This past week has been a good one, with a lot of up and down for me personally. Tuesday was a great day, we stopped by and had a great lesson with Lao Y, we taught him the Gospel, and we reemphasized the points a lot to make sure that he understood, and remembered what we were talking about. We asked him at the end if he would like to be baptized, and he said yes. We asked him when, he said three or four months. We then set a date for September 7. He works late nights, and long days on the weekends, so 8am church is hard for him, but he committed to coming for sacrament meeting. He didn't make it this week, but we will keep committing him to it, and he will come. This week we are planning to teach him in a members home. That will cut down on distractions, help him to have friends in the church, and feel more of the Spirit. He is going to progress well, and we may even be able to move his date forward.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Sister H, and we found out that she has some interesting beliefs, and is a very depressed person. We went over the Plan of Salvation, and she believes that you will be reincarnated, so if you don't make it to the Celestial Kingdom in this life you will just come back and try again. We addressed that with the resurrection, your soul and your body will be reunited, never to be divided again. She also asked us two questions, which at the time I was unable to fully answer. What is joy?, and Why should I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom. We have been studying that, and also asking other members and missionaries to try and get a good answer, and this is what we came up with. Joy is a fulfilment of your potential as a child of God. The things that bring joy in life are expressions of your divine nature: Childbirth, Missionary work, Temple work, etc.., those are expressions of your creative powers, and the work of salvation, which is His work, a divine work. So the reason you would want to go to the Celestial Kingdom is because that is the only place that you can reach your full potential as a child of God in becoming as He is. In no other place can you do that. It was cool for me to gain added insight on those topics, and I hope that when we go back to see her that we can help her to understand why.

Thursday we had a bunch of lessons cancel, but we were able to meet with Sam again, and we had a really good lesson with him. We talked more about the Gospel, which in his eye is just faith. We talked about repentance, which by itself he agrees is something you should do, but he doesn't think that it is neccesary for salvation. He also doesn't think that baptism is more than a show of faith. We talked a lot about how faith is proved by works, and that if you don't have works, then you have no faith. You can have works without faith, but then it will be nothing more than checking the boxes, and will do you no good, because you have not real intent. We are judged by our works and our desires; to see if we did what we were commanded, and to see if our heart was in it or not. We shared several scriptures back and forth, and in the end I beleive we each came to the same conclusion, and agreed on it. The why of the works is more important than the work itself. "If a man offereth a gift, and not with real intent, it profiteth him nothing" We have to do the work yes, but the Lord also requires a glad heart and a willing mind.

Friday we had our mission tour, and I was really impacted by it. One of the first things that Elder Whiting said was write what you feel. I wrote down a couple of questions, and payed attention to how I felt about them, and I received answers. One of the questions that I had was how to consecrate myself to the Lord. I am tired of being half into it, and want to just give all of myself to him, but where to begin I'm not sure. He said to resolve to act, so I pormised myself that I would apply whatever he said. He talked also about changing now, and repenting, and using our agency righteously everytime, so that whenever a choice is before you you will choose correctly, narrowing your choices, but securing your freedom. In the leadership meeting he also talked about becoming more like Christ by following His character; by loving and serving others, not thinking about yourself, and being an example. I committed to myself, and later Elder Mohler and I committed to each other that we would be 100% obedient, and set an example for the rest of the district. One other thing that Elder Whiting asked us to do was to pray and ask if Heavenly Father loved us. I did, and I felt nothing.

Saturday we started the morning with service. Elder Mohler was a little nervous about transfer calls because we both thought that he would be leaving, and I would be training, because it was my last chance to do so. When the call came in that we were both staying together, he was relieved, and I was sad, and disappointed, not because we would be together, but because that meant I would never train, and that was the one thing that I have wanted to do my whole mission. I had prayed for it, I had become more obedient, and it didn't happen. That night in my prayers I discussed it with the Lord, I was confused and hurt, and wanted to know why. I told Him that I didn't feel loved, and the most incredible feeling of warmth came over me and enveloped me completely. I knew that He loved me. I asked him to help me to accept his will, and to fulfil my current assignment without any murmurings. Every missionary in my district will have been out five months or less, I would say that my role as a district leader here will enable me to train them all. I don't know why I'm not a trainer, but I know it wasn't His will, and I will accept that. I am sure that there is more that I can learn from Elder Mohler, and I look forward to continuing to work with him.

Sunday the messages in sacrament meeting were great. One of the priests gave a talk on the Plan of Salvation, and he did a great job in teaching it. He focused a lot on the questions why are we here?, where are we going?, and where did we come from? Our sunday school lesson we talked about the kingdoms of glory, and I was able to increase my understanding of that. During my personal study I read through the "how to improve your personal prayers" talk in the Ensign, and was really impressed by it. The experience that he shared at the end of that talk was quite similar to my experience right now. Sometimes the Lords will is one way, and our will is the other way. We have to humble ourselves, and allign our will to His, because His will won't change. He sees things in perspective, and He knows what each of us needs to be able to grow the most. We can only see the here and now, so His will often does not make sense to us, but in the end it is the better way to go. 

 

I got my package Wednesday I think, I loved the tie, it is ridiculous, but way cool. You guys have been so good to me. 

 

Love Elder Schultz