First things first. My girl D entered the waters of baptism this weekend!! WAHOO. She is such a cool lady. From the pictures that I will send, it kind of seems like she hates everyone, but she is honestly one of the nicest ladies I know. She is such an awesome human. It was a great service. I saw her today at church after her confirmation. D is really good at making dresses, so she had made a dress with a bunch of pictures of Jesus on it and wore it to church! It was so sick. I am going to have her make me a shirt with the same pattern on it. She was so excited and seemed so happy. I am so grateful that the Lord crossed our paths a few months ago. It will forever be one of my favorite finding stories of my mission. Man I love Liberia. I have officially decided that I will be taking a trip there someday. I have a bunch of friends here that offered to go with me and introduce me to their village. It is going to be so sick.
S came to the baptism as well and we got to have a lesson with him with the Badgers at the church. Man I was super nervous, I didn't want President to reconsider his decision to call me as one of his assistants. The lesson was awesome. At one point S was pretty much bearing his testimony of his conversion to all of us, President Badger said "It feels like you're home doesn't it?" S excitedly said yes. Man I cannot wait for that man's baptism. It can't come soon enough. He is pretty much a member already, we even set a goal for him to go to the temple a couple weeks after his baptism. We are so pumped for him.
I got to go on a couple exchanges this week with some zone leaders from around the mission. It is a pretty cool opportunity to learn from these guys. We hit the pavement hard for a couple days and were able to find a whole bunch of new people to teach. My child, Elder Balderston will be in Des Moines this week. Stay tuned for the killer stories of the father and son reunited.
Soo like I said, Elder Sampson and I were informed a few weeks ago that our mission is going to be receiving smart phones... We announced it to the mission this week, so it is official. We have a a few meetings with Salt Lake City to learn more about it and when they will be coming, but they are coming soon. It is going to be pretty wack to change the way we do missionary work a little bit, especially given that I only have a few months left. I am excited for the change, but I am also nervous. It is going to be quite the process and will really change the way we do things here in Iowa. I am hoping that it doesn't happen, but my companion and I might become the technology specialists as well, meaning that we will be in charge of helping all the missionaries with phone problems. Pray that that doesn't happen, because that would mean even less time in our area. We are excited for the next phase. President is pretty apprehensive about it all, but it will be good. You know I will still be reading my paper scriptures though.
We had a really cool lesson in Elder's Quorum today and I want to share some thoughts that stuck out to me. We were talking about the story of Ammon and King Lamoni (one of my favorites) and also Aaron and Lamoni's father. We all know the story, but at one point of the story, Ammon has Lamoni's father's life in his hands. King Lamoni's father says "...If thou wilt spare me I will grant unto you whatsoever thou will ask, even to half of the kingdom" Fast forward a little and Aaron has just taught this man some doctrine and Lamoni's father feels the spirit and is changed. His whole attitude changes and he says "What shall I do that I may have this Eternal LIfe which thou hast spoken?... Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy." These scriptures are so profound to me because before Lamoni's father received a mighty change of heart, he valued his life as half of his kingdom, later when he is changed by the Spirit, he is willing to give up anything, even his entire kingdom to receive this joy of eternal life. I think that all of us must experience something similar. In the New Testament, the rich young ruler was asked by the Savior to sell all that he had and give to the poor. Although he was keeping the commandments he was asked to change his heart and put the things of eternity above the world. God promises us endless joy and happiness with our families and sometimes, like Lehi's family, we are asked to leave Jerusalem, but when we are truly converted to the gospel there is nothing that will be more important to us than to receive eternal life.
That thought got a little longer than I intended but true happiness comes when we put the things of Heaven above things of this world.
I love you. Have a great week.
Soon to be technology specialist,
Elder Obray
No comments:
Post a Comment