Hey Yall!!!
This week was a good week. We really
didnt have baptisms or anything that would be a "Red Sea" miracle but
we always have spiritual learning experiences.
As
a Zone Leader I have learned that the leaders are actually the people
that are most called to repentance. As a leader we can see all of the
behaviors of all of the people that we are taking care of and because of
that, we have more knowledge about what works and what doesnt work.
So...we are more responsible for putting these new things that we learn
in practice. As leaders we have to be the example because if we are not
doing what we are asking others to do, they will not do it, and we will
not be blessed. I am learning more that ever, how to be better at the
simple things as a missionary.
This week, we
had recently knocked on a door where the woman had rejected us, and as
we turned around to walk away, we saw a man in front of us and went to
talk to him. He told us that about 3 years ago he had been taught by the
Sisters and had even gone to church 3 or 4 times but had not been
baptized because he was an alcoholic and smoked. As we talked to him
more, we discovered that although he was still smoking, he had given up completely his addiction to alcohol. For me, this is a miracle. Probably,
at some point those Sisters thought that this man would never give up
his habit. I say that because I have thought the same thing about some
people. But the testimony that I bear today is that People Change. We
have to give the chance to everyone to be able to live the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. We never can know when someone will change to be better,
even in miraculous ways. I am so grateful for those Sisters, even though
I never met them and we are so excited to start working with Orlando
(his name).
We were invited by the Stake
President to take part in a meeting with all of the Bishops of the
Stake. While many things were discussed, I took one thing away. How we
can make our prayers more powerful. The Stake Presidente talked about
how when we pray for people by name (for example, the people that we
minister) we open a canal of revelation because we will be thinking
about that person. We talked about how prayer is the most simple and one
of the most powerful ways that we can exercise our faith. While faith
cannot be a verb, prayer can be. So if we want to improve and help our
faith to grow, we have to do something, and a majority of the time, that
something should start with a true, earnest prayer.
I
hope that something that I said made sense but if it didnt I will leave
you with my simple testimony that Jesus Christ LIVES and that means
everything.
Love,
Elder Allen
