Hello, y'all!
I
will start by saying that this week has gone by slowly. I think it may
be because of all the walking. But it's good for us and for members to
see us out walking. Also, it may have gone slowly because I'm new to the
area and trying to figure out the routine and the way Elder Ririe
works.
We
have plenty of members to work with. Most of them are some kind of
engineer. We drop by randomly and try to encourage them in their
missionary work. We don't tract for some reason. One neighborhood is
gated, so I understand why we don't do it there. But the other four are
not. Perhaps it's because everyone is pretty affluent, and so they're
not likely to listen. Still, Katy was almost as rich as this area, and
we found plenty of investigators through tracting there.
One
awesome thing about Legends is that we are fed every night. I invite
y'all to feed the missionaries. It's great to get to know them and you
will get blessings.
We
mowed an excommunicated person's lawn this week. She is trying to come
back into the Church, which is great. But her lawn was horrible. The
backyard was full of tall weeds and fire ants. I got stung for the first
time in my life by a bee while I swept her porch. Yes, I have lived in a
shell my whole life and never been stung. We finally got it cleared out
and looking better, but it still needs work.
As
a side note, fire ants suck. A sister missionary was standing near one
of their nests and they bit her legs. She ended up scratching in her
sleep until her leg bled.
Since
we live with a nonmember in a small room upstairs, we have no desks.
This means we study in our beds. I have fallen asleep every morning
during study. I also have dozed during planning. Perhaps I should sit on
the floor to study....
Last night was a
CES devotional. It was pretty good, talking about the youth of the
noble birthright. Gabby, the recent convert, came to it and was taking
notes furiously. We are working on getting her to do baptisms for the
dead soon. She wanted to take family names, but her father denied
permission to do work for her grandparents.
This
week I'm studying about knowledge. Last week was patience. Be warned:
when you pray for patience, you will experience things that try it. It's
like praying for humility. Unless you're serious, don't do it or else
you will receive experiences to try and test it.
In Preach My Gospel, it says that "Strengthening
their understanding of the doctrine of Christ will do more to increase
their trust in you and to build their excitement to do missionary work
than anything else you can do."
It's
referring to members. Since understanding the doctrine of Christ will
help people with their missionary work, let me point out some things
about the doctrine of Christ. 2 Nephi 32 talks about the Doctrine a lot.
It points out that we need to have faith, repent, be baptized for the
remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying
on of hands.
Faith--->Repent--->Baptism(covenant)--->Holy Ghost
This
is enduring to the end, or, in other words, this is the Doctrine of
Christ. Understanding the idea that we have a Savior to save us from
spiritual and physical death, through these first principles and
ordinances, will help us understand the importance of missionary work,
the ultimate goal of which is to bring to pass the immortality and
eternal life of man by inviting others to come unto Christ. The course
of the Lord is indeed one Eternal round, and this is it: the Doctrine of
Christ.
I'll let y'all chew on that for a bit.
Just
know that we are part of the great work to accomplish God's purpose.
Each soul is precious, and not soul ought to be forgotten.
May Heavenly Father help you in your efforts to increase in faith and to repent. I type this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Sincerely,
Elder Murdock
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