We received an email from Elder Stewart last week and I haven't had time to put it in the blog. It is great hearing from Elder Stewart and I am posting it because I am sure that Elder Ashton will love to hear what he has to say since the Elders in the mission field don't correspond with each other.....so since his email was 3 times as long as any of Elder Ashton's I thought that I would break it up into three parts that way I will be able to post three days in a row!
Elder Stewart writes:
Hey!
Well I am a little bit annoyed right now due to the fact that I had already written this email and then the very very intelligent young individual who has the education of about 11 th grade was not at his post and therefore I had no way of adding more time and thus, my computer shut down and with it all my dreams of sending me e-mail also were gone. But, " tudo bem" as we would say here; "everything is ok" I will not get too mad over stupid little things like this. So let's see if I have as good a memory as my mom always says that I do. So this week I had some difficulties with some things and not very happy. Then, I read a great talk about faith and missionary work. It changed my outlook on what I can and can't control on the mission and how my attitude makes the difference. He talked about "absolute faith" where you have enough faith to convince the Lord that you deserve the blessing you want. I realized that if I change my attitude and stay positive and just work hard, the Lord will bless me with my greatest desire….Baptisms! I know that it is not easy to have this type of faith or to convince the Lord that he needs to let you baptize but I know that it is possible. He talked about how there are missionaries that enter a house and see a cigarette in the ash tray on the table and automatically lose their faith that that person will be baptized. If we can learn to control our thoughts and stay positive and faithful in all things and truly convince ourselves first and God second, all things are possible. I had a very humbling experience as I learned by experiment that it is not that easy. This Sunday I had a baptism marked and was positive in my mind that the Lord would do his part and touch the heart of this girl to follow what she knows is right and be baptized. I prayed a lot and was certain in my heart. Whatever doubt that came to mind was immediately thrown out and replaced with a positive thought. Sunday came and I went to pick her up only to find that she was not dressed and ready to go and said that she would not be going to church that day and that she would explain on Monday. I still did not doubt that the Lord would prepare some one to be baptized that afternoon. I had another girl who passed her interview and was just about ready in her mind for baptism. She was ready when we went there and she was excited to go to church. I continued to battle with my thoughts and trying to stay positive until after church when I would invite Tanya to be baptized. Well the hour came and she was not sure. I told her to have courage and follow what she knows is right. She was still a little too apprehensive and declined the baptism and said that she would think about this week. I was crushed. I had the faith to baptize some one and yet it didn't happen. Then I felt something inside me the told me that it was not because of me that she was not baptized and that the other girl also was not my fault but rather they had their free agency and they had rejected to follow the Spirit in that moment. Well I still have faith that I will baptize this week and I found out that the other girl who didn't go to church heard from her catholic mom that our church was a cult and that her mom didn't want her to be baptized in this church. We showed her that that is not true and she is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray until Sunday to decide if she will be baptized. Heck, she is 28! If her mom doesn't want her to be baptized she still can! So we will see what will happen.
Well I am a little bit annoyed right now due to the fact that I had already written this email and then the very very intelligent young individual who has the education of about 11 th grade was not at his post and therefore I had no way of adding more time and thus, my computer shut down and with it all my dreams of sending me e-mail also were gone. But, " tudo bem" as we would say here; "everything is ok" I will not get too mad over stupid little things like this. So let's see if I have as good a memory as my mom always says that I do. So this week I had some difficulties with some things and not very happy. Then, I read a great talk about faith and missionary work. It changed my outlook on what I can and can't control on the mission and how my attitude makes the difference. He talked about "absolute faith" where you have enough faith to convince the Lord that you deserve the blessing you want. I realized that if I change my attitude and stay positive and just work hard, the Lord will bless me with my greatest desire….Baptisms! I know that it is not easy to have this type of faith or to convince the Lord that he needs to let you baptize but I know that it is possible. He talked about how there are missionaries that enter a house and see a cigarette in the ash tray on the table and automatically lose their faith that that person will be baptized. If we can learn to control our thoughts and stay positive and faithful in all things and truly convince ourselves first and God second, all things are possible. I had a very humbling experience as I learned by experiment that it is not that easy. This Sunday I had a baptism marked and was positive in my mind that the Lord would do his part and touch the heart of this girl to follow what she knows is right and be baptized. I prayed a lot and was certain in my heart. Whatever doubt that came to mind was immediately thrown out and replaced with a positive thought. Sunday came and I went to pick her up only to find that she was not dressed and ready to go and said that she would not be going to church that day and that she would explain on Monday. I still did not doubt that the Lord would prepare some one to be baptized that afternoon. I had another girl who passed her interview and was just about ready in her mind for baptism. She was ready when we went there and she was excited to go to church. I continued to battle with my thoughts and trying to stay positive until after church when I would invite Tanya to be baptized. Well the hour came and she was not sure. I told her to have courage and follow what she knows is right. She was still a little too apprehensive and declined the baptism and said that she would think about this week. I was crushed. I had the faith to baptize some one and yet it didn't happen. Then I felt something inside me the told me that it was not because of me that she was not baptized and that the other girl also was not my fault but rather they had their free agency and they had rejected to follow the Spirit in that moment. Well I still have faith that I will baptize this week and I found out that the other girl who didn't go to church heard from her catholic mom that our church was a cult and that her mom didn't want her to be baptized in this church. We showed her that that is not true and she is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray until Sunday to decide if she will be baptized. Heck, she is 28! If her mom doesn't want her to be baptized she still can! So we will see what will happen.
_edited.JPG)
1 comment:
That 'cult' thing has stained us throughout the world. How can a 'cult' have 13 million members? Good luck with your investigators. It's the Sirit that makes the difference in their hearts.
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