First off, all of the stuff from the Goldings was from Nina to Rachel. I am gonna have to ask Elder Porter what their address is because I have already forgotten their number. If you'd like. you could just send it straight to Elder Porter in Dunkerque and he could pass it on until I get it for ya. I have a ton of pictures and I will be sending those as soon as I can. Probably not until after Wednesday.
Alright a lot of things have happened this week. I hope my typing abilities can do justice to what has happened. First off, This ward is on fire!!! Ever since the baptisms that have recently happened here, members are bringing as many people as they can to church, and family home evening and other activities. We are now teaching two or three amies that are super solid. All of whom were found by member's efforts! A lot of the ward's success has come from the recent converts and less actives. As past elders, (and me and Elder Wood), have been visiting these less actives and recent converts, we have tried to aim their fire of wanting to return to church or just becoming a member of the church, towards sharing that with their friends. As they have shared their excitement, miracles have happened.
For example, their was a less active that hadn't been to church forever, and Elder Wood and Elder Andrus simply passed by and she said," Yeah.... You know what? I should come back and I will bring my friend Isabelle with me!" Since then, Me and Elder Wood have taught her bits and pieces of the Plan of Salvation. She was very touched by Elder Woods testimony on why there are bad things in this world. Despite all the bad things that have happened to him,(and especially all the bad things his parents have done to him and his family), he knows what kind of father he wants to be for his children. He knows the kind life he wants to give them. He has learned from all of these experiences. She has since been coming to church and various church activities and we have loads of hope for her!
We have also had a ton of success finding people through our own efforts. We found a new amie named, M. Renier! He really wanted to know the difference between us and other churches. He knew a ton of people that were Mormon who had just been such good examples to him. He had also heard of people that had done terrible things and then met missionaries and completely changed their lives because of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And then these people got baptized.
We taught Him about Jesus Christ and how he established His church during His ministry and preached to many people. We taught him that His apostles continued to do so, after he returned to our Heavenly Father. Eventually the apostles were rejected and His church became changed over time. Many divisions were made from it and it became farther and farther from the truth. Then we taught him about the power of prayer and how Joseph Smith, through prayer, found an answer in a confused world. Tons of different faiths, each claiming to be true and each taking it's own interpretation of the same passage of scripture. Joseph studied a ton. He went to many different faiths, and when he asked God which one was true and which one he should join, he received his answer! There were many good things in all of the churches, but Gods church with the fullness of His gospel had been lost. Joseph was called to be the one who would re-establish His Church. He was also guided to an ancient volume of scripture that contained a fullness of Gods teachings. He translated these texts, (that were in a language that no one could interpret), by the power of God.
Then we offered M Renier this book, The Book of Mormon. We told Him that he could read, and pray, and know for himself that theses things are true. By then he was just super excited. Holy Cow!, I wish you could have felt the spirit in that room and felt the excitement he felt learning these things! He couldn't stop asking awesome questions. It got to the point where we had to say that we would answer all of them at the next rendezvous! So that was pretty sweet!
We had SO much going on this week. I will be very frank. IT WAS HARD!!! We had to run as fast as we could from place to place. We actually had loads of our plans fall through. We got re-buffed here and there, and both of us have had sleeping problems. I had to see the dentist, because my filling fell out. (I can feel for ya to dad ! ) We are EXHAUSTED.
However, because we did our best and were diligent in continuing to work. That's when all of these miracles happened! God is mindful of every thing we go through and he will consecrate all of our trials and afflictions for our benefit. First, we need to trust Him! It is NEVER during our trials that we learn why we have them, and we shouldn't be asking, why me?! We should be asking HOW? How do you want me to get through this. Help me to have patience. Help me to know what you want me to learn, or to improve my faith. That is the moment when we start to progress and have understanding.
Well I love all of you. And I hope all of you are having a wonderful time in your respective places. Y'all are the best and I am so grateful for your prayers..... I truly have felt every single one of them for me. Your the best
Love ELDER Lyons
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