Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Short powerful lessons



Dear Family

Oh man, I only have time enough to copy part of my letter to President Mains this week.  Each week there have been more things coming in from the mission office for me to handle, and I feel like I don't really write anything interesting or personal or specific to you anymore.  Sheesh.  Well, I still love you a lot!

This week, my faith in the converting power of the gospel increased as we had short, powerful lessons.  I found that as Elder Hanks and I went into a lesson with the mindset that we would be out again in only 30 minutes, we were forced to preach the doctrines of the gospel with more clarity and power.  I felt that we were following Elder Ballard's admonition to preach with more power and authority because we really focused on what our investigators specific needs were, then addressed their concerns and questions in a short amount of time, and invited them to learn the truth of the answer for themselves by reading the Book of Mormon and praying on their own time.

I saw several small miracles throughout the week, and I believe they came because we taught short lessons and followed up with our investigators daily.  At the beginning of the week, we set a goal to teach 30 minute lessons, but we were both unpracticed in keeping lessons so brief, so we had to have faith enough to plan our next-day's lessons as though they would all be 30 minutes.  As we tried our best, we found that the Lord helped us to see more clearly the concerns that our investigators and less-active members had.  Not only did He help us in our lessons that day, but He sent us a taxi at exactly the right time, as we walked out the door from a 30 minute lesson.  He also put other people in our path whom we probably wouldn't have met if our lessons had gone longer.

The JB zone, although smaller now than before, is still working hard.  The thing that is most interesting to me is that all of the 6 predicted baptisms in the next 3 weeks are Elder Lallemant's and Elder Ebeling's investigators.  They are working very well together and with the members of their branch, and they are bringing many unto Christ.  Elder Hanks and I went to Melaka to interview three of their candidates on Saturday.  We found that they were well-prepared for baptism - they are overjoyed to have found the true church of Jesus Christ, and they have all gained a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  I was also filled with joy as I interviewed them, because I could tell that they'd been searching for the Church and they'd finally found it.  I'm also proud to have such good Elders in our zone to teach them and help them to baptism.
Love,
Brennan 



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