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| Beautiful snow! Elder Kolby Madsen |
President is going to be going home in July. It’s crazy! I am just way glad that I will have him my whole time. He is amazing. We actually already got to hear form the new mission president, President O´Briant. Way nice. It should be good. I am glad that you will be able to say hi to him when we come back. He is so great.
Well, this week has been great. Full of miracles. We had a great time on splits with the assistants, which meant that me and Elder Child got to work together again. It was way fun. We had a great time. We had a ton of good stuff happen.
Then we had time to see one of our good friends, L**, again. She is a friend of one of the recent converts in the ward (Na**). I have only taught her 3 times now, and she is great. We just have to get teaching her more regularly. It will be way good.
We started off the week only planning on having Ma** go to the temple, and now Na** want to go for her first time on Friday. So, Friday and Saturday we will be have the opportunity to go to the Copenhagen Temple. It’s going to be great. Na** has been a member for almost a year now, and has not been for baptisms yet, so that is what we are doing. That has been the missionaries' goal with her for the past 8 months. It was a great experience to be with her when she prayed about it and got the answer that she needed to go the temple! She was so excited after she got her recommend that she just hugged me and Elder Ogden. It was a huge surprise that we were not expecting, and she got a kick out of seeing our red faces afterward, haha!
Also this week, we were teaching Ri**, and she is super excited to get baptized. We have been working with her to find out if she is wanting this for herself or if it's what To** wants for her. The more and more we teach her, the more and more we realize that she is the one who wants to do this. It's way good to see. She was not able to make it to church this week because she had work, so that is going to push her date back. But it's okay. A little more time to prepare and get everything ready won't hurt anything.
We did not meet with Gø** because he had been super busy with doctor appointments. He has been fighting this aneurism for a while now, and he is done. He just wants it to be gone. We still keep him on our radar, and he wants to meet this week so that should be good.
We had a great week with service as well. We had the opportunity to break through a ton of concrete, kind of like what I did last year at this time, but in a much smaller and more irritating way. We got it though, so no worries.
Yesterday in church we had 2 friends who are not members and 3 who are less active. It was great! It's been a real blessing to see so many coming back to church. It's amazing what meeting with people weekly and showing them your love and support, along with the Spirit, can do to help people come back to church and wanting to stay. The Lord has blessed us so much in our efforts to teach people! We have had a great time with our friends, and we even had the opportunity to see the movie "The Other Side of Heaven," the movie that inspired me to want to serve a mission as a child. We saw it with a friend, and had permission to get a movie night with our other people we teach. It was very nice, and the Spirit was there. It’s fun to watch this movie after being on the mission because now it makes sence as to why he was so passionate and stressed at the same time, about the language and things. We all go through that. As I read the letter from Josh, I can tell he's is going through it right now. He will be fine though. Everything happens for a reason. We need to struggle a little before we can understand why!
That is a huge thing that I have learned the last week! I remember about a year ago when me and Elder Zalewski were companions. We had an experience praying about a baptismal date for one of our investigators. After prayer, we both felt, in unity, the date we should have the baptism. So we prayed again to confirm what we were praying about, and the date felt more correct then we could describe with words. After that, we went and invited her to accept that date for baptism, but she said no and picked another. At first I was confused and a little thrown back. Why would the Lord give us such a strong impression to do it on that date if it was not the right one. Then I realized it was because of our boldness and faith that she accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was not the date we thought, but she chose a date for baptism, none the less.
Looking back now on that experience, I have had many opportunities to pray about these kinds of things. Because of the experiences and feelings that have inspired me, many great things have happened. For example, M** and her dåb, Na**, and her temple date. Same with Ma** and many more. The experiences we had at that time strengthened my faith to know that whenever we pray to know what needs to happen, the Lord will give us that which will help the person most in the time that they are ready.
Now, without hesitation, we drop to our knees and pray for these things because of that simple step of learning. The Lord gives us the amount that we need at that time. Could we use more? Absolutely. Do we need it right now? If so, we would have it. I know that we all progress in this life at different rates, and that is perfect. The Lord works with us differently. We are not all the same person. Different speeds of progression and growth are direct signs that God does love us individually. He is patient with us, and no matter what, He is always with us. We cannot run faster than we have strength. I don’t say this because I am slowing down. I say it because, if anything, it means I have to speed up. It's exponential. And it is the same for the Lord’s work. We have been blessed to live at this time, with everything to win. The church is getting bigger and the harvest is now! Let us all accelerate the work.
Med Kærlig Hilsen,
Elder Kolby Madsen
Talking With God (January 12, 2015)
Temple Trip (January 26, 2015)
