That's Why Endure to the End is Part of the Gospel

10/27/2014

Well, another week has come and gone. And just so you all know there are 60 days till Christmas, ha ha, awesome right?!   Ya, it is because that means I get to talk to family in 60 days and I love my family!  Just mentioning that because the other day the Mission President stopped by in my district meeting and I chose to sing a Christmas song because I’m stoked on Christmas!  After the meeting we talked with President and then we sang another Christmas song because he got stoked on Christmas too.  So I’m trying to get everyone stoked for Christmas!

Let me share the crazy experience of the week.  My comp and I contacted two people the other day in the street and they said they lived in San Jose.  We were like “well, where is that?” and they were like, “two hours away by foot.”  So we set an appointment, and the other day attempted to go there.  Well when they said by foot, it’s true because it was a trail.  People and horses get up there and nothing else.  We walked and found three houses up in the mountains, and then finally ended up getting lost on a cattle driver’s trail covered in mud and poop.  And I slipped and fell straight on my back in mud.  So we never actually found San Jose, but we had an interesting jaunt in the mountains.  Just reminded me how much I love the Utah mountains!

But anyway, this week was pretty awesome.  My comp and I accomplished a lot:  we had divisions with the ZL’s, we cleaned the house, we worked hard, and we are tired.  We were able to find a lot of new people to teach.   [To clarify “being tired” and “a lot of new people to teach”, Elder Ollis shared in his email to his dad that they gave 44 lessons and found 21 new people to teach!]  So with some follow up, we are hoping to reap the rewards.  Although, the end of the week was a little rough, we didn’t have anybody that came to church, and only 25 members showed up.  We also dropped three investigators that had been progressing to baptism, because they now go to another church.  So that was a little downer.  But that’s why “endure to the end” is part of the gospel. It’s not easy, but its awesomely worth it.  

This week I just tried to follow the spirit by following every thought I had to contact and help someone, and we found a ton of people.  It really is important to follow the guidance of the Lord.  This is His work, and our goal is to be instruments in His hands.  Now I’ve used tools a bit, and I would be pretty frustrated if one of my tools didn’t want to do what I wanted it to do.  If my drill starts going in the wrong direction as I’m trying to put a screw in it would be frustrating.  I can only imagine what our Heavenly Father thinks.  I was thinking about that the other day.  This is His work and He entrusts it to imperfect people.  It must be frustrating when the people he entrusts to do the work, don’t do what He wants. But He’s perfect and knows what He is doing.  That’s why it’s so important for us to trust and have faith that He knows what He is doing.  When we receive a prompting to do something, it’s because He knows! And we need to follow it so we can be effective instruments that He can rely on.  That’s my prayer, that we can be the tools that our heavenly father can rely on (and I’m talking about the good kind of tools- ha ha).

Elder Ollis