Christ Says...Come As You Are

03/16/2015

Well, hello again, all you people who might still read my emails after all this time... if not... sorry for the spam mail (ha ha).  This week was pretty cool because we had our meeting with Elder Neil L Andersen, Richard J Maynes, Dean M Davies, and Elder Ochoa. So a lot of general authority was present.  I lied and said Elder Nielsen was coming.  Sorry, I was thinking of Elder Andersen’s first name and confused myself.  Anyways, it was just a short meeting and I actually got to shake all their hands too. And it was kind of funny because Elder Andersen wanted to speak Spanish with us and he spoke like a mix of Spanish, Portuguese, and French, all in one.  It was pretty interesting.  He talked about how the investigators have to know about the atonement and we have to know the scriptures to teach it to them.  He challenged us to learn from memory five scriptures from the Book of Mormon, and five from the New Testament that teach about the atonement.  He promised that if we did it we would have a confirmation that they are true as we remembered them in our hearts.  I don’t have my notes with me so I don’t really have much more I remember to share with you all, sorry.  But it was a good meeting and I learned quite a few things.  I hope I can complete the challenge because I know the promise he made will be fulfilled because he’s an apostle of the Lord, and I would love to feel that confirmation. It’s always good to have a spiritual confirmation of the things we know every once in a while just to strengthen our faith.  Like I mentioned a while back, I learned from Elder Ochoa that we should be more focused on following the spirit in the mission. And I feel like I’m not very good at that, and sometimes feel like I don’t have many spiritual experiences.  But I know that if I accept this challenge from a servant of God, I will have that confirmation.  

I just wanted to give a big shout out to the family for the package.  I seriously doubted the microwave mug cakes and they turned out to be legit.  I also loved the book about the atonement my lovely madre sent me.  The quote for the day said something about how Christ doesn’t say “you don’t meet the standard, come back when you’ve filled the standard.”  He says...come as you are. I really like that quote because really there is no standard.  I remember reading that all of us are on different levels of our spiritual progress and there shouldn’t be any reason to judge anyone else.  Christ accepts us as we are when we come to him humble enough to accept and follow Christ’s and God’s will. Because it’s the same.  That’s something I have been seeing in my mission.  After the conference with Elder Ochoa, I’ve been really straight forward when we contact people, telling them that our message is for those who want to learn and listen and are willing to change their lives to do what God requires of them. It’s sad to see so many not accept that, but what God requires of them is the gospel. That’s what he requires of all us, that we complete principles of the gospel to the best of our ability.  And like the quote says, as we come as we are to Him, striving to live the gospel each day, He accepts us, helps us, and through the grace that is possible through Jesus Christ, makes us into people that we could never become on our own. People ready to enter His kingdom and participate in all His blessings He has for us

Elder Ollis

[In Draper’s email to his dad:  “We had four new investigators in church on Sunday and have three baptisms scheduled on March 28 and April 11!  The work is moving right along. We are doing a lot of visits with members and encouraging them to give us more contacts. The ward we are in is awesome!”]