August 8, 2012

August 8th, 2012


Hi everyone :)
This week has been good so far, and I have a cool story to share too! (i'll save it for the end; best for last of course)

In other news the weather here is the same, as it always has and will be haha. We have heard rumors of there being transfers this week but i'm not sure. E Tadius has got me all excited and nervous about it. I really dont feel ready to leave yet cuz i dont want to leave Tawau in such a state of investigator "dryness" so to speak. But I'll "go where He wants me to go" That hymn has had special relevance this week as I know I have gone where He wants me to go, and have said what He wants me to have said.

our area is pretty huge actually. as far as using bikes it really just depends on where we go on any given day. there are days where we dont use bikes, and days we dont use buses. but I think that technically our area goes all the way out to Semporna. We have less-active members who live about an hour bus ride from downtown...

One of our long time investigators, Lot-Lot has been meeting with us for over three months now, and we wouldve dropped her a while ago if her younger sister Ling-Ling hadnt been baptized. but since we go to teach the Recent convert lessons to Ling2, we also visit with Lot2. She really struggles with coming to church for a number of reason, usually pretty legitimate, so we lately havent been pushing for her to come. Anyways last week she FINISHED reading the Book of Mormon, and we asked why she was so diligent in reading. She had said that whenever she would just be sitting around, "something would pull her" to read the book. I got excited and explained that was the Holy Ghost pulling you. I expected her to already have realized this, but she seemed surprised when i told her that. So that lesson went really well and we again challenged her to pray about it and told that while she said she thought the book was true, she needed to get an answer from the HG. she agreed to. Then she came to church after not coming for over two months, and we had a really powerful testimony meeting. On Monday we visited her and asked her if she had prayed. she said yes and explained that right after she asked in her prayer, a distinct answer came into her mind "kebenaran dapan mata" which translated essentially means "the truth is in front of your eyes" I had to contain my excitement and right at that moment she had to attend to one of her kids. We then read the last two paragraphs from the intro about asking and receiving, and then what it means if you receive an answer. she started to get a little emotional (usually when we get more serious in lessons she just makes a joke and "laughs the spirit away")and I knew the Spirit was working hard. She was again distracted by her kids, so i took the chance to find a scripture about not denying the HG in the index. I came up with Alma 34:38 which says "that ye will contend no more against the Holy Ghost, and that ye will receive it..." When she read it she REALLY almost started to cry, and she said, "yes elder, correct, just now you were correct. and now you are correct again!" referring to the passages we had read. I told her to stop fighting the HG and accept Him. she knew what she had to do, but she told me she has a lot of "secrets" she does not want to share; referring to things in her life that she knows she has to overcome to be baptized. I told her I didnt even want to know them, and I said that just because you are baptized, doesnt mean your problems go away. and i continued, but if you keep the Lord's commandments He can bless and help and strengthen you. You can feel that peace that comes from the Spirit and learn to rely on Him with your "secrets".
The Sprit was so strong and I knew we could all feel it. I challenged her to write down all of her "secrets" and pick just one thing to work on this week. She agreed to do so and that is the story thus far. among other things I told her the most important thing for her to do now is to keep coming to church. I am so grateful that we are able to bring the Spirit with us and have HIM do the teaching and the changing because I know that I could not do it with any combination of words or actions done solely by me. It is like you quoted mom, we cannot learn, teach...do anything of value unless the Spirit attends us. I am so grateful for all the tender mercies the Lord shows us. truly I can see the value now as we struggle to teach people and have less opportunities to bring the Spirit to others. I think part of what I need to learn now as we struggle is to recognize each and every time the Spirit works with me, for i truly cannot take Him for granted.

Not much else for this week. a new game plan suggested to us by our ZLs is to visit as many members, active or less, as we can. simply to visit with them and not even to necessarily ask for referrals.