Lamborghini Barmherzigkeit-- Week 58

(I will give somebody money if they can email me with the correct definition/interpretation/source of that joke)

This week was really busy! With the temple open again and my son's formation taking up all of our mornings, I'm very grateful our Standard is the branch standard. We got it this week, but it was kind of a close call.

Had four center lessons this week alone, with six more on-plan for the very near future. I'm really glad we're getting more work there. We spent some time at the center this week working to better our presentation (make it more concise and powerful), and no lie, we started cutting a video. Nothing we filmed, but we wanted to take footage from a few sources for this video we're going to use for the Atonement section of our presentation, and I was feeling pretty good about that :) that being said, I am working with the greatness of Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (!), so it's a give and take process.

My companion and I were the answer to multiple people's prayers this week, but the most touching story is as follows:

Saturday was a huge wreck. No one held their appointment, and no one was there when we tried their house. Also, it was really hot for my companion (yes, I'm bragging. I didn't even sweat. That being said, it was noticeably hotter than usual), so that didn't really help team morale. Ran into our dude Dylan, and we asked him for advice on who we could go and see maybe. He told us to go see this guy in our ward who had (as of last Sunday) become innactive (he hit one month). He told us that he was at the house. I thought for sure he'd be at work, but we tried it anyways.

Guy was totally at work.

Next day, Sunday, we decide to go and see him. We had just finished two lessons, and had a handful of options for what we could do next, and we decided to go see him before our next options. A casual decision, a casual feeling. We get there, and his son is the one who comes to talk to us, and he's being all ticked and mumbling and he can never seem to understand my American accent, so I was kind of losing patience, and the son said that his dad was busy cooking but we told him to grab him anyways, and at that point as we walked in, I said to my companion in passing, "Dude I don't want to be here." I was getting frustrated, and I remember thinking that the guy was going to be all mad at us, and I remember thinking that this was none of our business as missionaries, and I just kind of hated the world right then.

Oh how I regret thinking that.

He came outside and he was just too happy too see us, and we were able to help him out with his situation. In fact, he works in construction, and is around lots of stuff that one is around whilst in construction, and felt that even him having bad/tempting thoughts about all that was bad, and as a result hadn't been to church for a bit. He was ready to quit his job to feel good again, but he was scared to make the decision as it was the first job he finally had in ten years (ever since he converted he hasn't had a job. He'd just gotten that job too. Like one month ago). We were there to help him realize that if that's the case, than nobody in the church is worthy to do anything, and we helped to reassure him that whatever he decided with his job, if he followed the Spirit he'd be okay.

I learned a great lesson that day.

When the guy had heard from his wife that we had passed yesterday, he had said to her, "They'll be back tomorrow." He knew it. He didn't doubt it. That Sunday, he was reading his scriptures, and fell on his favorite scripture, which talked about the mercy of God and how He always sends his angels. As he is reading this, we show up to see him. He had been praying that he would know what to do in terms of his job. We were there and gave him all these things. Tears were shed. That guy's a tough guy too. It was really amazing. It reminded me of why I love my mission. That right there was when I truly felt employed in the work of saving souls, and not caught up in the numbers.

Church is true man.

My counsel for everyone this week (I found it in sacrament meeting):

 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.

2 Nephi 4:16

Honestly, that's what I've been doing this week, and I've been feeling very blessed. It's so easy to forget how spoiled we are to be in the Lord's church and all the blessings that come with it. Take time to ponder on it, and to be grateful for what we have. For me before, the gospel was of course a part of my life, but I'm not so sure I was that great at enjoying it. Now though, it's like, awesome.

Let us think of Him often, and enjoy it.

-Elder Harrah

(pictures in the coming week/later today/mostly just whenever I get to the center and have the time)