Hi how are ya?
It's amazing how time
flies when one is busy isn't it? Sounds
like you guys are quite busy there. That
always makes life more fulfilling and enjoyable. That's cool that you got to go
and chaperone at Prom. I bet it was a
blast. Be sure to send me some pictures
asap! Or don't and surprise me in a few
weeks by everyone dressing up in their dresses at the airport... :/ You too
mom. You can be off the hook though dad.
This week has been
pretty ok. We were so psyched up with so
much good stuff going on. We are
teaching four part member families that have a lot of potential. We had good lessons with each of them and
each committed to come to church. Along
side them, there were several other investigators that said they would come as
well. Sunday came, we got the entire
ward council ready to fellowship them, and no one showed.... I was pretty dang bummed out. It's so frustrating sometimes when you work
your heart out in a good cause and then agency is used unwisely and the desired
result isn't met. Discouragement weakens
faith though so we aren't letting that happen.
We just keep on pressin' on and seek for understanding. One of the less active families we are
teaching was very excited to come to church.
There is a non-member nine year old in the family and apparently
sometime during the weekend she fell on her scooter and broke her middle two
knuckles on her hand. The growth plates
were involved in both breaks as well. So
that kept the family from coming to church.
She is going to need surgery apparently.
It just seems like one thing after another with this family that Satan
keeps on throwing at them.
We did have a pretty
neat experience this week with our mission's new "prayer approach" to
contacting. We chose a street to tract
for about an hour. When we got to the
street we prayed that someone there would be prepared for us to teach and
invite us into their home. The VERY
FIRST DOOR we knocked was a young (20s) girl.
We stated ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ, told her that we
were there to pray with her and her family and ask for blessings from God on
her home and her family. She agreed and
let us right in. This was the first time
it's ever happened to me when using this approach. We sat down on the couch and she went and got
the rest of the family. Several more
young mothers came into the room. We got
to know them for a little bit and found out that there are actually 13 people
living in the home, nine of which are baptism age. After I picked my jaw up from off the ground,
we asked them if there was anything in particular that they would like us to
pray for in regards to their family, home, work, etc. They told us a few things. We then knelt down and offered a prayer. It was neat to see how grateful they
were. Following the prayer, one of the
girls then said that she actually had another thing she would like us to pray
for. We did so. We set a return appointment for a few days
later because they said they wanted their husbands and boyfriends and other
kids to hear the message. We hoped that it would go well. The day came and we went by. One of the girls was there and invited us in
for a few minutes but said that they were going out to be with the family for
the evening. We said another prayer with
them and they committed to come to church.
Of course, they weren't able to come because of some issues that came up
but they are interested and we hope to continue to teach them.
I told you in the past about how we have been going to
Glendale Community College to talk to the kids on the campus. Well this past week was a unique
experience. We got there and a TON of
kids from the "Christian" Club were there passing out their own flyers
and DVDs. We stayed and talked to as
many as we could but had several encounters with these "Christians"
coming up to us and attacking our beliefs.
One of which actually used a video camera and taped the entire
conversation. I wonder what they will
use that footage for? It's amazing how
the adversary ups his game as soon as too much good is going on in a certain
place. There were seriously dozens of
kids passing out hundreds of materials.
I tried to talk to a few of them and they didn't even know what they
were passing out. They were only doing
it because their friends had told them to.
It's so amazing to me to see how far the world is getting from the
truth. Twice now in my study of the
doctrine and covenants have I found that the Lord inspired our forefathers to
write the Constitution of our nation.
Satan is doing all that he can to skew the truth. I'm glad we have the assurance and knowledge
(as does he) that he will lose in the end.
He too knows our potential and delights in how miserable we will be if
we don't live up to it. We know too much
and don't have the right to fool around with all the "dumb stuff" he
tries to throw at us. In my
conversations with younger missionaries who are having issues with their
leadership calls I have often told them that they have too much to offer to
this work and especially to the Lord to just give up. They were called to serve in that capacity
because of what they have to offer and it's their choice to live up to the
potential the Lord has given them. I
know this because it has helped me through difficult times as well. That goes for all of us though. We have been blessed with the gifts that come
from the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's our responsibility to take it and
offer it up to the world. Just like
light from a candle gives light to other candles but doesn't lose any light of
its own, we can give our light to others and actually can gain more light in
doing so. We have so much to offer! We have been blessed greatly. I often times think about all the other people
in the world. The nearly 7 billion
worldwide. Why is it that I was so
blessed to be a part of the mere 14 million members of this church? I continue to answer that question daily and
I'll leave it up to each of you to answer it for yourselves.
I love you all! Thanks so much for all you do. The church is true. Always remember the Savior. We should never have to question our
worthiness to have His spirit or enter His house.
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
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