My Dear Family,
Something that has been on my mind lately is integrity. Integrity is being honest and keeping to your promises even when things look bad. Something that we can do to have integrity is to not sell yourself for a price. This means choosing the right even when we can get more. In the talk "What Shall a Man Give In Exchange For His Soul", Elder Gay tells a story from his youth. He used to go to the movies when he was eleven and for fifty cents he could see a movie for twenty five cents and get five candy bars with the other twenty five. When he had his birthday the price for a movie for twelve year olds was thirty five cents so with that he could only get three candy bars. He lied to the person at the ticket booth and told him that he was eleven so that he could get his five candy bars. With his excitement he rushed home and told his dad. After Elder Gay's father heard his story, he said "Son, would you give your soul for a nickel?"
I started to search for ways that I could start to grow my integrity and I found a link on lds.org. It talked about Doctor Ralph James who listed 8 ways that we can start having integrity.
These are the 8 ways:
- Show up on time, every time.
- Write down things that you are requested to do. Do them, and let the person who made the request know when you have finished.
- Keep all promises or explain the difficulty to the other party as soon as you are aware of your inability to keep the promise.
- Focus on performance.
- Communicate frequently on progress.
- Do not cover up bad news- provide a solution to the problem.
- Use mistakes as an opportunity to improve.
- Insist on honesty from your coworkers and yourself.
Saturday 07/22/2017
The Zone activity we had today was fun. We went to the same church building we were at when we had our July activity at the beginning of the month. We all made and ate twice baked potatoes and they were really good because the potatoes were grown and sent from the Schwendiman family farm in Idaho. All the missionaries brought games, which we were able to play as the meal was being prepared.
Sunday 07/23/2017
Something that was really cool at church was Sunday school. At our ward, Sunday school is all in Spanish, so it is hard to understand, but this time I was able to understand more than I have been. Which still wasn’t very much, but it’s the little victories that make a big difference in the end.
Monday 07/24/2017
We had another lesson with Anya. She actually did read all the missionary pamphlets over the weekend. She only had questions about The Word of Wisdom. She currently drinks coffee, but she said that she is going to gradually overcome it. So I am really grateful for that. Anya wanted to know why they drank wine at the last supper but we aren’t allowed to do it now. So we were able to talk about how the wine back then was different from how it is now. I ended by inviting her to live the Word of Wisdom, and she said she would do it.
We went to a ward dinner as well. It was very special because everyone there brought something they ate in the country where they served. Something that was very delicious was a fruit from china called a lychee. It tasted like an apple and a peach mixed together.
Tuesday 07/25/2017
Don R. Clark was the speaker at the Tuesday Night Devotional. It was super awesome. He gave a lot of good tips on how to improve as a missionary. He asked a question that was really interesting. He said "Are you passing through your mission or is your mission passing through you?" What he meant by this was are we serving with all the energy of our hearts or are we just waiting for our mission to end and doing the work casually. I am trying to work in a way that makes it so that the mission passes through me, so that I can be a better missionary and a better person. Elder Clark said that he learned more things about being successful on his mission than he did getting his masters degree in college.
He also said that when we go to sacrament we should do these things:
- Pray to give thanks for the Atonement
- Pray to know the church is true
- Come with a question, and we will find an answer
- Come having repented of a sin
He also shared that missionaries should never come to sacrament late.
Wednesday 07/26/2017
Elder Arndt is with us because Elder Jacobson is sick and Elder Schwendiman is currently looking after him.
Elder Arndt, Elder Withers and I had a lesson with Anya that went really well. She hasn’t had any coffee since we last talked with her on Monday. Anya also told us that she ordered a hard copy of The Book of Mormon and she has been listening to the audio of it during her free time at work. We asked Anya what her thoughts have been as she has listened to The Book of Mormon and she said this: “I wasn't sure if it was my readings or just state of mind, but I'm generally much happier now than I was a few weeks ago before I started.” This is super awesome because it shows that Anya is already feeling The Holy Ghost.
I messaged Keidi and she is really happy, which is really good because last time that Elder Savoie talked to her she wasn’t doing well. So I asked her why she was so happy, and she told me “I am dating a close friend from my ward who has such incredible faith and is indescribably Christ-like. It's really great to have someone so in tune with the Spirit in all aspects of life.” I told her that I was happy for her and that I am glad that she is with someone that has the same righteous desires as her. Keidi then responded with “It’s one of the biggest ways I’ve seen God’s love ever. Truly remarkable really.” This is amazing!
After dinner I went to the residence to look after Elder Jacobson. I actually had a really good time. I studied in the Oxford Spanish Picture Dictionary about how to talk about time as well as how to give directions. After that, Elder Jacobson told me that he wanted to play Uno, so that’s what we did. We played a few rounds trying not to speak any english. It was interesting talking about something like Uno in Spanish, because when our companionship practices, it is usually gospel related. After we had both had our fill of Uno we decided to tell stories from our memory in Spanish. We switched off sharing. Elder Jacobson told two German fairy tales while I told the stories of two of my books I had written. I really liked one of his. It was about a magician who went around with his magic bag and filled his bag with things like ducks and ghosts. I told the story of Riley Whirlwood. It was good because it helped me practice my vocabulary as well as the imperfect and preterit tenses.
While we were waiting for Elder Withers to come, we both got on our beds and sang songs from the Spanish hymn book. We sang "Venid a Mi" (Come, Follow Me), "Placentero Nos Es Trabajar" (not in the English Hymnbook), "Loor al Profeta" (Praise to the Man), "Oh, Esta Todo Bien" (Come, Come, Ye Saints), and "Divina Luz" (Lead, Kindly Light).
Thursday 07/27/2017
I taught Frances today with a member named Mike. Frances sent her testimony to some of her friends. We talked about obedience, praying often, and scripture study. She talked about how prayer helped her with her baptism and that it has also helped her with college as she changed from a music major to a business major. Frances said "It was tough for me switching my majors, but I have found business to be more fulfilling to my future spiritually, physically, morally, and more. It is tough, but prayer helps us, as we work hard to achieve. Without changing to business from music, I wouldn't be going to DC." When we talked about scripture study she gave us really good scriptures from her personal reading in Alma. "Scriptures have given me strength because of all the stories of the people, and what they do in their situations. It's a lot of advice that scriptures give us, and utmost we follow our Heavenly Father and follow the advice of our prophet. Sometimes when I don't read my scriptures I can't feel the spirit, but when I do I feel so much better and stronger. I feel closer to the Savior each and every day!"
Friday 07/28/2017
We taught someone named Michael today. He wants to change his life. Everyone did their introductions, and in his he talked a lot about how he has seen Jesus Christ help him in his life.
Love,
Elder Stevenson
No comments:
Post a Comment