Tired but Happy

I'M SO TIRED!! ( he he he)

 

    This week was just as packed as the last one and it was super awesome!! First of all, we had our last district meeting of last transfer.   We had two new members added to our district. The new couple missionaries, (the Oakelberries.....probably spelled that wrong,) got into Liège last week . Guess where they are from?  IDAHO, YES! They are farmers from Twin Falls and they sold everything to come out here...pretty intense! They asked me if I knew Steven street in good old Pocatello, because that is where their daughter lives.  I said ,"YEP".  They must be in ...I think it is the Parry's ward?  I should ask them what her name is again because we might know them!   Anyways, we taught a SUPER awesome lesson on the atonement and the need to incorporate this principle in every lesson. I felt inspired to teach this after planning.  I remembered a lesson given by Elder Holland at the MTC where he said one of the things the missionaries need to teach better is the atonement.  Sometimes they forget, with all of the other principles that they teach, or maybe they feel like the investigators get that one already.  The atonement should be, and is, the most important thing we should be teaching!!!  IT went VERY well!!! 

      Later that night we had rendezvous with Françoise and also Andrés. We taught the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith but focused, even more closely, this time on Jesus Christ and His atonement! The whole reason the restoration is important in the first place, is that it restored lost ordinances and principles of the gospel that help us understand Christ and His atonement more clearly!!! This was the focus of our lessons.  Especially with Françoise, who has been searching for truth for a while.  The spirit was super strong ,and we were able to discern by the spirit, what they needed and where each lesson needed to go!!!  It was sweet!!  We explained the history of Joseph Smith and how hard he was searching and related it to Françoise very well.  We explained how he searched everywhere for truth, loads of different religious sects, the scriptures, and he just was not quite getting it.  But, one day he was inspired after reading in the book of James to ask God what he should do.  What church he should join?, if any!   He did, he prayed and he saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  He was instructed to join none of the churches because all of them were corrupted.  Many came close to the truth, but had fallen short, due to an inheritance of apostasy after the all of the apostles and church leaders were killed and rejected.  The fullness of the gospel was to be restored.  Joseph was to prepare himself to be the prophet to restore the Church of Jesus Christ.  He was lead to an ancient volume of scriptures, that was preserved by God, that contained the fullness of His gospel, and Joseph translated them by the power of God!!!!   This story is incredible and there is no real physical proof that it is true....except the Book of Mormon. If we read this book and ponder it's teachings, and sincerely ask God, with faith, if it is true, He will reveal unto us that it is indeed true.  But why is that important?  This is what Andrés asked, us in reviewing this lesson. Well, if we receive an answer to our prayers that this book truly is the word of God ,and was translated by Joseph Smith,  that means that Joseph Smith really was called of God to be a prophet, and that He really saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It means that God exists! It means that He does still talk to men on the earth and that He does have a church to help lead and teach us how to become better people and one day return to Him.  This church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!   Both Françoise and Andres agreed to read and ponder the Book of Mormon and to find out for themselves if it was true!!!

     Later this week we had another awesome rendezvous with Sandrine and Coralie. We taught again the story of the restoration, but this time we used images to describe the story! It was sweet! When we got to the images of Christ and taught how he died for our sins and all of our difficulties, Coralie was shocked and asked us," Why would they kill Jesus?"  Wow,  that was a powerful question.  The spirit was just incredible and we finally said we don't know, but he submitted to let them do so because of how much He loves us!!

    This week we are going to fix a baptismal date for her.  We have been so excited to see how much they have progressed!!   The last step is to get them to CHURCH!!!!

    Well loads of other stuff went on this week but I will be sending the details by letter!!!  I love you loads and I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR WHERE CHRIS IS GOING ON HIS MISSION...CROSS YOUR FINGERS FOR PARIS FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love y'all tons!!!

Elder Lyons