It was nice and cool this week. We lucked out since our air conditioner broke yesterday so we just leave the back door and front door open to keep cool air running through while we are there.
I got a flat in the other tire so back down to Turlock we went and I got a stronger back tire with slime between the tire and the tube. We walked near the end of the week which wasn't to bad since it was nice and windy.
Today as we were washing our laundry, 5 investigators passed by with whom we talked. It was awesome.
e to see them and follow up on the commitments we left with them. To our sweet knowledge many had been reading in their Book of Mormon and praying. We just need to help them understand the importance of church. We hear, 'oh all the churches lead you back to God' or 'oh but it's all the same God.' And it all goes back to the apostasy and restoration. We are working on teaching that more clear which becomes more and more easier with a growth in vocabulary and testimony. We have found some really solid new investigators who are so interested in the Book of Mormon so we are looking forward to knowing them better.
I find myself wanting to leave the house right after we get ready to go out an talk with people. In studies I just get stuck thinking and when I think, I go crazy. Someone told me I should run 5 miles in the morning in 30 minutes-so now you all now know what my workout will be everyday.
On the downhill of the mission, I have felt a yearning for home. A yearning to just be with my family again. I find myself as a missionary with constant changes in who you live with, who you talk to, who you eat with, who you teach, and where you are. Nothing ever seems sure. A quote shared by my mom says, "Great things never came from comfort zones." Socrates said that the secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. The point of this life is to become new.
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17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into
new bottles, and both are preserved.
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9 And there shall be a new heaven and a new
earth; and they shall be like unto the old save the old have passed away, and all things have become
new.
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7 And I give unto him a new commission and a
new commandment, in the which I, the Lord, chasten him for the murmurings of his heart;
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13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness
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36 ¶And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
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17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
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31 ¶Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
- How many times does God invite us to become new. to leave the old us and move on in strength. Old parts he wants you to drop are not only sins but those things that keep you from progressing or distractions. As well as laziness.
- Be born again is a common other phrase. As a missionary we teach that the investigators need to become clean by starting habits of repentance which leads to baptism. To less actives we teach to practice repentance which leads to the Sacrament.
- In the Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister, He quotes C.S. Lewis and his view of the atonement and how we may become perfect using it. He uses his experience with the Dentist as he explains
- He says, "When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least, not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain: but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists: I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie, if you gave them an inch they took an ell.
Now, if I may put it that way, Our Lord is like the dentists. If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell. Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of or which is obviously spoiling daily life. Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.
... ‘Make no mistake,’ He says, ‘if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect— until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less."
- Let us all invite others to become new through the Lord with fresh starts doing so in his way.
Love you all,
Hermana Waters
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