Another Week

Well another week has flown by out here, twas a difficult week but only because a mighty change of heart is about to come to Dargaville!!!!!!

So this week I have learned that dogs love missionaries! They love us so much they chase us away from their homes and our flats!! Incredible these dogs are, especially the pitbulls and german shepards! Those ones are the best! Fun Fact: don't show dogs your palms, because it is a sign of aggression and they chase you away! But that was just  a lesson the Lord needed me to learn.

That has been the theme of this week, listening to the lessons the Lord needs me to learn.

Sometimes the people are not overly friendly and insist that we will become genderless beings after the resurrection and look exactly the same, but the Lord needed me to learn something, and that means that I must be listening. And that is something that I have really been working on, listening.

We were out this week trying to find more people to teach, because teaching comes from finding and finding comes from teaching. My TWE's weren't going to great, but I have my companion to lean on and that was another lesson that I have to learn. That we have a companion to lean on, always. My amazing companion is Elder Curtis and the Lord, but first I needed to trust them. Trust is a very special thing and there were a few scriptures that have really spoken to me on trust.

1. Doctrine and Covenants Section 124; very powerful section but for now only the beginning scriptures. In verse 16 it talks of John C. Bennett and some of his blessings. By adding my name and Thomas S. Monson I got that the Lord needs a servant to labour: Why does the Lord need a labourer? What is it that needs to be laboured in?; Next he asks us to stand by his servant Thosmas S. Monson in the hour of affliction: Well for me that helped explain why he needs labourers, we are needed to labour under the prophet because the time is rough and he needs the support; The verse finishes with a promise that his reward (unnamed) shall not fail if he receives counsel.    That was a powerful finish for myself, my reward for this service of labour cannot fail, it is impossible. The Lord cannot go back on a shall, it is in a way already covenanted to us. So I asked myself can I be this servant?

Also in 124 in verses 12-14; We are hear to hearken to counsel and lots of blessings are given to the hearkeners; also to be helpful and to remember your stewardship's. Stewardships ties into our labours, for they are what we are responsible and accountable for so why would we ourselves not labour in them? The Lord will hold me accountable for any weak-as labouring with my stewardships: missionary, brother, son, priesthood holder, temple saint, etc.; At the end of verse 13 is my favorite part, by being faithful and true in all things henceforth (stewardships, etc.) he shall be great in the Lord's eyes.   WOW! by being faithful and true the Lord will (covenanted promised thing) see me as great. Not great in the eyes of the world, or the members of the church but the Lord, My God will look at me and say that I am a great man, that I have been great, and I am someone worthy to walk with through the gates of the Celestial Kingdom.

Absolutely Incredible, the funny thing is that these men who the promises were made fell away; How could you do something like that!!!?!??  In my personal reading I finished the book of Ether and I think I was able to find my answer, basically all in Ether 12.

2. Ether 12 talks a lot on faith and hope and charity and lots of inspiration and promises, but for me this time it all is starting to make sense! It comes back to faith which is what hope is built on, which enables the souls of men to be anchored and that they are always in good works and steadfast/sure. Faith must first be tried though before the witness is received. How often do I find myself in search of a witness or miracle before my faith is tried? Quite often unfortunately and I think that is what happened to these men, they forgot that we are to be tried before the miracle can even occur. We must have faith, hope, and charity in all things before the Lord can work the miracles he is anxiously trying to give us!!

My experience on trust now has brought me to this point, I will trust the Lord to direct my paths, and if need be he may have to carry me down my path, but I have faith, hope, and charity that it will happen. and in the last verse in the Book of Ether and it says that it mattereth not if he is translated as long as he is saved. I will trust in the Lord with all of my I am and that is enough for me. It mattereth not if a miracle is given as long as my faithfulness and truthfulness before the Lord saves me in the kingdom of God.

Amena,

Love you all heaps!!

Kia Kaha,

Elder Long