This week has been another great learning experience! I have learned so much about obedience and how much blessing can be received from keeping the commandments. The scripture, "if you keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land," means so much to me now, when before it was repeated phrase I didn't completely understand. I have grown to love Nephi and his example of always being obedient to the Lord because he knew that the commandment were for his benefit, that the Lord was preparing a way for to accomplish the things He wanted him to do. I know that if I "will go and do" the Lord will help me accomplish the things he wants me to do.
I have learned so much about spiritual promptings, and the importance of scripture study. My preparation for most of our lessons we are going to teach, have mostly been from the scriptures and let me tell you, I am so grateful for seminary and scripture mastery, remembering things I learned and the scriptures I memorized guides me in my lessons. Those scripture masteries are the bare essentials, they encompass the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ and give us guidance to live in accordance to the Lord's will. I have never appreciated the scriptures so much in my life, it is such a treat to be able to study and them and feast upon the words of Christ!
I am also amazed by the Holy Ghost, and its spiritual power to guide me and my companion in lessons. We have learned to act on our faith, and we have to trust that the Lord will put words in our mouth, if we have studied sufficiently. It amazes me how much more prominent the spirit is, and I realized that I know how it speaks to me. It speaks to me in direction and in ideas, it might be a small voice, but I feel it more than I hear it. I don't know if I am so immersed in the spirit or not but I feel the promptings and impressions are so much stronger! The spirit is a wonderful teacher! The spirit teaches and testifies to us that what we are teaching is true. I feel as though certain experiences at the CCM always relates with our lessons that we teach. As if everything happens for a reason and I am having those experiences to learn! It was amazing because I was explaining the principle of obedience to my investigator, Julia, I explained to her that when we keep His commandments and we are obedient, we will be blessed, even if we don't know the reason now, I felt for the first time in my life the spirit baring witness to me that it was true. That was the first time that the spirit actually spoke to me in a still small voice. I was living that principle. I have learned that if we want our investigators to pray more, we need to pray more. If we want them to repent, we need to repent. We need to live what we are teaching, we need to be worthy to teach.
During class one day, we were watching a clip from one of Elder Bednar's devotionals. And Elder Bednar is all about answering questions, so someone asked whether or not a prompting was from the spirit or just themselves. He said, " Don't worry about it! BE A GOOD BOY OR A GOOD GIRL!" He recounted an experience he had when he was a missionary in Germany in the 1970s. President Packer had just recently been ordained an apostle and was visiting Elder Bednar's mission at that time. President Packer and his wife were visiting His mission at that time and they needed to go through Easter Germany to go to some conference of some sort. So Elder Bednar and his companion had to take them to the train station, Elder Bednar gave President Packer 20 marks (do know how to spell it, you can ask Uncle Aaron) because He was concerned whether or not they have anything to eat or be safe because they would be traveling late at night. Little did Elder Bednar know, was that President Packer's wife had a Visa extended for 3 years, and the Easter Germans were not allowing individuals to pass through Eastern Germany with this kind of Visa. The man that checking the passports on the train, was the scariest and most evil man that President Packer had ever met. Somehow, when this man got around to Elder Packer and his wife to check their visas, Elder Packer was able to "righteously bribe" him ( as Elder Bednar comically put it) with 20 marks that Elder Bednar gave him. Later on after they arrived to the conference, President Packer was told the severity of the situation: that it was miracle that they had made past Eastern Germany, because many people with the same kind of Visa, were forced to stay in Eastern Germany! They were saved by the 20 marks.
Elder Bednar talked about another devotional that Elder Packer spoke at BYUI when Elder Bednar was president of the school. Packer said that everything you can understand about the gospel or spiritual impressions can be learned from a missionary with 20 marks. Elder Bednar said that when he gave him to 20 marks, he did not know the reason why. But many years later , he realized that it was a spiritual prompting. He received it because "he was being a good boy", he was doing everything he was supposed to. He said often times we will never know it is prompting until after it happens. He said that is why we shouldn't worry if it is a prompting or not because if we are doing everything we are supposed to, the spirit will be with us and it will guide us in the right direction.
Dad, I am so grateful for how much you have taught me to give a hundred percent in everything I do. Thank you for always pushing me to have good study habits . I would not have been able to learn the language as fast, and I would not have been as focused on the work as I am now. I now have been able to experience and I have a testimony of D&C 84:85: the Lord is able to put words in my mouth that I would not have remembered myself. I am able to remember words in Spanish that I have only written down once or have looked at twice. It is as if I have acquired a photographic memory for the Spanish Language! El Espiritu Santo es verdadero y yo se como Lo habla a mi. El Don De Langua es verdadero y tengo fe que yo Puedo testificar de JesuCristo con lo. Yo tengo un testimonio de JesuCristo. Yo tengo un testimonia de profetas y yo se ellos son testigos especiales de Cristo. I know that if we act in faith without knowing beforehand what we should do, the Lord will deliver us to the right place and the right hour. This church is true! I love you and am so grateful for how much you prepared me for this moment!
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