Dear Family,
This week went pretty well. Our investigators seem to always be progressing, but they never seem to go anywhere. It's getting a little frustrating but honestly we haven't gotten too down. This week I read in the bible about Peter´s conversion, and I realized something. It wasn't when he saw Jesus feed the thousands that he got converted, it wasn't when he saw Jesus heal the mans ear, it wasn't even a miracle, but it was when the cock crowed for the second time in the morning and he realized that he had denied Christ 3 times. Thats when he decided to be the disciple that Christ deserved, and when for the third time Christ asked him if he loved him, and for the third time he said yes, and Christ said "Feed my sheep", in that moment in the last chapter of John is when Peter became "The Great Apostle". The same thing happened with Joseph Smith. It wasn't when he saw The Father and the Son, And it wasn't when he saw the angel, or even when he started translating the Book of Mormon, but when the Lord came and took the plates from him, and when he let the pages get lost, thats when he truly truly became converted. Its like it says in Ether 12:6 We don't receive any testimony until after the trial of our faith. And it really doesn't matter that much if we fall down, But what makes a disciple a stand above the rest, is when they fall, they decided not only to move forward and keep trying, but to truly resolve to be better, and the rise above and beyond what's expected, and give everything to the Lord.
That's given me a lot of comfort this last couple weeks, when we haven't had a lot of success. It's like Ammon said, in the moment when we are about to turn and go back, but we decide to press forward, that's when the Lord gives us success. That's when we truly become converted.
I've realized in my 6 months here, I have never once heard an inactive member tell me that they don't believe that the church is true, or that the book of mormon is true. The knowledge is still there, and they can never deny it. But when the trial of their faith came, they fell down, and never had the strength to get back up. They never made the resolve to become the true disciple that Christ expects of them.
We put a lot of baptismal dates this week with new references that we found, and after we had the lesson with them, and put the date, we asked them where they lived, and every single one of them lived outside of our area. Which shouldn't be super frustrating because they're going to get baptized but honestly it's hard, because you get so excited that you are going to be able to help them, but then you have to pass them off to other elders. I guess that's just the selfish part of me coming out, and maybe that's what the Lord's teaching me, how to be more humble, but it's pretty hard. But my companion and i haven't let it get us down. Thats one of the good things about training, I have to always be in a good mood! And it's helping a ton.
This week I think we are going to try and put a date with a girl named Melissa for the 28th. She's gone to church like a million times, so she really could get baptized whenever she wanted. She just has to decide when the time is right for her, or in better words, realize that the right time is now.
Well have a good week! Go BYU!
Love you guys,
Elder Lund
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