Dear Family and Friends,
Well this is not a fun e-mail to write at all. Seeing all of you is exciting again, but I will miss this experience so much.
This
week my faith has increased as I have been reading Preach My Gospel
chapter 4. This chapter focuses on recognizing and receiving the Holy
Ghost. I also read this awesome quote by George Q. Cannon "Every man and
woman in the Church of Christ can have the gifts of the Spirit of God
divided to them according to their faith and as God wills. …
How
many of you … are seeking for these gifts that God has promised to
bestow? How many of you, when you bow before your Heavenly Father in
your family circle or in your secret places, contend for these gifts to
be bestowed upon you? How many of you ask the Father, in the name of
Jesus, to manifest Himself to you through these powers and these gifts?
Or do you go along day by day, like a door turning on its hinges,
without having any feeling upon the subject, without exercising any
faith whatever, content to be baptized and be members of the Church and
to rest there, thinking that your salvation is secure because you have
done this? …
… I know that God is willing to
heal the sick, that He is willing to bestow the gift of discerning of
spirits, the gift of wisdom, of knowledge and of prophecy, and other
gifts that may be needed. If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to
pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am
full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that
will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to
pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious
man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all
the gifts of the gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man
ought to say, “Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.” He is not
justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength
to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a
man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with
everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He
wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives
these gifts and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order
that they may be a perfect people upon the face of the earth,
notwithstanding their many weaknesses, because God has promised to give
the gifts that are necessary for their perfection."
I
saw the gifts of the Spirit at work this week. We have been seeing
great success from our English Class. Not only are we getting students
but we are getting solid investigators from it. This past week we met
with a girl named Al**. She said that she has always wanted to learn
about Christianity because Christians and us at the Church always seem
happy. She said that she had wanted to learn but was always scared that
the people would be too pushy when they taught her. After coming to
English Class and participating in the gospel discussion afterwards she
talked to one of the members and said she had a good feeling and wants
to learn. We were able to teach her this weekend and it was awesome.
Then we also met with a girl from China who has been Christian for a
short time only. She told us later this week that when she had met us and
we invited her to learn English she had just had a rough day at work
because her English is not very good yet and that she has been
struggling with her confidence. She said that she has been feeling
confident after coming to English class. We are also teaching her and
she says she has been feeling closer to God.
We
had a way awesome lesson with S** this week. It was so perfect and
just what she needed. She said she knows the Book of Mormon is true and
that the only commandments she still has to keep is the sabbath day and
baptism. haha! when she said baptism she acted almost like she had said a
swear word haha :) She said she is going to worry about keeping the
Sabbath Day Holy first. She goes back to China next month so it is a
time crunch for her baptism! Elder Boud has been amazing though, he
knows exactly how to connect with her. Everytime she meets with us she
brings treats for him haha! I think he and Elder Shirley with the
guidance of the Spirit will be able to make it happen before she goes.
Miracles:
Last night we went to see a member named D** K** that has not been to
church in a while because he recently switched jobs. We went to his
house and the owner of the apartment who's room he is renting and their
family was there. The were all from Beijing and way nice. They
immediately invited us in and fed us till we couldn't eat. It was
delicious! The daughter is learning English and is going to try to come.
We will keep in touch with them. The family wants to have us over
to have Malaxiangguo. Sweet!
Also earlier this
week we just finished making English Class flyers and then a lady walked
into the mission office and said "My friend is in the hospital and gets
discharged tonight. She said while she is in the hospital she is
willing to learn the gospel because she has a lot of free time". We went
and taught her friend because there were no other missionaries there
(she would be in Bedok Ward), and her friend was interested and we are
going to have dinner at her house tonight and teach her for the second
time.
Today a recently re-activated member of
20+ years that I had helped find/teach in Woodlands took my companions
and I out for lunch. It was crazy to talk to her because when i was in
woodlands she was still not open to learning and she was convinced she
would never come back. She was glowing and so happy. One of her
daughters was just baptized and another is getting ready to be
baptized. It is amazing how important the Spirit is and how God was
preparing the family at the same time even though they were living in
different parts of the world. i also found out that another less active
family I had taught in woodlands, recently came back. Sometimes we don't
get to see how our small part plays out, but every little visit, and
follow-up is another step to someone's way back to the gospel. Every act
is important. This was an awesome week. This is the best work and I am
so excited it never ends :)
Love,
Elder Avery
The Final Countdown - October 17, 2016
