Hola Familia y Amigos!!
First I'd like to start by sharing a miracle that I saw yesterday. We've been teaching someone named Hector recently, and we've only taught him a few times. We were able to teach him yesterday and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. The time before we taught him the Restoration and breifly explained about the Book of Mormon, but when we invited him to read it and offered him a copy he denied taking one saying that he doesn't like reading and doesn't have time to anyways. Anyways, we were pretty shocked and so we decided to teach more in depth about the BoM to help him realize that even if he reads only a teeny, tiny bit, if it's all he can, he'd be blessed for it, help him realize the blessings that would come from reading it. We still didn't know exactly what to say or what to do though, even after a good bit of study and discussion. But we went to teach him trusting that if we listened to what God put in our hearts and if we acted out of love, God would bless us. I can't really remember what we said or what exactly happened, but Hector ended up taking a copy of the BoM and said that he'd try to read it sometime. Obviously he still has a while to go, but it was a testimony to me to see him change, even if slightly, because of the Lord working through me and my companion.
I don't have much time, but I'd like to share about something I learned this week as well, and I'd never thought I'd be preaching about this subject, but here goes :) I was asked to teach Preisthood class yesterday and because we had accidentally skipped the First Presidency message from January I taught about that, which is about making goals and resolutions and about repentance as well. I guess it was inspired because lately I've been learning about that in general anyways. I used to hate making goals, or at least writing them down and stuff. Often I was scared becuase I thought I'd never be able to acheive them, or if I did, it wouldn't be like I'd hoped it'd be. But I've learned lately that goals, written down, counceled with God kinds of goals are very important for us, especially in regards to our Spiritual growth. To be able to repent, to progress, to grow effectively we have to know how and where we want to go. But this doesn't mean that we'll achieve those goals easily, or immediately. I know that from personal experience. But we will become better, we will progress, and we will do what God wants us to do as we strive to acheive our goals. And when we acheive one goal, we should set a new one to stretch us even further. It is through this method that we are able to encourage ourselves and push ourselves to become what we want and what God wants us to become. I'm sure many of you have already learned this, but I wanted to share with you what I'm learning and applying in my life right now.
That's all the time I have, but I love y'all and I hope that everything is going well for y'all!
-Elder Whitaker
First I'd like to start by sharing a miracle that I saw yesterday. We've been teaching someone named Hector recently, and we've only taught him a few times. We were able to teach him yesterday and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. The time before we taught him the Restoration and breifly explained about the Book of Mormon, but when we invited him to read it and offered him a copy he denied taking one saying that he doesn't like reading and doesn't have time to anyways. Anyways, we were pretty shocked and so we decided to teach more in depth about the BoM to help him realize that even if he reads only a teeny, tiny bit, if it's all he can, he'd be blessed for it, help him realize the blessings that would come from reading it. We still didn't know exactly what to say or what to do though, even after a good bit of study and discussion. But we went to teach him trusting that if we listened to what God put in our hearts and if we acted out of love, God would bless us. I can't really remember what we said or what exactly happened, but Hector ended up taking a copy of the BoM and said that he'd try to read it sometime. Obviously he still has a while to go, but it was a testimony to me to see him change, even if slightly, because of the Lord working through me and my companion.
I don't have much time, but I'd like to share about something I learned this week as well, and I'd never thought I'd be preaching about this subject, but here goes :) I was asked to teach Preisthood class yesterday and because we had accidentally skipped the First Presidency message from January I taught about that, which is about making goals and resolutions and about repentance as well. I guess it was inspired because lately I've been learning about that in general anyways. I used to hate making goals, or at least writing them down and stuff. Often I was scared becuase I thought I'd never be able to acheive them, or if I did, it wouldn't be like I'd hoped it'd be. But I've learned lately that goals, written down, counceled with God kinds of goals are very important for us, especially in regards to our Spiritual growth. To be able to repent, to progress, to grow effectively we have to know how and where we want to go. But this doesn't mean that we'll achieve those goals easily, or immediately. I know that from personal experience. But we will become better, we will progress, and we will do what God wants us to do as we strive to acheive our goals. And when we acheive one goal, we should set a new one to stretch us even further. It is through this method that we are able to encourage ourselves and push ourselves to become what we want and what God wants us to become. I'm sure many of you have already learned this, but I wanted to share with you what I'm learning and applying in my life right now.
That's all the time I have, but I love y'all and I hope that everything is going well for y'all!
-Elder Whitaker