The Love of God
(This was sent March 7th. Sorry I'm late once again.)
The situation with the ward... I didn't give my talk. A member from the High Council came so I didn't have to speak, but this upcoming Sunday they're going to give me a huge block of time.
We have an investigator, Andrés, who really doesn't like the war chapters of the BoM. Every time we ask him about his reading he says "still no wars." But to be honest, I believe that he's not really reading to get something out of the BoM, because I've been in the war chapters this past week in my reading and I LOVE them! I feel like I have learned so much. This morning I read the epistle of Moroni to Pahoran, and it made me think a little about myself.
I'm so willing to lay it into the members because from our point of view they're not doing anything- like lazy bums. But they have another point of view. Therefore there is something else going on here in the ward. It's not just that they're not fulfilling their callings. There's something deeper.
We met with the YW presidency this week to talk about the girls that have basically gone inactive. They give us excuses right and left. The purpose of the meeting was to make goals and plans to help them come back to church, but as soon as we began explaining what we've learned they began with the excuses. They blame it all on the parents (all of their mothers are inactive members), and that they can't do anything without the support of the parents. I wanted to just disappear. I hate excuses. I really don't like them. They were killing me. Pres. Benson said "Any excuse, no matter how valid, weakens the character."
We didn't get anything done in the meeting. We wasted our time that could've been used finding more people to teach. But now we know more. These people have so many ridiculous problems. Back-sliding, back-biting, two-timing, any kind of two-facedness you can think of is creeping in. And now we know more about the situation and now we can help them more. But I know that God loves His children, He loves His church, therefore He will not let them slide off into apostasy. I know that He will work a miracle in these members.
For happier news, I've had a stellar weekends worth of studies. I've loved my studies and they have helped me to change some attitudes and points of view that I've had. First of all I would like to encourage all of you to learn about patience in Preach my Gospel. Family home evening, scripture study, whatever it may be, do it! At the end of Chp. 6 there's an attribute activity- a type of self evaluation- and I encourage you all to look at it. It opens up minds and helps to understand the purity of the doctrines of each attribute. Not the way man sees it, but the way God sees it- the way it really is. It's helped me a lot to remember that patience really is a divine attribute of God.
Also I read for about the fifth time the talk by Pres.Uchtdorf from the Oct 2009 conference about the love of God. After reviewing the doctrine of patience I read that talk, and I testify that through this gospel God shows His love to his children. It strengthened my testimony that the leaders of the church have been called of God and really are His servants. Strengthened my testimony that God lives and truly loves us, and that through the blessings of this restored Gospel we see and feel the love of God. Through the Book of Mormon, the priesthood, the organization of His church- and all this after learning about two principles.
A couple other things- this morning we climbed Campanario Hill- again. That thing is a beast. BUT! On the bus to get there there was a guy that I could've sworn was Chris Martin from Coldplay. I internally freaked out. I didn't get another glance at him because he got off the bus and began climbing the hill right away, and I didn't see him again. ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Oh my gosh, ¿¿¿¿what if I saw Chris Martin!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????? Worldy thought for today (note to self: how do you spell world? Is it really like that?)
Besides that.... I've received the dreaded "trunky papers"! But because we went to the hill I forgot them at the pension. The only questions I can remember are where you want to pick me up, or what airport you prefer me to return to (Salt Lake City I would imagine, right?), and some other questions that I don't remember because the last time I looked at them was about two weeks ago. I'll let you know in the next email.
Take care and love you all lots! Thanks for all that you do for me.
xoxo, Hna.Georgeson
The situation with the ward... I didn't give my talk. A member from the High Council came so I didn't have to speak, but this upcoming Sunday they're going to give me a huge block of time.
We have an investigator, Andrés, who really doesn't like the war chapters of the BoM. Every time we ask him about his reading he says "still no wars." But to be honest, I believe that he's not really reading to get something out of the BoM, because I've been in the war chapters this past week in my reading and I LOVE them! I feel like I have learned so much. This morning I read the epistle of Moroni to Pahoran, and it made me think a little about myself.
I'm so willing to lay it into the members because from our point of view they're not doing anything- like lazy bums. But they have another point of view. Therefore there is something else going on here in the ward. It's not just that they're not fulfilling their callings. There's something deeper.
We met with the YW presidency this week to talk about the girls that have basically gone inactive. They give us excuses right and left. The purpose of the meeting was to make goals and plans to help them come back to church, but as soon as we began explaining what we've learned they began with the excuses. They blame it all on the parents (all of their mothers are inactive members), and that they can't do anything without the support of the parents. I wanted to just disappear. I hate excuses. I really don't like them. They were killing me. Pres. Benson said "Any excuse, no matter how valid, weakens the character."
We didn't get anything done in the meeting. We wasted our time that could've been used finding more people to teach. But now we know more. These people have so many ridiculous problems. Back-sliding, back-biting, two-timing, any kind of two-facedness you can think of is creeping in. And now we know more about the situation and now we can help them more. But I know that God loves His children, He loves His church, therefore He will not let them slide off into apostasy. I know that He will work a miracle in these members.
For happier news, I've had a stellar weekends worth of studies. I've loved my studies and they have helped me to change some attitudes and points of view that I've had. First of all I would like to encourage all of you to learn about patience in Preach my Gospel. Family home evening, scripture study, whatever it may be, do it! At the end of Chp. 6 there's an attribute activity- a type of self evaluation- and I encourage you all to look at it. It opens up minds and helps to understand the purity of the doctrines of each attribute. Not the way man sees it, but the way God sees it- the way it really is. It's helped me a lot to remember that patience really is a divine attribute of God.
Also I read for about the fifth time the talk by Pres.Uchtdorf from the Oct 2009 conference about the love of God. After reviewing the doctrine of patience I read that talk, and I testify that through this gospel God shows His love to his children. It strengthened my testimony that the leaders of the church have been called of God and really are His servants. Strengthened my testimony that God lives and truly loves us, and that through the blessings of this restored Gospel we see and feel the love of God. Through the Book of Mormon, the priesthood, the organization of His church- and all this after learning about two principles.
A couple other things- this morning we climbed Campanario Hill- again. That thing is a beast. BUT! On the bus to get there there was a guy that I could've sworn was Chris Martin from Coldplay. I internally freaked out. I didn't get another glance at him because he got off the bus and began climbing the hill right away, and I didn't see him again. ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Oh my gosh, ¿¿¿¿what if I saw Chris Martin!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????? Worldy thought for today (note to self: how do you spell world? Is it really like that?)
Besides that.... I've received the dreaded "trunky papers"! But because we went to the hill I forgot them at the pension. The only questions I can remember are where you want to pick me up, or what airport you prefer me to return to (Salt Lake City I would imagine, right?), and some other questions that I don't remember because the last time I looked at them was about two weeks ago. I'll let you know in the next email.
Take care and love you all lots! Thanks for all that you do for me.
xoxo, Hna.Georgeson
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