Week #5

Another week bites the dust!

 

So my companion, Elder Jones, and I had the chance to teach Daniel again. It went very well. He did let us pray at the beginning and the end this time. at the beginning we asked if there was anything we could do for him and he asked if we had a million dollars he could use and we laughed and said no, then Eldoer jones pulle dout a hundred dollars and told Daniel he kept it for emergencies, and he could have it if he needed it. Daniel said he was okay, but seemed touched. When we got into talking about gospel stuff, we challenged him to pray again, and he wasn't really for it. He said he didn't even really want to know anymore, and what would happen if he found out we were right?  He'd gotten into some bad stuff since he stopped doing the church thing, he was a "partier." He didn't really have a desire to do those good things anymore, and he didn't really want to talk to us about the stuff he'd gotten into because he said that we were men of God. We promised him that if he'd just give it a shot, just pray, just try reading the scriptures, he'd feel that desire grow. We said he does't even have to really believe it'll work, just want to hope that maybe it will, and it cn grow from there. We shared a couple of verses from Alma 32 with him, and left him with the chapter to read in the next week. We couldn't get him to commit to it, so we just challenged him to read it and pray, and we'd talk about it next time, and that if he didn't have the chance, we'd read and pray with him next time, then talk about it. We bore our testimonies of that change of heart that can happen, and a little bit of personal experience, and told him that we love him and just want him to be happy, then left.

 

It's crazy how strong the spirit gets when we're teaching him. It seems kind of funny since it's just practice, but it's easy to forget that it is only practice. It does make sense that, being a teacher, the spirit would help to practice with these things. It's so cool to be recognizing promptings and being able to follow them and everything. It's just awesome.

 

Also, last tuesday night, Elder M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us. He talked about the importance of developing the best possible personal communication skills, because that's what we are: personal communicators. Also It's important to learn the doctrine and have it down, so you don't have to focus on that while you are teaching, and you can just focus on the people and what they need and the Spirit.

 

So yeah, thanks to the Downeys for that package, it was basically super amazing. I don't have their address though. I'm trying to get letters out to people, but I'm only really getting out one or two every Tuesday.  Also, I apoligize if i forget to say thank you for something, a lot happens during the week and it's easy to forget. Just know that anything and everything is appreciated.

 

That plan for the jacket is perfect. It's not too bad here, because I'm only outside for a long time on Tuesday when I'm walking to the temple. Oh, and I dunno if I ever mentioned it, but Elder Flake started getting stuff, it was just a little later. As for what kind of stuff I'd like to get... I dunno. I'm not too picky and anything I don't like can always be traded for stuff I do.

 

So yeah, write me, tell me how everything's going, I'll try to respond. Gotta go now. Peace out.

 

Elder Katzakian