Hello everyone,
This week has been a pretty normal week with a few exceptions that I will talk about later.
Early in the week was pretty average, p-day on Monday and a lot of walking and talking on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
This week went really well and I would attribute that to a few things.
First of all I would say that action was taken on my part so that Heavenly Father could do his part.
Meaning that I saw the things that I could improve on to make the days more successful and made a conscious effort to change and improve in those areas. We found some people, we saw some less actives that haven't been seen in a while and we are hoping to have another baptism soon. I know that success in this work is a gift from our Heavenly Father and that that is mostly attributed to our faith and our willingness to do difficult things.
I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be serving in this wonderful area with all of these amazing people.It has been such a blessing in my life and I hope that it has made a positive difference in the lives of others.
So this week was sort of normal with the exception of the weekend. On Friday Elder O'Rourke and I drove all the way down to Ellsworth to pick up those two Elders and then all the way down to Manchester to the mission office in NH. (about 5.5 hours total) This Friday was super amazing because our mission was holding an ALL mission conference (about 180 missionaries) This was because we were getting a special visit by Elder David Bednar of the 12, Elder Bennet of the area 70 and of course both of their wives. I think that it was the most reverent that I have ever seen the missionaries be. President Blair emphasized how important it was that we prepare ourselves and let the spirit reside within the meeting so that we could learn what we needed to.
Elder and Sister Bednar talked primarily about the spirit and agency and how they interact one with another.
They counseled us that the spirit resides in us when we use our agency to exercise faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and that through this spirit we are lead and guided to do things that we could never think or do on our own. Basically it was just a huge Q and A session where all the missionaries were to raise their hand, regardless of whether or not we had a question and you would be called on to ask him something.
The primary principle is that when we ask a question not knowing what it will be until we open our mouths, in faith, that the question that we ask will be the one that we really need answered. This is true with proclaiming the gospel, if we have the faith that the spirit will fill our mouths all we have to do is open them to those that we are serving.
Like it says in the book of Ether, we receive no witness [or miracle] until after the trial of our faith.
It was an amazing opportunity and even better, yesterday Elder Bednar spoke at stake conference to a huge congregation of all the local units, he spoke mostly on the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, how it is critical that we realize that Jesus not only suffered for others but for a moment he suffered there for each of us.
Elder Bednar pointed out that the first words spoken by Heavenly Father in this dispensation after nearly 2000 years of apostasy was the name of an individual that he knew and loved. God Knows us and wants to help us, but we have to live the gospel for him to do so. An apostle of the lord got to teach one of our investigators the restoration and it was a fantastic experience. I wish I had the time to just dictate all my notes to you but that would unnecessarily long, as this email is already quickly becoming.
I know that the Lord qualifies and magnifies those that serve him and act in faith.
I had an amazing week and I thank the Lord so much for all the blessings that we have seen and the spirit that we have felt.
I hope that you all know that I love you and I hope that you have an amazing week.
p.s. We went to a cool beach today, here are some photos,
till next week,
-Elder Starr
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