Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Know by the spirit.



Ran into some of the Ciprano family at stake conference!

Hey everyone!

This has been another good week! 

Everything about moving into a new area that neither you or your companion have any knowledge of can either be an extremely fun, or extremely difficult experience. Often times, both.

Well, we have really been focusing our time on trying to just get to know as many people in our area as we can, and we have seen some good success doing that! We have been able to meet a lot of really cool people, and have come to find out that the Dutch Fork ward is awesome! 

So, highlights of my week...well, no missionary week is complete without a bible-bashing lesson...We got a text one day from an unknown number asking if we were still planning on coming over, but she signed the text with her name. We had read a little bit about her from some notes that the previous Elders had left for us, and we knew she had been dropped from the teaching pool, but we didn't really know the reasoning behind it. Either way, we were excited to have a lesson with a non-member, so we scheduled a time, and we went over. She was very nice to us, and invited us in and introduced us to the rest of the family. She started the lesson by giving Elder Taylor and I each our very own bible...it was the King James Version, at least...but it was one where after each and every verse, someone has gone in and put an interpretation to that scripture...now, we all know why that just doesn't work..God doesn't work that way...Jesus himself explained that he spoke in Parables so the truly believing would understand and know by the spirit...It is also extremely hard to convince someone that they need to pray to have help understanding the scriptures, when all they have to do is keep reading, and see what another man has told them it means....right there, I knew this was going to be a challenging lesson, and it was...one of the many problems with bible-bashing, is that it gets contentious very quickly, and we know that God's Spirit cannot dwell in unclean places, and is driven away by a spirit of contention...I also can't stand contention...those in my close family will be able to back me on that. Another thing, is usually when we are being bashed with, it is from a pastor or preacher, someone who is extremely skilled, and payed to be able to remove the spirit of discernment from the scriptures, and teach it "Their" way...so they're crafty, and can use words to confound people...sound like anyone? Korihor, Nehor, those people in the scriptures that caused a lot of trouble because they were able to use words and philosophies of man to stir up the people in anger....well, all those people end up being confounded by true doctrine, and we hope that's the case, but it isn't always...sometimes, more often than not, we aren't able to even get a word out, let alone explain the doctrine...this bashing session wasn't the case though...she didn't really know what she was even trying to explain, and when we would open to a scripture in the Bible or the Book of Mormon that explained/answered the question she was asking, she would quickly change subjects to something else, or cut us off and repeat what she was saying...haha it can get frustrating...oh well, I don't know how much more we will being going over to visit with her. 

We had Stake conference this week! The Saturday Priesthood session and the night session were both wonderful! Some very powerful instruction and talks were given. I was a bit anxious during the Sunday Session, and couldn't sit still or get my mind into it, so it kinda just seemed long...doesn't sound like me, does it! Can't sit still or pay attention ;) haha 

Well, we are on bikes for at least this next week, so we will see how all of that goes until we get our car back! 
Love y'all! 
Two Elders, happy for a ride in the pouring rain!


Sister Barker serving in my mission!





Day of Service 
Love that the Mechling family from my first area are now in this ward!
So great to get to know their cute daughter.






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