27 August 2018

Fam,


I think I now more than ever understand the words of Nephi found in the 32nd chapter of the second book of Nephi which says, 

"8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. "

We've had four lessons with David and they go pretty well. The only problem is after the first lesson he felt really uncomfortable praying and wouldn't. Missionaries are here to invite people to come closer to Jesus Christ. Prayer is pivotal to that process. Prayer moves our lessons from convincing someone logically of the truth to helping them discern by the spirit the truthfulness of our message. People progress once they pray with real intent, with faith in Christ, and a willing heart because it's once they start doing that that the spirit is able to direct their path for good. If they refuse to ask in prayer if what we share is true or do so without faith, real intent, or a willing heart they won't receive direction from the spirit. The problem was that David wouldn't pray. During our first lesson with him, we tried to figure out why. After a fair amount of pushing we couldn't get anything out of him to explain why. Even after teaching him how to pray, he wouldn't. Giving him a second chance we taught the Plan of Salvation with a significant emphasis on how prayer is a key step in our progression. Still nothing. Feeling there was something deeper going on than just not wanting to learn, we spoke with Teodoro who was there with us and he said, "you need to break him, you just need to be as persistant as the Elders were with me." 

Determined we planned a lesson on prayer covering the who, what, why, and how of prayer ending with an invitation to pray, having 2 Nephi 32:8 ready if he repeated "maybe next time." He really liked the lesson. We liked the lesson too, but as we extended the invite he looked down and wouldn't. As we spoke with him we felt deeply that there was some significant unknown barrier making this abnormally difficult for him. Saddened by his unwillingness to progress we discussed our purpose with him and how even though we like him alot we couldn't come back if he wasn't progressing towards baptism. We discussed with him our purpose and bore testimony about the truthfulness of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Truly we felt as Nephi likely felt by the words he used to describe his situation, "it grieveth [us]" 

I really like the statement made by Jesus in Matthew 18:12. The shepherd, looking for the one lost sheep of his herd of 99 sheep, needed to leave and go searching in the mountains for the one. True ministering is going for that one who had left. To help that sheep you need to find them. That might mean physically finding them but I think often times for issues more ingrained, it's more like trying to come to an understanding of who they are and why they feel the way they feel. 

Something clicked on Monday for us because when we came back, something about David just looked better. There seemed to be more light in him. We met on his porch as usual and finished the Plan of Salvation and asked if we could end in prayer. He folded his arms and looked down readying himself for the prayer. After about 10 seconds I saw him open his eyes, still looking down, and solemnly realize we were arriving at a fork in the road. We really didn't say anything. He slowly looked up at us and then back down, and after a few long seconds offered a humble quiet prayer. Honestly I just about jumped off my chair. He had taken a step that turned out to be much more significant and difficult for himself than I think we might ever realize. We were pretty happy and he was too. I'm not even sure I touched the ground as we walked back to the car. 

Latter we got a pretty good referral for the first time from other missionaries. Some sisters in Lansing reached out to us to teach a man they had met. Within a week of getting a Libro de Mormón he had read up to about Moroni 8. We had a good lesson and challenged him to baptism. He accepted! Now we have to just figure out if his English abilities are strong enough for him to function well in a Lansing English congregation or if he is willing to make the hour drive to Grand Rapids. The Book of Mormon really resonates with the spirit and is normally the most important tool in conversion to the fulness of the gospel. 

We've spoken of Alex the missionary pastor. Unfortunately we parted ways this week. The french-portuguese-spanish-english didn't help. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure his comprehension is around 0%. Also side note he turned out to be an apostle and part prophet. He showed us some weird magazines of stuff he did back in Africa. We attempted to show the Restoration movie in Portuguese but he still wasn't understanding. He was confused why we were teaching him. He used Matthew 10:6 to make his point. Matthew 10 starts with the ordaining and commission of the 12 Apostles. Verse 6 says "6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He felt he already knew what he needed to do, but we tried to explain the story of Apollos found in Acts 18:24- Acts 19:6. Basically Apollos is doing a bunch of good teaching and baptizing--- but all without authority. The church reaches out to him and he is taught "more perfectly" by the church and given authority by the "brethren" or Apostles in that time. Paul later baptized Apollos' converts again with authority and gives them the gift of the Holy Ghost, Apollos then continued to "help them much." Alex was pretty great but didn't understand. He would be a great addition to the Church but unfortunately there are no French speaking missionaries who could have helped us when we needed them. He even wanted to go teaching with us. 

Saturday was also my busiest proselyting day yet. We left the apartment at 7:30 a.m. and had a meeting from 8-9:30, lessons from 10-12, a trip out to Grant Michigan after those lessons which took 5 hours in total, and lessons in the evening, compelling us to arrive home just before 9:30. It was a pretty good day. Most days we can't proselyte for 14 hours. 

As Joseph Smith said, "the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel." 

-eric