District Blitz

Tue, May 3, 2011 at 12:00 PM

Email #31 – Meridian ID

Hey FAM!

Things are beginning to look very bright here in meridian Idaho! President Cannon did a survey of how the work has been coming along in the mission and sadly everything is slowing down. So he has asked that all the missionaries work harder on finding new people to teach. Our district has decided to help by doing a "blitz" which means that all the elders in our district will take one day to work in the area that is having the hardest time. lol, right now that is mine and Elder Mattei's area. So tomorrow, Wednesday, the whole district will be helping improve our area. I am very excited and grateful for this; I feel that my companion and I have been working very hard for the past few weeks with only a little success.

Some good new though, this last Sunday there was a man who is considering learning more about the church. His name is Chris, he's a Marine and apart from that we know very little about him. His Mom got him interested in the Church and he has been visiting different wards for the past few weeks. This was his first week going to the ward that is actually his. We gave him our number and told him to call us if he would like to take the lessons. I hope he calls back. lol, I feel like the Greene from the movie “The Best Two Years” as he sat and waited by the phone for the man to call back, hopefully it ends as good as it did for him.

Also this Sunday was very good for me. It was fast Sunday, and I just loved hearing all the children's testimonies. They are so pure and sincere, the spirit just couldn't be ignored, and I to got up and bore my testimony. I felt the spirit the strongest though as we sang the sacrament hymn, hymn number 169. Sadly I can’t remember the name, lol, I only remember the number because I wrote it down. Whichever hymn it is though it brought great peace to my soul.

The start of this week is looking good! We have already had two lessons on Monday, The first was with our friend Darrell. We taught him about the plan of salvation and he shared with us some very interesting concerns. He knows that Christ died for him, and that he can repent, but he still feels bad for what he has done. In his mind the only way he can truly repent is to wait till he dies so he can apologize to God face to face, and after that just take whatever punishment comes with his mistakes. We did our best to explain that because Christ died for us we don't have to go to those extremes to be forgiven. We reminded him that when we truly repent, God remembers our sins no more. And he doesn't only judge us on our works, but by the desires of our hearts as well. The last bit helped him a lot I think. It seemed to make him feel better to know that his desires have been good desires, better than his past actions. That truth has also helped me a lot.

The second lesson was with Bob who has decided to get baptized in October so that one of his sons can baptize him and the other confirms him! It’s a while away but we are very happy that he is taking this step. We talked with him for a while on enduring to the end, and how if we slip up we can always repent. But that only works if we are trying our best.

We have also set a new goal for this transfer, and that is to find one new investigator a week. We have this goal set in each ward and hopefully they will pull through. Please pray that we will be able to meet this goal, your prayers always seem to help. =)

Thanks for all you do, your prayers, love and support. I pray for you all the time and hope all is well. I love you all so very much! Stay cool!

-Elder Bevell-