Speak With the Trumpet of God

Hola!

Well what a super tough week…………..

We worked like mad men this week…and we did get a lot out of it, as in achievements.

We talk to a family this week that came to church. That was nice.  We spent a ton of time talking to them and helping them understand the importance of coming to church but the dad in the family is a little bit hard hearted. He wants more time to learn before he wants to accept a baptismal date. It stinks a little bit because the rest of his family is ready to move on. We have been working really hard in getting him ready so that he will accept to become baptized. The family is called the La Familia Guerra.  La Familia Guerra means the War family, not because it is a battle to teach them, but literally their last name is war. Funny how some things work out.

I have been doing a lot of studying this week about what it really means to have faith and the difference between faith, charity, and love. I have found a bunch of really neat connections between the three and I would like to share one of them with you. I have a new favorite scripture which can be found in the Book of Moroni 7:45 which is in the Book of Mormon.

45. And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

This Scripture gave me a big pick me up this week. I have been feeling a little bit more stressed than usually right now because I want the elders in our Zone to do really well.  It seems that the more of my soul I pour into the problem the worse they all seem to be getting. The overall problem that we face is laziness. It is a constant battle every single day to go out, work, find new people and teach them the gospel.  Then go out, work, and find new people and teach them the gospel. Then go out, work, find new people and teach them.  We have found that the missionaries just get bored of doing the same thing day after day without rest.  Many of my missionaries have lost the faith. Due to that loss of faith there is no determination to achieve more.

So I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what I could do to change the reality that we are facing. I have always been a little bit lazy myself.  I can remember countless times hearing from you at home that I just need to stop being lazy. I think that I can say that in those times when I was reprimanded, I summoned up a little bit more ¨Go Juice¨ and I tried to get it done. I have been analyzing that feeling.  I have come to the conclusion that the times when I really worked my hardest, was the times that I was working for another person. If I was trying to get something done, that the only person that benefited was me, it could always wait. What I mean is…. If I had to do something for me I procrastinated. 

I realize that as we serve others we feel the obligation to perform and to complete the task at hand.  My missionaries can’t see anymore, the real reason why we are here. I find it super interesting some times to note the real character of a person when they are under pressure. Some just sit down right there are on the ground and quit. Others try to get it done but only with a half way job and they call that good… saying ¨well I did my best¨. Sometimes our best isn’t good enough, but the Lord knows that we can always do better.  As I have pondered about the laziness I have come to realize that to justify my actions in the past I just used whatever excuse that I could come up with. Makes me sad to think about how naïve I really was. 

How do I change the attitude of my Zone? I thought about it a lot and I came to the conclusion that what really is happening is that we have lost our love for the work.  If we don’t get up and work every day with our all that we are, we show the world that we do not love the people that we teach. If we don’t look for new people every day we are saying that our love is only for an exclusive number of people.  The greatest lesson that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has taught us is to love our God and love our Neighbor.  If we cannot seem to follow this basic command how can we teach others to do the same.  YET THERE IS HOPE… I have the faith to continue onward, if I can do it, they can do it. The Lord leads by example and I hope to do the same. The greatest examples of missionaries that we have are in the Book of Mormon, leaders like Ammon and Alma and 3rd Nephi and 3rd Lehi (wow, who is that? Another day I will explain) I hope to remind them of these great leaders, through the scriptures, that they have left us and then show them through example how to achieve all of our goals. Oh, but if I were an angel…..                 So that I could go and speak with the trumpet of God …. Alma 29:1

 Elder Harris 15 months!.. And it’s going by really fast.