What a crazy week!! It seems like I was just emailing yesterday! With transfers and MLC, stake conference and stuff it was hectic, we only had about 8 hours to work in our area this past week!
We had a District Leader Council on Saturday and had Elder's Corry and Carver come with their comps. It was really good, yet we found that there is a lot of negativity, disobedience and lack of faith throughout the zone. We made plans on how to lead by example and magnify the callings God has given us and convert ourselves and then convert our fellow missionaries. We have good plans to excite the zone this week and build the faith within ourselves and within the zone. I'm thankful to be with Elder Nogueira for this, he's an excellent missionary! He's my new comp, he was born in Peru, then moved to Washington state and ended up in Payson, Utah. He's one transfer ahead of me, but this is his first time being a ZL. This transfer will be great!
We saw a miracle while tracking down referrals. We hadn't been having success when we tried the last referral on the list. His name is Chris. We stopped by and found him home and it turns out he has been taught by 2 different sets of missionaries previous and it still interested in hearing the gospel. We shared a short restoration with him since time was short and testified that God had once again sent us to him. He wasn't too sure about baptism, but we testified that if he prayed God would answer and help him know if he should be baptized.
This morning I had an amazing study in Alma 14. I was studying on how to submit my will to God's will in humility. chapter 14 is amazing. Alma and Amulek are taken prisoner after preaching the gospel and have to watch the martyrdom of women and children. Then they get cast into prison and for many days they are smitten, questioned, threatened, starved and naked and spit upon. Yet through all of this they didn't say a word. It's human instinct to react defensively in situations like that yet they still had power over their natural man tendencies. The gospel had changed their nature, not just their behavior. Even though the natural man inside them was trying hard to fight back or say something, they stayed silent and in humility they submitted their wills to God's will. Their Spirit had more power than their bodies. It wasn't until this total submission that "the power of God was upon Alma and Amulek, and they rose and stood upon their feet." (vs 25) In this moment Alma cries out to God and asks how long they will have to suffer these afflictions, it parallels the prayer Joseph Smith had while in Liberty Jail. God then gave them strength after their total submission to his will. God can give us strength to overcome anything we go through, but that strength is dependent on our faith in Christ.
I can't think of anything else that happened this past week, it was so full of meetings and stuff that it's all a blur! Congrats Jenna and Mike on the new addition of Audrey to your family! glad to see that your both healthy and doing great!
I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Spencer Bailey
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