That's so nuts that you are all so very close to me! I hope you like Missouri! I'm sure you don't like the weather. You can't really get used to it. I lied last week when I said I was used to it. On wednesday we helped someone weed when the heat index was 105 degrees! I had to used a bandana to prevent the sweat from seeping into my eyeballs. Also, my advice, don't go outside right after you take a shower if you have any hopes of staying somewhat dry. Also, bring a sweat towell, which I still have neglected to do.
This week has been pretty cool other than the weather. We picked up a family of 4 that was a referral from the Smithton Ridge Elders. They were taught while I was on exchanges and so I haven't met them yet, but they've had the missionaries over 20 years ago. Elder Howlett told me the first thing that was said when they answered the door was "come on in Elders!"
The next day we were in a neighborhood and knocked on a door. The husband answered and said he wasn't interested. Then a few houses later a lady came running out from the same house and said "Are you Mormons? I'll talk to you!" Her name is Pam. She is a very enthusiastic Pentecostal lady. She apparently has healed many people which I am skeptical of and strongly believes in the gifts of the spirit. She has little conversations out loud with the Lord. I can't tell if it is all a fake or if she really is close to God. But she thinks she has the ability to make prophecies for instance she told us that one of us may have scoliosis and we may need to get it checked out. She asked me if I did and I said that I wasn't sure, but my Dad does! Sorry dad.
After she kept talking and talking she asked us if we would lay our hands on her like she does with other people and heal her of her cancer. She questioned our faith though because we told her that she will be healed if it is the Lord's will. She didn't like that because she believes that it is the Lord's will that everyone should be healed. Maybe she is right about that, I don't know. But we gave her a blessing and afterwards said goodbye, but first she asked us if we would like a cucumber before we leave. We will have to visit her this week to see if she is healed of her cancer yet.
Also this week we've been trying to implement our family history class. just today I reserved it in the public library for August 13 and Sep 17 on Saturday morning. We are also going to have classes between sessions at the family history library. We've been trying to coordinate with the stake to do it. At this point it is still up in the air because although they like the idea they are concerned that we wouldn't get enough people to sign up and so it might disappoint members who are volunteering for the classes if their preparations are in vain. That doesn't sound like faith to me! But it is a valid point though. We will have to make the first class really interesting in order to get enough people to come to family history center every Saturday.
The topics vary and will hoepuflly be taught by members who are experienced in those particular topics. I hope it works out because I LOVE family history. The other day we were doing some and I found out on family search that if you go under the tab "search" and then under "wiki' you can learn how to do greek records. The family history ladies said that many people ignore the learning center on the familysearch webiste and just jump right into it without knowing the basics first. That's why we are doing this class. But I am curious to see if I can make any breakthroughs on our Greek line.
Well that's about all that happened for this week that I can think of. Hope you all have a good, happy time whether your in Missouri or not. Just remember the adversary seeketh that all might be "'Missouri'-able" like unto himself. So be Happy. If you ever lose faith then something you can do is study about the atonement. On exchanges my district leader Elder Ward counseled me to do that since I've lost a little bit of desire along with me not being able to have my medication for a good week (which is another blessing, because I was praying that the lord would sustain me so i wouldn't have to have withdraw headaches or something. I've learned lately that having faith comes easier to some than others. It's a little bit harder for me but it is a gift we can all attain.
” I would say to all who wish for more faith, remember this man! In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited. In the growth we all have to experience in mortality, the spiritual equivalent of this boy’s affliction or this parent’s desperation is going to come to all of us. When those moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming, hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes. The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue—it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know. Brothers and sisters, this is a divine work in process, with themanifestations and blessings of it abounding in every direction, so please don’t hyperventilate if from time to time issues arise that needto be examined, understood, and resolved. They do and they will. In thisChurch, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith.
So be kind regarding human frailty—your own as well as that of those who serve with you in a Church led by volunteer, mortal men and women. Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we. And when you see imperfection, remember that the limitation is not in the divinity of the work. As one gifted writer has suggested, when the infinite fulness is poured forth, it is not the oil’s fault if there is some loss because finite vessels can’t quite contain it all.10 Those finite vessels include you and me, so be patient and kind and forgiving.
Last observation: When doubt or difficulty come, do not be afraid to ask for help. If we want it as humbly and honestly as this father did, we can get it. The scriptures phrase such earnest desire as being of “real intent,” pursued “with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God.”11 I testify that in response to that kind of importuning, God will send help from both sides of the veil to strengthen our belief.
I said I was speaking to the young. I still am. A 14-year-old boy recently said to me a little hesitantly, “Brother Holland, I can’t say yet that I know the Church is true, but I believe it is.” I hugged that boy until his eyes bulged out. I told him with all the fervor of my soul that belief is a precious word, an even more precious act, and he need never apologize for “only believing.” I told him that Christ Himself said, “Be not afraid, only believe,”12 a phrase which, by the way, carried young Gordon B. Hinckley into the mission field.13 I told this boy that belief was always the first step toward conviction and that the definitive articles of our collective faith forcefully reiterate the phrase “We believe.”14And I told him how very proud I was of him for the honesty of his quest.
Now, with the advantage that nearly 60 years give me since I was a newly believing 14-year-old, I declare some things I now know. I know that God is at all times and in all ways and in all circumstances our loving, forgiving Father in Heaven. I know Jesus was His only perfect child, whose life was given lovingly by the will of both the Father and the Son for the redemption of all the rest of us who are not perfect. I know He rose from that death to live again, and because He did, you and I will also. I know that Joseph Smith, who acknowledged that he wasn’t perfect,15 was nevertheless the chosen instrument in God’s hand to restore the everlasting gospel to the earth. I also know that in doing so—particularly through translating the Book of Mormon—he has taught me more of God’s love, of Christ’s divinity, and of priesthood power than any other prophet of whom I have ever read, known, or heard in a life time of seeking. I know that President Thomas S. Monson, who moves devotedly and buoyantly toward the 50th anniversary of his ordination as an Apostle, is the rightful successor to that prophetic mantle today. We have seen that mantle upon him again in this conference. I know that 14 other men whom you sustain as prophets,seers, and revelators sustain him with their hands, their hearts, and their own apostolic keys.
These things I declare to you with the conviction Peter called the “more sure word of prophecy.”16 What was once a tiny seed of belief for me has grown into the tree of life, so if your faith is a little tested in this or any season, I invite you to lean on mine. I know this work is God’s very truth, and I know that only at our peril would we allow doubt or devils to sway us from its path. Hope on. Journey on. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe."
I Love the words of Elder Holland. I battle back and forth like the young boy trying to figure out if I "only believe" or like Elder Holland "know", and I'm still not sure, but regardless there is something about living the gospel that keeps me hoping and journeying on.
Have a good week!
Elder Soutas
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