Monday August 27, 2012

 

Things appear to be looking up for this next week. Last week was pretty sparse with appointments and our investigators seem to be dropping like flies. So there's not much to report from this last week.

 

I guess some highlights might be:

• Gary has decided that the Book of Mormon has to be true. He also realizes that means Joseph Smith is a prophet. Gotta love that domino effect. However his progress halted a little bit because he still refuses to come to Church. Tonight we're going to watch President Uchtdorf's famous (in my eyes anyway) “Waiting on the Road to Damascus.” That helped me realize my testimony.
• Last P'day we went on a tour of Erie provided by the Clarks. Along with seeing the wonders Presque Isle and antique downtown structures, we went frog hunting. There are apparently 102 giant plastic frog casts around town. I think we found like 11 on Monday. Only 91 to go...
• I went to a different church for the first time in my life – a Catholic church with one of our investigators. We promised to do a church swap and so we went to the Saturday evening mass. It was interesting... The priest even acknowledged our presence amidst the congregation of 900 Catholics. He wanted to answer all of our questions so bad, so we made some up just to make him feel like we were interested. Elizabeth (our investigator) then came to Church yesterday.
• Elder Porter of the 70 came and spoke to our mission. He expounded things I had never considered about the Doctrine of Christ. His wife talked about the light that emanates from us as missionaries. She made the interesting comment that we'll meet people in the Celestial Kingdom who will run to us saying that we've never met but by simply watching the way we conduct ourselves, the light and the image of us being servants of the Lord will make people want to know what we're about.

Hold your light up. The light of Christ radiates from your very being.

 

Elder Low

Monday August 20, 2012

The weather has been nice in the Great Lakes area as of late. It hasn't been too hot nor too cold. The humidity is everpresent though. I'm still trying to decide whether I like the humidity of Pennsylvania or the giant clouds of bugs in Chestermere; I donut miss them at all. Though I am consistently jealous because of your frolicking near Lake Chestermere and boating and what-not. I took a bath for the first time on my mission this week just to be submerged in water, it felt familiar and wonderful. I also did so because I was a little sick this week, but I'm feeling a lot better.

 

President Nobbs says that missionaries are always worried about transfers. I was telling him a couple weeks ago when we were in Pittsburgh that there's no way Elder Swensen and I will stay together for another transfer and that we were predicting which one of us will go on September 4^th (the next transfer). He said that it's a ridiculous waste of energy for missionaries because once a transfer is done and over with, they start worrying about the next transfer! I think there's some truth to that. But you keep asking me about transfers too, so I don't think it's just me. Honestly I think I'd be OK with getting transferred in a couple weeks. I've been a Zone Leader as long on my mission as I haven't been one and it'd be nice to be released. Also with the opening of a walk area in our ward, it'd also be nice to not have to deal with the logisitics of shuttling around another set of missionaries like I did in Hershey. But hey, I'll go where the Lord wants me to go.

 

I wish I could just go back to the beginning of this week as recycle the time Elder Swensen and I used for all of our administrative work. We prepared for a Zone Training meeting (a new kind of monthly meeting that the First Presidency says should replace our quarterly Leadership Trainings) that we had in Erie on Friday. Although it went well, teaching the Jamestown Zone about having an attitude and receptiveness for the Holy Ghost, it took a lot of stress and time on our part to put it all together. Our proselyting was definitely at a minimum and I forsee a similar result for this next week (we have Elder Bruce D. Porter of the Seventy coming to visit our mission).

 

However in between those stressful times, it was nice to practice what we were preaching, seeing the Holy Ghost work in our own lives as we sincerely sought revelation. We went over to the Hawleys' (an investigating family) household on Saturday only to find that we stopped by at the exact time they needed us. We thought that they might be getting less interested because they hadn't been returning our calls. But as soon as we stopped by, the older son came out and talked with us about how he felt like he was in a hole right now and didn't know how to get out. I told him I had been there before and miraculously enough, Jesus Christ was a real being who is always mighty to save. He wants to lift us up. I testified of the enabling power of the Atonement and the love God had for him specifically and indivually. It started to bring tears to his eyes. Elder Swensen assigned him Alma 36 to read and when we called later that evening he said that that chapter really helped him feel better.

 

Sometimes in the scriptures, the wrath of God and the justice of God are overemphasized and overcast the love of God. I know that by His mercy we are led to those who also need it. I know that is the unwavering promise for those who serve as His missionaries.

 

Elder Low

Ed's Baptism

Me at the Parry Monument in Misery Bay

Me and the Nobbs'. President Nobbs is a counselor to President Topham and we go over to his house before Zone Leader Counsel each month to ask him deep doctrine questions and eat grilled cheese.

The ridiculousness of the Erie District.

A daily occurrence for me and Elder Swensen