September 29, 2014- Cool Things!

cool things...

The first cool thing that has been happening is the weather. it has not gotten over 80 this week!! it has been so awesome, im so ready for winter to come back. I miss the cold and just the feel. Because i started my mission in the field about this time. so it just brings back magical feelings from being a greeny :) But also a cool/ awesome miracle that has happened is that we has somebody on date for the 18th of October!

Her name is Mrs Martinez,  she is an older lady in about her 60s. she is from Venezuela. She was found through a missionary referral. we have been able to teach her the first lesson and parts of the second. She keeps her reading assignments and really likes what she is learning. But the biggest step is that yesterday she was able to come to church! this past week we had two lessons with her in which we brought members and both offered her a ride. So she had no excuse. She came and she loved it. Especially relief society. She is excited to come back next week as well. I know she can get baptized on the date. Its very close but i know with the lord she will be able to do it. We set up 3 days a week we will go over there to teacher so it gives us 9 times (not including Sundays) to talk to her face to face and help her out. We are very excited for this opportunity and know she can do it. She does have a desire to change and come closer to God. And what better way to come unto God then through his path, right? I love sharing the gospel, there is nothing that can help someone in their life more then the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Other that her the work continues with knocking doors and finding more people to teach. We keep focusing on others so we can help them come unto the fold. But we are her to find the elect, they are out there and its our job to find them.

I hope everything goes well with the new work,ill keep that in my prayers that you can keep the clients assets so they dont have to move around and you get that. I hope you dont get all the snow this year and then there is none when i come back. I look forward to snowboarding and the cold.

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Lamb

September 22, 2014

Realizing what miracles really are...

This is a subject that have many different answers form everyone that has an opinion. But what truly is a miracle? Does it have to be someone being healed instantly? or being lead from danger 2 seconds before it happens or is it only when something incredible, out of the ordinary happens? Or can a miracle be a small settle thing. Like a district meeting going great, or a lesson that actually went through, or if nothing else just feeling the spirit touch the hearts of those you teach. Now ask, are any of those smaller things and less miraculous then the bigger ones i listed? Do we as children of God differ in worth to him? So do the miracles that happen differ in worth or amazement? This has been one of the most important lessons i have learned in all my mission. Is that miracles from God are always happening, just us as humans don't always realize them. Because most the time they just appear to be regular everyday things. But i think it is those regular everyday things that happen that are the most important to us. We spend so much time praying and asking for something miraculous to happen so we can either reaffirm our faith or build us up when we are down. We become so focused on these ideas we have of what miracles that we let pass all the little ones the Lord is throwing our way. When i was but a "greeny" in the mission. I though miracles were only things that where big, like random people showing up to church and you've never meet them or people crying in the first lesson asking to be baptized. I have seen many such miracles but they are usually less common and far between. But recently i have learned through experience that miracles are just the small things the Lord gives us. Teaching a lesson is a miracle, sharing a testimony is a miracle, having a meaningful contact is a miracle. Its truly those small things, that seem so normal, are truly the things that define our lives. My experience has become so much more rewarding just looking for the small miracles that happen. Because each day i can get up with out a doubt I will see miracles.  Its really the small miracles i have come to love because the feed my soul in a constant way and not in a every now and again way. I love miracles, everyday we get up is one and every night we lay down is one as well. If we will all just look harder for the tiny miracles, then will we understand how miraculous our lives truly are.

Este momento es un momento de milagros...

Elder Lamb 

September 15, 2014

Transfer week...

Well this will be the first transfer of my mission were i will be doing
nothing. because i have been in so many trios I have either myself been
leaving or losing or gaining companions. But nothing is happening now so
for the first time It will be a quite Wednesday morning. But this week is
always exciting because i get to make my new planner covers about 6 other
missionary's planner covers and just the wonder of whats all going to
happen is just fun.

But this week it has been different trying to plan for the days we are on
bike. Because our area is very big for to be on bike, but we make it work.
Bike has not been to bad and it is kinda fun. But we were able to get some
really cool  people. None are progressing right now but they show
potential. We have really been seeing changes in our area since we have
started praying for the area in ever prayer we do. We have been getting
good referrals and finding more prepared people. I know that if we keep
doing it then very shortly we will find those that are truly prepared to
receive the message and be willing to make steps to change. also our
mission president has asked us to start doing role plays with the members.
Because he is really putting pressure on being better teachers. so he says
we need to teach more even if it is just with members. So we are and it is
cool. It really helps build the trust with members to because they can see
we are trying to get better.

But for me to help me become a better teacher i decided about 2 weeks ago
to study all the lessons over, but not just study. But to really get and
understanding and spiritual confirmation they are true. not just the whole
lesson by its self but each individual part. So i have been reading them in
preach my gospel and after each little part i pray to know if that specific
principal is true, then i write what i learn in my study journal. It has
been so awesome because i cant testify more powerfully because each little
part is backed up with a personal answer.

To end i what to share that i know this work is true and that it is hard,
and why shouldn't it be? a mission is one of the hardest things you can do.
But if it was not hard would it be as rewarding? So i made a theme for this
planner its all about the war that we fight while in the mission and in
life. So i also took a bunch of powerful scriptures and put them together
to make one power house scripture. So i will share it...

"Awake my sons put on the armor of righteousness, shake off the chains with
which ye are bound and come forth from obscurity and arise from the dust.
for we have a labor to preform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we
may conquer the enemy of all righteousness. for behold now is the time and
day for men to flee or to prepare for war. That when the devil shall send
forth his mighty winds, yea his shafts in the whirl winds yea when all his
hail and his mighty storms shall beat upon you it shall have no power over
you. I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, be perfected in
him, to prepare for war and awake and arise from the dust.

And it came to pass that he rent his coat and he took a piece there of and
wrote on it: in memory of our God, religion and freedom and our peace our
wives and our children. And he fastened on his head plate and his breast
plate and his shield and girted his armor about his loins. And it came to
pass that when he had proclaimed these words, behold, the people came
running together with their armor girded about their loins, rending their
garments in token. And they were doing that which they felt was the duty
which they owed to their God, for the Lord had said unto them: ye shall
defend your family's, lands, country, rights and religion. And in that self
same hour they began to stand with power."

The district is doing good. We just have several people that are having a
ruff time and are close to going home as well so they are hard to motivate.
But other than that they are doing well and i love the responsibility, its
hard but good.

Sigamos adelante
Elder Lamb

Sept 8, 2014

this week was a week of boldness and power for me and my companion. It all started this last Tuesday when I was on exchange. we went to one of our members house who served here several years ago. We went over there with just the intent to eat dinner , but we ended up leaving with more than just full belly's. 

this members name is maluin ramirez. He served here as a missionary several years ago and was very successful. So when we were eating dinner with him we asked him if he could share with us some of the things that helped him out in his mission because maybe they would help us. He started by sharing several scriptures in the book of Mormon and the bible. I do not remember all the scriptures because i had nothing to write them down with but they were very good scriptures. But any way he went on to tell us how in this work we need to be bold in all that we do. We need to bear testimony about everything we know to be true as we preach it, we need to deliver these things with out hesitation and with out fear. Because this is salvation we are trying to present to these people, we are trying to invite them to come unto Christ. we can not take these things lightly. We above all other things must teach with the spirit so that the hearts of the people can be touched and they can come unto Christ through baptism. He taught us how we need to be inviting every person after they have felt the spirit to be baptized. and if they reject to be baptized or to change to just end the contact or lesson or what ever we are doing and just leave. Because they are not ready to except the gospel. I thought it seemed harsh but he brought up the point that God has prepared people to listen and we should not be wasting time on those that don't want to do anything. we also learned that we need to pray for our area in every single prayer we say and invite the members to do it as well. because as he said if we have all these prayers that are trying to bless the work, how could God not answer them?

So this week me and my companion tried these things in our contacting and lesson teaching. I have never been such an effective teacher as i was this week. we truly taught with power and with boldness and we really taught with the spirit to help these people to understand Christ and that we are true representatives of him. we invited 5 people to be baptized this week and in almost every contact we did we brought up that we are here to help them come unto Christ through baptism. It has been a very awesome experience and ii really like knocking doors now because i feel like we are really doing what we are suppose to and telling these truths about Jesus and that his church has been restored.

siga adelante predicando de cristo

Elder Lamb

September 1, 2014- Happy Hump Day!

This last week was another super hot one for us down here in Georgia an several of the days i wore long sleeve shirts because i felt like being "Classy" it was a dumb move on my part but at least i felt like a classy dude. We did allot of finding this week because most of our people fell through because the dads did not want to hear anymore. I wish the fathers would be more open to listen, but its the struggle.

This week I was able to do the baptism interviews for the other elders in our branch. It was of two young kids. 12 and 8 but they were really excited to get baptized and the 12 year old is really excited to pass the sacrament.  Their service was really good and went very smooth. This week though the Ramirez family fell off date for baptism, once again the father is holding the family back. He is not ready and does not want them to go ahead with out him. So we are just going to keep visiting and teaching the lessons so we can help him feel more ready. So hopefully before i leave this area they will get baptized. 

One small miracle we saw this week was that we received some referrals from other missionarys. We received 6 of them, 4 with an address 2 with out. So we went out to contact the ones with addresses. The miracles we saw were not crazy, not huge or miraculous. They were that 3 out of the 4 places let us in and teach a little. Only one showed some interest, but we realized how those who even just listen are little miracles. I also learned this week something super cool. I was reading D & C 6 and it talks about that hose who share a blessed no matter whether the people receive you or not. In verse 21 Jesus says how is is the son of God, the same that came unto his own and his own received him not. So it got me thinking. If him being the son of God got rejected by his own how much more being just regular people are we going to be rejected by the people. But that does not mean we should be discouraged, because Jesus had success in his ministry. So that mean us as his Disciples will have success if we just keep going in faith. And if we do all we can we have not failed, but we are blessed. Because we have done what we were called and asked to do, and sometimes just that feeling of knowing you did your part is all the reward you need to know what you are doing is correct.

I know this week the 3rd of September will be the day i will hit half way. Its a mixed feeling, but i think the stronger of the two is that i only get to do this full time for another year. I truly love missionary work, I love serving the lord, I love the blessings others receive from my labors both here in Georgia and back at home. Ive seen the lives of those i love be blessed and i know that if I was there, i could never help them near as much as the lord blesses them because im serving. The Lord takes care of those you love when you serve him.

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Lamb