The Standard of Truth has been erected.
"The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calmy may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldy, nobly, and independant until it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept and country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great JEHOVAH shall say, 'the work is done.'"
Hello friends and family! This week has been crazy amazing! Me and Elder Nagao are trying our best to serve God with everything we have and He is trusting us with His children! This week 9 new people who want to learn more! 9 new green dots! There is so much potential with these divine children!
We are working our butts off all day so when we finally get back to our apartment at 9:30 pm (our mission does 7am-11pm so 9:30 is when we are supposed to get back) we eat dinner quick and then shower and go to bed early. One night we got back a little earlier than 9:30 and we ate, showered, and had the lights out by 10:00pm! Then we wake up, call our district for our daily prayer, plan, excersize for at least 30 minutes (bike to a park, run for 7 minutes, push-ups, plank, and sometimes we use the weights we have in our apartment), shower, get ready, eat breakfast, and go! We study for 3 hours a day, 1 hour personal study (scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and words of modern day prophets), 1 hour companion study (PMG, share what we learned, plan, MOGI lessons), and 1 hour of language study (reading, grammar, vocab, kanji, and a 10 minute MOGI conversation)! We teach eikaiwa (only personal and child group) where we teach english and then end with a spiritual message and invitation, and we also teach some gospel only lessons! We do finding activities inperson and online, at least an hour of Facebook finding per day (with persistant messaging throughout the day) as well as Jimoty and Tandem (got banned from Hello talk :/ ), we do service for friends and members, and we go where people gather to find. One of our most successful things has been going to play volleyball on Friday nights, there is a very diverse group that meets with some people that only speak english (only place I've seen it on Ishigaki!) and we have found so many people through that in the past 2 weeks. We visit members active and less-active, with a particular focus on less-active, part-member families, and those who need extra service/love.
Saturday was a super crazy day, we had 2 hours of service in the morning putting huge wooden posts 2-2.5 feet into the ground for a less active member family with a mango farm, then we showered, went to church and studied, then we had 5 lessons scheduled back to back (2 canceled last minute) and then we visited members! Phew, it was awesome. I know we couldn't have made it through without God's help and guiding hand.
This week has been very spiritually fulfilling. I've learn too much to write here and some personal things, but I will share what I can:
God is real. Heavenly Father can provide us with direct insite into the events that happen in our lives. Heavenly Father can help us know what exactly what to say and exactly who to say it to and when to say it. Heavenly Father gives us strength to carry on when we want to go home - I was studying in 3rd Nephi and through a footnote I was lead to Gospel Topics of Spiritual Discernment which took me to Alma 26, I read the highlighted scripture and nothing big stuck out, but I felt like I needed to continue, I read further and further until I got to verse 27. Ammon and his friends traveling to the Lamanites felt this "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back," ... ok wow I've felt that ... "behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren," ... ok I can do that if you're comforting me it will be easy! ... "and bear with patience thine afflictions" ... ahh back to the afflictions ... "and I will give unto you success." ... inner peace. It won't be easy, that is confirmed in verse 28 too, but it will be ok. Verse 22 teaches us why they were able to be successful in the end, that is what each of us need to do. Be worthy, be patient, trust in God, trust in yourself that through God, you can accomplish it, and then go forth, when it hurts remember who you're hurting for and remember the pain He felt for you, remember that He felt exactly what you are feeling, remember that He can comfort you, ask and ye shall receive.
If you seek to make yourself worthy to dwell in the presence of God by obeying His commandments, the standards set by Him and His prophets, then prepare yourself. Seek to be near to Him, prepare to receive and act on revelation by getting preparing to write it, then ask, converse, and act. I promise that God can lead and guide us and that He leads and guides this church. These things I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
"draw near unto Me and I will draw unto you" Doctrine and Covenants 88:63
We gotta go buy games for our game night this week! I love all of you so much!
Elder Rasmussen <3
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