Pressing forward...

Elder Lish and I have been getting better at following the spirit and being able to bring the spirit into the conversations and lessons we have with people.  This last week we had a lot of success as far as lessons and stuff, and there were lots of people who definitely felt the spirit. We were able to invite like four or five people to be baptized who gave a soft yes, because they definitely felt something. They pretty much all bailed on saturday night when we called to confirm church the next day though. Jim also needs some extra prayers right now because it's getting hard for him. He walked into church, had an anxiety attack, and left.

 

I've pretty much come to the realization that everybody who doesn't get to the truth (who has it offered to them) misses it because of laziness. It's not wanting to search and pray to learn if something is true from God, because the internet is easier; or not wanting to go through five or ten minutes of nervous pain while your system acclamates to the people so you can feel better all week because it's easier to just sit at home and feel bad about not doing what you know is right, or not wanting to learn because that means you might have to change, and you are satisfied with the low level of responsibility you feel now, etc....  It has helped me to understand why this life requires a nearly constant output of energy.  No good thing can be gained without at least some work, and we want to get every good thing, so we need as much practice as we can get.

 

Something else to think about is that many people live under the misconception that we are stronger than Satan because we have a body and he does not. That is not true. Independently we are weaker than Satan. The body just gives us greater potential.  In Moses (I forget exactly where butI think it's chapter four), it says that the devil has power to lead men captive at his will, unless they hearken to God's voice.  So unless we hearken to God's voice, we are in the power of our adversary.  We need to link ourselves to God so that his power will support us, and then we will be more powerful than the devil. That link happens through covenants administered by the holy priesthood.  As we make, and keep covenants, we receive the power of God to resist the devil. As we succumb to the will of the flesh (2 Nephi 2:29), by failing to make or breaking covenants with God, we give the enemy of our souls power over us to do whatever he wants with us.  The will of the flesh is to not work, or to put off work. What the savior asks us to do isn't really that hard, but sometimes that makes us think we can just put it off... do not be slothful because of the easiness of the way (Alma 37:46).  Slothfulness really is the downfall of humanity. We just want everything easier... and that comes from pride, or thinking that you're better than just working a little bit. 

 

So yeah, I did some learning and growing this week, and overall it was really good. Zak is getting baptized on Sunday between sessions. Oh yeah! Everyone needs to watch conference and invite all their friends to come listen to a prophets voice.

 

Thanks for all of the help and love and support! Love y'all.

 

Elder Katzakian

Another busy week....

So this week has been kinda crazy.  We did exchanges on three separate days... once for me to go practice singing for the Spurs/Jazz game (I told Paeden to tell you about that), once for Elder Lish to do some training, and once to be trained a little by the zone leaders.  It made for a prety crazy week, and we're pretty tired now.  We are super excited though, because Jaime accepted the invitation to be baptized and came to church. His wife got baptized a year ago, but he backed out and hasn't been to anything since.  He's missed it and known that it's true, but has just been scared.  He had a rough upbringing in southern california, and lost his leg to bone cancer not long before his wife's baptism. Because of his background he has a hard time trusting people, and doesn't feel like he fits in with all of the "perfect" people at church.  He;s known that he needs to do it, but it was always just going to be later.  Another big challenge is that he gets some pretty serious anxiety attacks, so building up to a big decision is hard.  We went by just to visit him on friday, and, long story short, spent four hours with him breaking down the wall he'd put up and making the choice very clear to him.  We gave him the ninth of as his ultimatum.  On that date he either says "yes Heavenly Father, I will do what you've asked so that you can bless my family with the things I want for them," or "no, I'm too scared to do what I know is right."  Normally that's way too long to spend talking to one person, but the spirit was there so srong the whole time... It was really what he needed.  His wife and kids were there in the room, too, when he agreed to do as our Father has asked so that he could receive the blessings in store and ultimately always be with his family to take care of them.  We went back on saturday to remind him to come to church, and he faltered a little bit, saying ",I'm too lazy."  It was anoother long visit... but exactly what was needed.  We we're there for about two hours, again making the options very black and white, and reminding him of the commitments he'd made, the spirit he had felt, and the help from God that we had promised him. It just came down to "Where and when do you want us to meet you?" His only condition ended up being this: Nobody makes a big fuss over him being there, and we call him Jimbo, because you have to smile when you say that, and jaime carries the sting of the past. The next day we were sitting in the foyer, five minutes after the meeting started, really disappointed... Then we saw his wife coming around the corner.  We held our breath... and he followed just behind her!  He came and loved it and his whole beautiful family was so much happier as they were united at church.  It's not going to be an easy few weeks for him, but he will be baptized on April ninth, and by so doing will bring his family closer together, and qualify himself for the gift of the holy ghost which will make him strong enough to completely overcome his anxiety. (That was one of the things we felt impressed to promise him, and the legitimacy of the promise was pretty much proven when he ended up telling us that when we came and brought the spirit, his anxiety went completely away) 

 

That was definitely the most exciting thing that happened this week (except Evan also got the priesthood yesterday), and I'm pretty much out of time now...

 

Thanks for everything! I love you all.

 

Elder Katzakian

Baptism

So we were definitely able to get out more this week.  It was actually pretty normal, except that we still have to go back to the house periodically for cleaning of  the wound and such.  Elder Lish is doing really really well considering that he just had surgery. Mostly you can't even tell anything is wrong at all.  His energy has also been better since he's been more careful about what he eats. I'm trying to be a little better too. It's just pretty hard because our food is somewhat controlled by budget and members... though the members are really good about complying with our dinner requests, so that's good. So yeah, pretty much the members are good, and Elder Lish is a super stud.  He just keeps trucking along and teaches me a ton every day.

The most exciting thing this week was definitely Evan's baptism. We should be printing out pictures today, and sending them, so you can probably expect to get them soon. Unless, of course, something goes horribly wrong at the wal mart photo center...

The Spirit was so strong at the baptism, and there were a bunch of people there. Evan has really been touched by all of the love that everyone shows. His seminary class got up to sing a special musical number for it and so he and I got up and sang in it too.  Probably the best part was that his mother was able to come, as well, and she was moved by the spirit that was there too.  When we got out of the water, Evan said he felt different... really good. He didn't really have words for it, but he cried into his towel a little in the dressing room, and it made me so happy to see him so happy.  Then we went into the chapel and the young men's president had all the young men get up and welcomed him in and gave him a really nice set of scriptures and everything, and he teared up a bit there too, and so did his mom and so did the young men's president and probably a bunch of other people too.  It's amazing to see how great he feels and how powerfully he  feels the spirit.  He will be ordained into the priesthood next week.  We're also going to be teaching his mom (and hopefully his siblings) starting Tuesday.  She's just been hard to get with because she's a single mother and manages at Golden Corral to provide for her family.  She is a wonderful woman, and so ready for the Gospel as well.  I have this beautiful picture in my mind of Evan getting to baptize his family, and I can't wait to be a part of helping make that a reality.

Other than that we started talking to a girl who is "talking to" a Mormon boy who works making movie trailers in L.A.  She's really open and nice and is reading Our Search For Happiness, as well as the Book of Mormon.  She's 22 but her mom was there too, and is less enthusiastic. I feel, however, that we can help her to focus on the right things to feel the spirit and come to know that the things we share are good and true.  The daughter, onthe other hand, will need less help. It's also helpful that the guy she's kind of seeing is a returned missionary, so he's really good at helping her along as well.

Those were pretty much the highlights of the week. It's also getting warm enough that the lizards are starting to come out... also the cicadas, which are a little annoying.  Something cool though, is the story of when Nephi and his brothers go back to get Ishmael to come with them and he says "...we did gain favor in the sight of Ishmael, insomuch that we did speak unto him the words of the Lord."  Then the Lord softens Ishmael's heart and the spirit moves him to follow Nephi and co.  This is a really good type of what we should do.  Most of us have done the first half, the gaining favor (a.k.a. making friends), but many haven't done the second. That would be speaking the words of the Lord unto those friends.  There are a lot of easy ways to do that; e.g. "Hey, check out this cool video [on mormon.org] about this amputee guy who rock climbs," "There's going to be this really cool chili cook off at my church. You should come get some free food," "You know Moses? Well a guy kinda like him is going to be speaking coming up in a few weeks and it's broadcast on byu tv..." etc.  When you do that, you will find that often peoples hearts will be softened to ,at the very least, learn a little more. Try it, it's pretty sweet.

Anyways, gotta go now. Talk to you next week :)

Much Love

Elder Katzakian

How I preach!

We got this drawing today in the mail from Brock.  He wrote: 

To: Cooper (and anyone else who wanted to see how I preach)

Since the very second Brock opened and read his mission call to Texas, his little brother, Cooper has said "Brock gets to be a cowboy!"  Each time Cooper "writes" Brock a letter it usually involves a picture of a cowboy.  So in honor of Cooper, Brock drew him this picture.   This brought back fond memories for me of when Brock was younger.  He used to draw and doodle all the time.  He and his dad would sit down for hours and draw together.  They have even been known to spend the entire sacrament meeting trying to out draw each other.  I have many pictures drawn by Brock that I have kept.  This will definitely be one I add to my collection!



Another week....

This week we were able to go to a few appointments and things, but we couldn't really do any tracting or long hours away from the house. So no cool stories of people we found... I did read a good chunk of the old testament, though, and learned a lot from it.  I had to space it out though, because one time I just read it for about an hour and a half sttraight, and it put me to sleep.  I read a lot of the Book of Mormon, too.  Mormon, chapters eight and nine are a couple of my favorite chapters now, and the brother of jared's story has a lot more meaning.  I'm starting to really be able to see the significance of everything that is in there.  Moroni said (in Mormon 9) that they wrote in reformed egyptian to save space, because you could say more with fewer words than in hebrew, but something interesting to note is that hebrew is already a language that is known for it's efficiency and "compactness," so they must've really had to cram a lot into a little space.  That means that every single word in the book is important.  He also tells us that he saw us in vision and he "know(s) our doing."  So as the record was being abridged, into an incredibly compact language so that all of the most important things could be included, it was done with us in mind, with the intent to include the things that would be most helpful to us today. It contains counsel specific to our challenges that we face, and strategies in the battle aginst the adversary's forces today. It's a pretty important book.  Everyone should read it, prayerfully pondering how the words therin can help them to overcome their challenges, which the writers saw.

So Evan T. is pretty much super amazing. He is way sensitive to the spirit, and is getting baptized on saturday. :) He is way super excited, or "stoked out of his face" as Elder Lish says.  It's going to be great, too, because a bunch of his peers who are not members should be there, as well as his family, so it should be great.  Keep him in your prayers, because Satan will be trying extra hard this week. We're just doing our best to help him keep the spirit with him so he can avoid the pitfalls. I'll let y'all know how that goes next week.

Also, everyone should tell people about mormon.org. In the past couple months JUST IN THIS MISSION, four people have walked into church, asking to be baptized, just from reading mormon.org.  It is a powerful tool.  Do not be afraid to share it with anybody.  Don't be afraid to invite anybody to anything, really... don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Obviously, do it in a way that would be effective though... it's easier to warn your neighbors once you have warmed them.

Thank you for all of the suport and help. Good things are happening. I wish I had time to tell you more. Until next week :)

Love Elder Katzakian

No transfer for me---yet

Looks like we will both be staying here in the Stone Oak area.  So our address is the same and everything.  The president also decided he'd just do transfer calls on sunday night so that p-day could always be monday now, so that's the plan.

So this week we didn't get a whole lot done because we spent a lot of time at the hospital. Elder Lish was having some complications with his crohn's disease, so we had to be there and he actually had surgery on saturday to have an infection removed, and now has a big hole in him so that can drain, so we're going to be down for like a week... we'll be able to do a little bit, but not like door to door. We'll start easing back into the normal routine and stuff, and we shuld be back to regular work an a couple of weeks.  Pretty much that means that I'll be getting a lot of extra study time.  I'm probably just going to memorize the standard works so I don't have to carry them around any more haha.

So Abel is going to be baptized the week of the twentieth (in march), Zak will be april third, and Evan, that guy who came to church randomly last week, will be baptized on the twelfth of march. Satan has attempted to get in our way with him, but he's just too sensitive to the spirit, and is really excited.  We had an appointment with him last tuesday, but he got a concussion the night before, so he couldn't come, but then he came to church again, and we taught the lesson in priests' quorum again, and asked him if he'd be baptized, and he said yes, and that's the date we set :) and when I say we, it was me and Matthew Jones, the mission president's son.  Elder lish was at the mission home with president jones all day, resting, and matthew came with me so I could go to church and stuff.  Now we're just home, though, and I'm taking care of him. starting tommorrow he should be okay to go to one or two appointments a day... we'll see how he feels, though because we want him to heal as fast as possible, and not make anything worse.

So yeah, we're probably going to the temple on wednesday. It's been killing me to have to wait and stuff since we can only go once every six weeks... I didn't realize how much I was going to want to be there until I started to really understand the gospel and the importance of all that... It's crazy. 

 

Keep on letting me know how everything is going. Y'all are in my prayers as well :) 

Love Elder Katzakian