Happy Monday! I hope y'all had a great week this week. I guess there isn't much to say about our week sadly. It was a busy week but not a lot to write about. Tuesday we had transfers, which was pretty cool. We don't do the actual transfer meeting anymore so Elder Bravo and I just chilled together for like four hours waiting for our new companions to come down. I got a new companion named Elder Creer. He's a super cool kid from Spanish Fork! It's been funny to think that I've had companions from Payson and now Spanish Fork when there are hundreds of missionaries in this mission. Anyway, he's awesome! He's been out for 9 months now and so far it's been a solid transfer with him. So we will continue to see how things go!
We did end up having a great week this week concerning teaching and finding. We taught like 32 lessons this week and found some new investigators. Some aren't as solid as others, but you never know the effects the gospel could have on someone, so might as well give em a shot! We have continued to work with our current investigators. Carl has been doing okay. He finished the Book of Mormon and has started rereading the Old Testament. The only problem we are having with him is getting him interested in coming to church. So we will see what we can do. We also have been working hard with a investigator of ours named Neil. He's an awesome 87 year old man that we found a few weeks ago. He has been really interested in the lessons and has never really had the influence of religion in his life. Last time we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we should follow the example of Jesus Christ. So he accepted a baptismal date for June 18th and so we will continue working with him! We also have been working with Randy who is the boyfriend to a less active member we teach.
Elder Creer and have been taking lots of pictures with the murals around town too and so I will attach some pictures with those. Overall, it was a pretty long casual week, and nothing overly exciting, however, it was successful so that was GREAT!!
Anyway, here is a talk given by Jeffery R Holland titled "None Were With Him" I suggest you look up and read/watch the full talk. It's amazing. Here's just a fragment of it. —
"I speak of the loneliest journey ever made and the unending blessings it brought to all in the human family. I speak of the Savior’s solitary task of shouldering alone the burden of our salvation. Rightly He would say: “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me. … I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold [me].” He ventured into the Garden of Gethsemane alone. Falling on His face in prayer, “sorrowful … unto death,” the record says, His sweat came as great drops of blood as He pled with the Father to let this crushing, brutal cup pass from Him. But, of course, it could not pass. Returning from such anguished prayer, He found His three chief disciples asleep, prompting Him to ask, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” So it happens two more times until on His third return He says compassionately, “Sleep on now, and take your rest,” though there would be no rest for Him. Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually--that concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind--us, all of us--would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone. But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us. Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path--the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel."
Sorry that was LONG, but that is a crucial topic and an amazing talk! Thanks for everything, love and miss you all! Have a great week!:)
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