"Thou art neither cold nor hot"
Hello Everybody!
What an amazing week it has been! Let me tell you a little bit about it....
Tuesday Elder Black and I had our lesson with our friend Werner, from South Africa. We haven't taught him before but had several interactions with the missionaries about 18 months ago. Finally we were able to go to his home and have a lesson with him. Werner attends a non-denominational Christian church in South Ogden. Werner had some pretty heavy concerns and misunderstanding when it came to church doctrine, and the Book of Mormon. Elder Black and I listened and explained parallels in our churches, and the differences. Werner tended to take some biblical passages out of context and would interpret them with his own meaning. We helped him to understand more context behind the scripture which can often give the passage different meaning. We concluded by helping Werner understand how reading the Book of Mormon would give Werner clarity. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon, and are meeting again tomorrow morning.
A few weeks ago we knocked on the door of an unbaptized youth household in one of our wards. We spoke to the dad who is a member and set up a visit, which felt oddly strange. After talking to our ward mission leader, bishop, and stake president we were quickly informed that this brother left the church several years ago. He made several appearances in fast and testimony meetings, around Ogden, denouncing the First Presidency, and claiming their writing and publishing of books was priestcraft. He basically made a tour in the Ogden area. Well it didn't take long for the First Presidency to hear about this, and he is now banned from church property. I am making this story shorter, and leaving out a lot of details, my point being we were both pretty anxious to go to their home. We joined their family for dinner and when we walked in he welcomed us and said "Elders please don't pull your phones out of your pockets, or use them" that was kind of creepy I won't lie. Anyway I wish I could say he tried saving us, or told us something crazy, but it was a pretty normal visit. We had dinner, shared a message from the Book of Mormon, and left. The whole thing felt pretty odd and I wasn't too comfortable, but we made it out.
Saturday was exciting for us. We did ministering calls with all the zone leaders in the mission in the morning, and did a lesson in the afternoon. After the lesson we felt like we should visit some elders, and upon arriving at their apartment we discovered them asleep with the doors locked. We slid up the window and found two very not awake missionaries. I would also add two not very happy missionaries. We ended up having a good talk and made a plan for them to do better. Once we came home we got a text from President Scheltinga informing us that he needed a ride from Logan, about an hour north. We made the trip and picked him up. Luckily he treated us to Culvers for burgers. Our night ended teaching a returning member, whose kids we are trying to teach. He is also going through a nasty divorce, so he is pretty ready to let God prevail in his life.
The cherry on top of it all is that Sunday night we finished the transfer board with President. The transfer board is just a board with all the areas in the mission, and we move missionaries pictures there to determine transfers. Except it is all digital. We always finish it a week or so before transfers, and it ends up changing like 5-4 more times haha. We will see what this week brings.
I love you all, have a great week. I'll let you know how this next week goes. Next week when I write y'all it will be my last transfer. Not that I'm counting though. Crazy to think that!
Spiritual Thought
John records the following in Revelation: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Rev 3:15-16). Speaking for the Lord, John gives voice to what may also be understood as casualness, or those who "are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus" (D&C 76:79). Such casualness can cause anyone to be "blinded by the subtle craftiness of men" not taking seriously the covenants they have made, and the priority of discipleship in their lives. In more modern circumstances the Prophet Joseph Smith made this observation “when you joined this Church you enlisted to serve God. When you did that you left the neutral ground, and you never can [go] back.” Suggesting that there is no neutral ground in the gospel, no gray area. What starts in a baptismal font is intended to guide and navigate us to temples, and beyond. Understanding, remembering, and taking our covenants seriously, even baptism, keeps us from influences and distractions that dilute our devotion to the Master.
Pictures:
Lunch pictures
Logan temple. I took this photo like 7 months ago, and just got the film back.
Post Zone Council
