Principles

5/2/16 email:

So this week we got 17 lessons so that was awesome!! :) Most of them were Less-Active lessons, but that's okay, most of them are progressing better than our investigators! Once again our investigators didn't show up to church again...But we found out why one of them isn't coming. And it's rather sad...So his name is Tom. He's a great guy, he's in his late 50's is my guess. He has been meeting with the missionaries for quite some time now. I've been teaching him now for about 8ish weeks. And every week we teach the same things, Authority, the Book of Mormon, and the Apostasy. For whatever reason he can't get over it...we've tried teaching it in million and one ways, but he doesn't seem to understand it. For instance, he doesn't understand why God would hypothetically go on vacation for 1800 some odd years. We have taught him that he didn't go on "vacation," his full gospel just wasn't on the earth. But our member present taught it a little differently this last time in a way that I've never heard it before but makes perfect sense!

(Before I go on, I wanted to share a quote found in Preach My Gospel that relates to this. I've taught The same principles over and over and over. And each time you teach it some new principle or the same principle comes to light and you understand it better. “Preach the first principles of the Gospel—preach them over again: you will find that day after day new ideas and additional light concerning them will be revealed to you. You can enlarge upon them so as to comprehend them clearly. You will then be able to make them more plainly understood by those [you] teach.” —Hyrum Smith)

This is one of  the most true principles that I've found throughout my mission! As the member present taught, he taught about how the Apostasy was a time that the fullness of the Gospel wasn't on the earth, but it was a preparatory period of time. Heavenly Father was like, "Okay you killed my Son, you killed my Apostles, let me prepare the earth for the Gospel on the earth again. So I'll call people to bring forth new ideas, such as Martin Luther. Sure he didn't have the "fullness" but he helped people open their minds to new ideas. I'll call people to open the minds of the world so that they will be accepting of the Gospel again. (As he was explaining this my mind was literally getting blown!) The Apostasy was brought about because of people's choices, and there are consequences to people's choices. But Heavenly Father loves his children, and he really wants them to return to him, so he will bring it back again, but he had to slowly prepare the world for his true words. That was the most interesting but simple way I'd ever heard someone explain the Apostasy, and it makes it seem a lot more like God just didn't disappear, but that he really was working still on the earth with his children! (I love the Gospel!!!!) I don't know that Tom still really fully comprehended that explanation. but it sat a lot better with him. As we talked more with him in the lesson, he told us that the reason he wasn't attending church is because his family tortures him about it. They make fun of him, and think that he's crazy for listening to us and wanting to learn about God. He literally started to cry as he told us this. It almost brought tears to my eyes, and it's pretty hard to make me cry. I never felt so much hurt and sadness for someone before, I could literally feel his hurt and pain as he told us this. We all encouraged him to work through the pain and keep his head up. We told him that he was doing what God wanted him to. I walked away from that lesson with a new sense of my purpose as a missionary. I got a little frustrated in the lesson because he wasn't understanding things and we were just throwing him bone after bone! We were giving him all the answers, and he would just throw them to the side like they couldn't possibly be the answer. But when he came forward with his real concern, I felt terrible that I was frustrated with him. I had new sense of love for him! It was incredible! Anyways that was one of the miracles for the week!


Hope all is well! Miss and love you all!! Can't wait to see you all this weekend!!

Elder Takis