How y'all doing? Oh man... I just want to start off by saying how much I love y'all... and I really hope everything is going well for everyone. I'd like to invite y'all to do something though... just smile. Yes, right now... smile... it's a beautiful day and guess what? God and Jesus Christ love you... and I love you!!! There's always someone there who is going to love you with all their heart... so why not smile? Every day is a good day :)
Alrighty... where should we start this show? This week was a whirlwind... I can't believe I'm back here already typing up another email!!! Crazy how fast time is flying out here... transfers are coming up next week too! So a couple random notes... some good food I was given this week to try? Passion fruit and chim-chim nuggets (no, they're not chicken nuggets... they're kinda like pretzels actually). Highly recommend those to y'all. Another random and funny story... according to Elder Schlesinger, I've been sleep teaching and preaching... ya, apparently I'm talking in my sleep, and when I do, I'm teaching lessons and inviting people to be baptized hahaha. Thought y'all would get a kick out of that... Also, I finished my first journal this last week! Crazy too... I remember looking at it and thinking "Man, how am I ever going to write that much stuff?" and now it's packed full of stuff!!! I'm calling it "The First Book of Elder Wahlen" jokingly...
Alright, enough of that random stuff... this last weekend we had a baptism!! It was an incredible experience to be a part of... first off, I just want to say how blessed, humbled and thankful I am to be here. It's just such a blessing to have been put in this position, at this exact time, with these exact people to witness the Lord and the Holy Ghost work with them. It's been an incredible journey and I'm just so grateful to have been an observer throughout it all. I was blessed with the opportunity to perform the baptism for the wife/mother that had chosen to be baptized... her name is Leia, and she's AWESOME!!!! I was slightly nervous to say the least, and so when we entered the faunt to perform the baptism, and I was holding her hand/wrist... and I was shaking a little bit. I didn't think that I was shaking but apparently I was cause she squeezed my arm throughout the whole prayer to let me know that I could relax and that it was all going good. The strangest thing happened during the baptism prayer though... when I went to recite the words, it was very clear to me that it wasn't me talking... I was there, and the words were coming out of my mouth... but it wasn't me talking. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but I know it wasn't me baptizing her... the One who did the baptizing is much greater and a lot more grand than I. Her and her husband, Johnathan are both the most incredible people... they have such an amazing background and journey that led them to this point... and I can't wait to tell y'all more about them (maybe next week if I have the time!)... but just know that they're my hero's and I love them more than I can express. We've started teaching their kids so we're hoping that more good news is to come... we'll keep y'all updated on that!!!!
Something I wanted to discuss with y'all that I learned from this amazing experience is that when you're doing the right things in life (following the Lord) and especially when you're on the last stretch of a journey (or you're heading into the 4th quarter as I like to think of it) that He has sent you on... things will get hard. The adversary isn't stupid... he knows when you're doing things right and he knows when you're on the verge of doing something incredible for the Lord and your eternal progression... and he's going to attack you from EVERY front. I would go into details about the things that this family has faced and is facing... and even things that Elder Schlesinger and I have had to face... but it suffices me to say that I KNOW the adversary will do EVERYTHING he can to throw you off that straight and narrow path that the Lord has set before us. I know I talked about this a bit last week and many weeks before... but I just can't tell y'all enough how important it is to edify and fortify ourselves each and every day by doing the small and simple things. Alma 37, verse 6 "...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". The great thing we're working towards is eternal life and joy with our eternal families... so how are we going to get there? By doing the small and simple things. You don't get there in one big leap... just as you don't run a marathon by taking one big leap, you gain eternal life and joy by many, many, many small steps. My invitation to y'all would be to pray every morning and every night... just start with that small step and I promise y'all that it will help. Are there other things that you can do too? Absolutely... should you be doing those things too? Better believe it... but prayer is so strong. We are all children of God... He is our Father... and He wants to hear from us... He wants us to ask Him for help... and as we do so, He WILL help us/you... I promise you that. If we but only ask (in faith and with a sincere heart), we will receive. It really is that simple. Ask in faith and you will receive help and be strengthened by legions of angels... just imagine that for a second... legions of angels there to help you... each and every day.
Sorry if y'all are sick of hearing that from me but it really is soooo important... I'll try to talk about something else next week, I promise (cause there's a lot of other things I wanna share too!!) but please... keep doing those small and simple things to put on the armor of God each day... it's vitally important to everything in your life. This family wouldn't be where they are now without having put the armor of God on each day... they pray together every morning and every night... they pray throughout the day... they read, study and ponder the things they read in the scriptures... they do the small and simple things, and the Lord has helped them and protected them because of it.
One last thing I'd like to invite y'all to do... this is something that stuck out to me as I started reading back through the Book of Mormon... as you read, take notice of when and how the spirit talks to people. For instance, Lehi wasn't shown the vision of the tree of life until after the Lord had allowed him to wander in darkness... and not until after Lehi had called/cried out to the Lord for help. Keep that in mind as you read... and really ponder what that means for you in your life. I'll give you a hint (pretty big one)... it has something to do with FAITH. I could go pretty far down that rabbit hole though... but I'll leave y'all with that. It's something I've been studying a lot and it's helped me tons.
Well, I gotta get going... but I just wanna thank y'all for everything you're doing and for being the person you are. Keep loving the Lord and having faith in Him and the plans He has set for you... I love you all so much... can't wait to read more of your letters too!! Take care and have an incredibly blessed day.
-With all my love,
Elder Wahlen
No comments:
Post a Comment