02/18/09

OK, so what should I write about? I seem to have forgotten everything I wanted to discuss... Yes, time is flying by very fast. Sometimes the days seem to slug on, but once they are finished I look back and think wow, that day just happened! And the weeks just fire by.

Oh! WE GOT TO HEAR FROM ELDER BALLARD YESTERDAY! Talk about a blessing! It was so amazing to hear from an apostle of the Lord! He mainly talked about how we need to be positive and that we need to Hurry. He said the work was moving too slowly, we needed to have the faith to find the individuals the Lord has prepared for us and be willing to teach them. He emphasized: There is NO mission where a missionary cannot baptize. He said that if anyone had told a missionary that they probably wouldn't baptize much if at all on their mission that person was wrong. If we go forward with the faith that the Lord will lead us to those who need to hear the gospel, than it will happen! It was very invigorating because, even though I am going to a "high baptizing" European mission, it really opened my heart up to the idea that I could bring many into the Gospel.

It is amazing just how much the Lord is growing me here. I have recently learned from 1st Nephi something that I had never realized before. In the beginning of 1st Nephi he does not have much faith, but he has a desire to believe and the Lord grants it to him and helps him to believe. Then he bears the testimony that he knows that the he can do whatever the Lord commands him because the Lord will provide a way. Finally, towards the end of 1st Nephi, he has reached a whole new level when he speaks to his brothers and commands them not to touch him else they will wither as a reed, he goes on to say that he could turn the oceans into land if it was the will of the Lord, and that if he, Nephi, would command the waters to be land the Lord would grant it unto him. What amazing growth in faith, from a simple desire, to a will to obey the commands of God, to an understanding that even the most physically impossible task can be accomplished through the Lord. The important thing to know here though is that he did not reach that point of testimony until many years after he began the path. Step by step, we can all come to understand what reliance on the Lord can do in our lives.

Mum asked me if I have service projects other than the RC. Yes, every Monday morning we clean a building, its the same building at the same time every week.

Mum also asked what we missionaries here thought about there being so few of us and so many people in the world. Elder Ballard actually talked about that: So many of the worlds people live in spiritual darkness, total darkness without realizing what the light must feel like. We must go forth to them. There might be a lot of Gods children on the earth, and so few laborers, but we can bring the world the truths of the Gospel!

I am happy and this is absolutely is the Lords work! God be with you all.

Elder Scadden