"If any of you lack wisdom(or have a question), let him ask of God(pray), that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing waivering."
Why didn't I do that sooner? God cannot lie. Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive. God will give you what you ask if you have a sincere heart and real intent. Lately, my prayers haven't been really sincere. I pray for things I want, but not with the meaning I should have. But this week, I changed that. I really asked for power, through the spirit, to teach, so that our investigators and inactives will have a change of heart. And god gave that to me. Immediately, with the next lesson we taught, and throughout the week, I noticed a huge difference in what I've said and the way I've said it. God gave me the power through the spirit that I asked for. And all I had to do was ask.
We taught Purotu*, our investigator who is holding off because her whole family is protestant and she doesn't want to change that, although she has a strong testimony in the church. The lesson was on perseverance, which turned into temple work, to suit her needs and questions better. We taught Tita*, an investigator who doesn't really progress or want to change on the Atonement. I could see that he listened, at least a little more than usual, to our message.
The biggest event of the week was with our investigator, Moeava*. She's about thirteen or fourteen years old, and has taken the lessons for a while but can't get baptised because her protestant father won't allow it. In our lesson, we asked her how her scripture study was going. she got teary eyed, and left the room. We found out that her dad had told her to thrw out her Book of Mormon, and that she had hid it instead. That shows testimony and devotion. She's had struggles, and pushed through them. That's where I shared a thought. This thought I've had prepared for a few months, but I've never had the chance to share it, but this time felt right.
Matthew 17:20- "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; nothing shall be impossible unto you."
If almost all of us can work miracles, why don't we?
1. We lack faith that we have faith
2. How did Jesus work any miracle in his ministry? Because of the faith of the person. "Thy faith hath made thee whole."
Ether 12:12- "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them..."
Ether 12:6- "...Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
I talked about showing God our faith, and promised the miracle- in this case, her father accepting her baptism. The spirit was strong, and the number of dry eyes were few. At the end of my message, everyone was silent, dumbfounded by the spirit. you had to be there for that one to feel the power duting that lesson. We set up a fast, said a closing prayer with more tears, and left with a feeling I can't describe. That message I had prepared long ago was meant for Moeava, right then.
I know the spirit was there to guide me what to say and do, and I have complete faith in God and the miracle he is about to perform. I just hope the other people have the faith that I have. We're going to talk to her dad in the next couple of days, so I'll tell you how that goes.
We also fixed part of a baptism with Uira*. He still doesn't want to chose a date until he finishes smoking(down to one or less a day) but he did choose my companion to baptise him, and me to confirm and give him the gift of the holy Ghost. So if all goes well, we will soon have a baptism or two.
We started teaching an inactive last week, and had our second lesson this week. This lesson, we gave his son a blessing, answered lots of questions about eternal marriage (his wife is catholic) and has really changed already. When his wife comes back from Tahiti, we'll start teaching her. Tons of blessings this week!
Other than that, fun stuff of the week:
This mami here loves talking to the missionaries, and whenever she does, she talks about the five missionaries who proposed to her when she was fifteen. The other day, we were riding by, and saw her and her sister on a laptop (not even theirs) trying to look up the five missionaries on the gmail username box. they asked for our help, and they ended up not looking on facebook, but a general google images search. Keep in mind they were super common names like "Jim Green" or "Bob Buck". They were convinced that one of the first images they saw was the missionary. One photo didn't even have the same name, and it was a picture of a guy in a movie scene. So funny! That made my day!
My luggage finally came, along with my bike. It's always nice to have clothes and study materials.
We got every person on the island with dreadlocks to come to church this week. Okay, that's only two people, but have any of you ever accomplished that?
The other two elders left the island, one got transfered, and the other is in the hospital at Tahiti, so we're spending about a week with the new elder, Elder Nelson. It's going to be fun!
Okay, that's about it for this week. My testimony is in the power of faith and prayer. God is there, waiting to pour blessings on our heads. If we ask, we will receive. Stay strong and sincere, and we will have success.
"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."
Have a good week everyone!
Elder Lewis
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