Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Divine Companionship

This week has been relatively normal. Relative because the last few weeks have been crazy, as you can pretty much tell.

We had quite a few appointments cancelled this week, so that was a bummer, but we still met with a few people and had some very spiritual appointments.

Samantha is the less-active who we're still meeting up with. She's doing pretty alright. Still struggling to read the Book of Mormon every day, but she did come to Church on Sunday! When we met with her last week, we read a couple of chapters, and answered a few of her questions. She's a happy girl. As we were leaving the appointment, I thought of the scripture in Doctrine 7 Covenants 18: 15-16, about the joy in bringing souls to the Lord. Besides baptizing people, there is much joy in bringing lost sheep back to the fold, people who have known the truth but who have lost their way for awhile. The sweet joy in seeing them make their journey back is exciting, seeing that flame rekindled is such a wonderful feeling.

On Friday, we had an appointment with Jen, our wonderful Filipina investigator. Unfortunately, our member who was supposed to meet us at the MRT wasn't there. Waited for him, but ended up having to go because we were already late. We weren't sure what bus to take, so we hopped on one that seemed to be going in the right direction. That was a mistake. We got completely lost. We then got in a cab, but the cab driver didn't know where to go either! Ended up just getting out and called to apologize. Thankfully, she was good about it.

Went over the Brother and Sister How's place with Bishop after that. Had a good Family Home Evening with them. They asked some great questions about families. Bishop Choo was great at answering their questions.

Yuni and Cisca are progressing well. Andrew, the guy we taught a week ago is doing amazing! He'll get baptized, but unfortunately, we have to pass him to the Filipino Elders. Oh well, it'll still be wonderful to us when he gets baptized.

Joanne dropped us. Still too attached to her boyfriend, and not to God.

Church was great! Some members brought friends, and some of our investigators came. Not the turnout we wanted, but still not too bad.

Went to the hospital to visit a member in the ICU who is fighting cancer. It was a sobering moment as we stood there and just watched the machine help her breathe. Life is so fragile, the body is so amazing, but also so susceptible. Her family was there, and it was good to be able to talk to them. We got to talking with her non-member daughter, chatted with her, and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She was really thinking as we taught her a little about it, about the plan for the eternities. It's good to know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us.

District training was "The Spirit is the Key." The only way to really teach that is really to read through what Preach My Gospel says about it, so we did just that. We then listened to an amazing talk by Elder Holland entitled The Divine Companionship. It was an amazing lesson on how the Spirit works, how we are to use it. He said, ""The Godhead will bear testimony of you and your companion — frail, little uncelestial souls that you are — when you have earnestly tried to become part of the Divine Order. You have prayed and studied and fasted appropriately, and have always exerted great faith. You have been obedient to the commandments, to the rules of the mission, and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You have kept yourself morally clean in thought, in word, in deed, and have helped your companion do the same. You have tried to develop Christlike attributes, have worked diligent hours and have tried to be a witness of God 'at all times and in all things and in all places' (Mosiah 18:9). "If you try to live this way — try with all the best that is within you — the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost above you will smile and say, 'It is enough. We will let these missionaries and their investigators feel a portion of the power of heaven. We will let them feel the touch of our unity and our divinity. …"

I know that it is the Holy Ghost that teaches, it has to b Heavenly Father lesson, not ours. It is such a marvelous gift, that of the Holy Ghost.

Finally, we've met with a new investigator named Irish a couple of times. We contacted her while we were going to the How's. She's been rather scantily –clad these past couple of times, so we taught her about modesty last night.

Funny story. We met up with Irish at the Orchard MRT. When we saw her, we weren't sure what to do, because she was wearing a see-through blouse and really short shorts. Elder Pulver refused ton walk by her and talk to her (I think he was freaked out). While we were walking to Macdonald's to have our appointment, we walked past a store where she motioned for me to look and said "nice lingerie." I think Elder Pulver walked even further behind. Awkward. It got even more weird when she tried to sit by us and, well, touch us. The lesson was ok.

But....

The thing with Irish is that she seems to be rather insecure, but she shows it by trying to be as physically attractive as possible. We taught her about the plan of salvation on Sunday, emphasizing the point that she is a daughter of God. I think that as she comes to know who she is as a child of God, that she will change. We were rather apprehensive as we started teaching her (some comments and moves that she had made). But, as we taught her, it was apparent that she really did have a desire to know. She asked some great questions about the plan. When we called to confirm last night's appointment, she was so excited; she was confused as to why there were so many churches, so we taught her that. She's coming to watch General Conference this Sunday!

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the mighty change of heart that it brings to the children of God.

-Elder Chua

No comments: