missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience." I love that because it is so true on both sides! Even when you have lots of appointments, you have to work hard to have the Spirit and be in the right mindset for the Lord to do his work through you.
After district meeting that day we hit the streets in our suits. It's kind of funny how people look at us when we are out and about :) With Mathis later we reviewed the Restoration and went over what he highlighted in the pamphlets. Before leaving I committed him to really pray about the Book of Mormon and the church to find out if it's true. He accepted :)
Thursday 26th:
I came across the word Rely in the Topical Guide during my personal study. A verse that I liked was 1 Nephi 10:6. I wrote next to it "Relying Raises Us." Through reading through the references I found that we must rely on the Lord and his mercy which requires faith. As missionaries we are always striving to rely more on the Lord because that's when miracles happen :)
Later we went to Mathis's and followed up. The best thing ever happened! He prayed the night before and said he felt a warmth. Then when we asked what he was praying about he replied that he was praying about that blue book we gave him and also if the church was good or not. Ah! It was a fulfillment of the promise we gave him! :) The Spirit let me know that it was the real deal which was nice :)
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| Mathis! Check out the pictures he has! |
Then thanks to a cancelled lesson we got to go teach Michon for the first time. He's a middle aged man who has never really found the truth in religion. He doesn't get too many visitors either so he's super happy whenever we stop by. But we were able to start answering his questions and helping him see that there is one solid truth! We visited Nannette and then Reynold with the Fremonts which went well. Nannette is doing great and we're just about done with the commandments and then onto lesson 5! Sr Fremont really liked meeting Reynold because she felt a lot like him where the other churches couldn't answer his questions but now he has found them.
Friday 27th:
I read through D&C 112 for part of my study. I really enjoyed it because it talks about the connection of missionaries with the quorum of the 12. Verse 21 really put some authority and power into my spiritual engine :) I have also started to learn some Spanish... Because I want too :) I'm still spending the majority of my time in French but having some fun too. All the missionary language resources in Spanish got left behind sometime so I just picked it up and started :) It's pretty fun! :D I also made some blondies from the recipes I got and they turned out more like bar cookies but still way good :)
With Mathis that day his dog was giving some trouble, so much that Fr Levesque actually left in the middle of the lesson... First time that ever happened to me haha :) Can't blame him because that dog is crazy! Elder Noel has pulled out some of wrestling moves on it even. But that night we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Cheri. We were giving her the tools to succeed and she wants it. She wants to change her life for the better. So we committed her to be baptized and she accepted for the 30th of May! :D
Saturday 28th:
We ran for the first time...Oh I'm out of shape...But we went to Lolo's birthday party that day for a little which was fun. Then we visited Michon again. We found out that he does not like paid priests. Thankfully those don't exist in our church :) He's also a big believer that families are ordained of God (in other words than that) and doesn't understand why priests can't get married. We explained to him that it isn't that way in our church either. Step by step, line upon line!
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| Lolo's Birthday! |
After that we visited Mara and went over the Plan of Salvation in depth from the Pearl of Great Price. I really like Moses 5:1-11 because it goes over all the blessings of the Fall :) Sadly later we visited Mathis and it was not a good lesson. He explained to us that he doesn't have any goals in life and that he kind of just goes with whatever comes... That was hard because it showed that our teaching isn't really sinking in... I hate drugs!! :( Then with Reynold we had a rough one too where he has the answers right in front of him but something isn't clicking with making church a priority. :( It's really sad for us. Sadly we can't take away their free agency because that's Satan's plan... haha :)
Sunday 29th:
We had quite the adventure at the Cégep. There was an improv competition there for the weekend and somehow our usual reservation got lost... So we had to scramble and find the only two rooms open and quickly arrange them into something suitable for church. Then we only had Marquis there at church and even he left early. But we had some good time together! We had our potluck afterward and the blondies I made were a hit! :D People even asked for the recipe! (Thank you Mom and Grandma!)
Our only rendez-vous for the day fell through after church with a nicely written note on a door... But after studies and dinner we went out and walked around doing pass bys a lot. But then we went out knocking a little sharing the new intitiative of the church "Because He Lives" :) It's such a great message because it helps us talk about Christ and show that's all our message is about really :)
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| Our note of cancellation :P |
Monday 30th:
I can't believe that March is over! It goes so quickly! This morning though I was able to put into action some Elder Bednar magic! I have listened to his talk titled "Reservoir of Living Water" a couple times now and I really do want to bump up the power in my studies. So this morning I studies commandments and I found some good water :) I recommend looking up that talk and studying out what connections, patterns, and themes are. But I found some great themes in commandments such as that they are all based on love. God gives us them because he loves us! But also I found that commandments are there to help us gain access to the Atonement :) What a blessing! :D I also got my haircut today right before emails and it looks good :)
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| My notes from this morning :) |
So I hope you all have a wonderful week! You are all wonderful and have the potential for an infinite amount of things! Never limit yourself! :)
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Brooks
Elder Brooks
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