Omni 1:26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.
Hey Everyone!
Well, this was kind of a crazy week! First things first. I am not leaving Baton Rouge South. That is kind of crazy! Elder Hale and I, and really everyone else thought that I was a goner for sure. However, the Lord has other things in mind for me. Oh, I am also going to train again! That is going to be awesome! I can't wait to meet my new companion! I really have loved training in the past, so I am quite excited to do it again!
Well, on to the week! We had an AWESOME visit from Elder Perkins of the first quorum of the Seventy! He was really cool! Before he came we all filled out a survey about the mission and how we were all doing, and he used that a lot. It was pretty cool. What really stuck out to me was his focus on being more bold. He drew a chart up on the white board and put in the middle the word BOLD. We then talked about how being to bold is overbearing and not being bold enough is timid or fearful. We need to be bold as missionaries. We have the message of the Restoration. We are the only ones with all the truth. He also focused a lot about teaching investigators about ordinances. It was interesting. Everyone had to prepare a 10 minute lesson about ordinances with a commitment invitation. It was sweet. Elder Hale and I didn't get chosen, but we did get ten minutes to practice the lesson with another companionship. When we teach baptism we often focus more on the results of baptism, like that we will be clean, etc. Sometimes, however, we drift over the fact that baptism is the only way we can start the journey to our Heavenly Father. How important that is! We definitely made that a goal to share that with our investigators. President Wall also spoke and it was sweet. President Wall worked as publisher with Deseret News. In that position, he met with the First Presidency and Apostles a lot. He told the story of the Construction of the City Creek Shopping center close to Temple Square. He told of the Vision that President Hinckley had, and how he passed that vision on. He talked about how they had to destroy the previous mall. He then related all of that to missionary work. Sometimes we have to tear down what is "good" so we can construct what is better. I thought that was cool. It was a sweet meeting. I also got to be part of a Leadership Meeting afterwards. We talked about the things that we were influenced to carry into our vision, and how we could do that. Elder Perkins shared a story about member missionary work. He said that the Apostles don't just preach, they do. He said that Elder Ballard on a vacation to California gave away something like 18 copies of his book, Our Search for Happiness. He then talked about a trip he had with Elder Perry to Omaha Nebraska. As they sat down to eat dinner, the waitress asked if they would like wine. Elder Perry said, "Wine? We don't need wine! We're Mormons! We are the happiest people on earth! We don't drink wine!" After dinner, the waitress asked if they would like some coffee. Elder Perry then said, "Coffee? I thought I told you! We are Mormons! We are the happiest people on earth! We don't drink coffee!" Elder Perry later on was talking to a man they ran into. Elder Perry asked the man if he had ever talked to Mormons. The man said he had. Elder Perry then asked if he was baptized. The man said he wasn't. Elder Perry then said" Well, you should be!" WE have good examples among the quorum of the twelve and our other leaders.
This week we had an awesome lesson with David. We asked if he had read, and he hadn't. We then talked about baptism, as we talked about at our Zone Conference. It was sweet. We gave him a date, but he said he didn't know if he would be prepared. We told him that if he would read and pray, he would be ready. We talked a bit about how our job was to help him get ready. We do that by extending invitations. LIke reading the scriptures! He laughed at that. We then committed him to read every day, and to set a specific time aside to study. He said that he would. We just need to follow up now.
Elder Hale and I have also been helping this less active guy Roberto. He has a girlfriend who doesn't speak Spanish, and he doesn't speak English, so that has been kind of interesting.
Well, that is pretty much it! Still kind of shocked that I'm staying here! Kind of glad though! Things are looking good! Well, gotta go! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Scott Turner Andrews
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