"And now, my beloved brethren, ...hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words, believe in Christ. [For] they are the words of Christ, and He hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good," wrote Nephi (2 Nephi 33:10). I can imagine his fervency and his boldness in desiring that his people come unto Christ. In reading 2 Nephi, we learn of the care that he and his brother Jacob put in to really teaching their brethren, their families, the truths of the gospel. Before my mission, I avoided 2 Nephi -- mainly because I looked at it as the Isaiah trap - - but it's full of gems.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I know that the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ contains the fullness of His everlasting gospel. As we strive to increase our faith in Him, as we repent daily, strengthen and renew the covenants that we have made with Him through baptism, and as we strive to remain worthy for and enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost, we will experience the joy and the peace that comes from living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, and He is so actively involved in our lives. He is blessing us and guiding us in ways that we will not comprehend for a long, long time. And He has a perfect, divine plan for us. As we follow His commandments and obey His counsel and direction willingly, we will find and recognize the blessings that He has promised us.
During the week, I found a lot of opportunities given to me by Heavenly Father to testify of the restored gospel. It was pretty awesome. I've really been working throughout my whole mission on cleaning up my teaching skills and really refining them so that the Spirit can be there, unrestrained. He is the true teacher. It's been sweet to watch the miracles happen as I have been able to teach more simply, more quickly, and more powerfully. I know the Lord has helped me in this endeavor.
As a mission, we've really been working on focusing on our investigators, on those we serve, rather than ourselves. Studies, planning sessions, conversations with our companions, are all more or less focused on the people we are teaching and helping to receive the restored gospel. And it's helped a ton. I definitely have a testimony of losing ourselves in the service of others.
That is what life is all about!
We had a super fun experience this week. We were able to take our best friend, Scott Hoffard, out on his mini-mission for three whole days! He was a trooper. He's testing the waters for serving a part-time mission here, and so this was a mock-beta test for that. We had a blast with Scott as he told us the goofy stories of his childhood and early adult life while we drove around from appointment to appointment. The highlight was him being on our conference call for the zone: "I'm Scott Hoffard...I'm being trained in the YSA...in Langley...." Classic.
We almost got attacked by a drunk guy at Surrey Central, we hardcore cleaned our apartment, we taught some really cool new people, etc. It was a blur of a week with transfers and everything. We were back and forth across our area basically the whole first half of the week...so that was crazy... It rained a lot, too....so that was awesome. Glad I have a good rain jacket! That is all I have to say. I love it up here in BC. And I love the investigators that we're working with.
My companion, Elder Gawrys, is hilarious. Love him to death. We're having tons of fun out here in the YSA wilderness.
The church is true. The book is blue. Live it, love it, preach it!
Have an awesome week,
Elder Stock
Scott Hoffard (our mini-missionary for the weekend) with his two best friends--the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel.
Elder Stock, "Elder" Hoffard, and Elder Gawrys
"Elder" Hoffard and Elder Gawrys
"Elder" Hoffard and Elder Stock
The Dynamic Duo: Stock and Gawrys
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