This week has been intense. We were walking this week so that was kind of tough. Some of the highlights of this week include Crazy storms, flooding, and miracles.
The Miracles that happened this week was with Dexter, Shaunta and Patrice. This week we invited Dexter to live the Word of Wisdom. He has had some habits that he has been needing to quit and he has been struggling with that. He asked if he could move his baptismal Date down a couple weeks to give him more time to fully convert, and commit to being clean before he was baptismed. Dexter seriously is golden and has a super sincere desire to be baptised. So now we have more time to help him be prepared to make this amazing first step into the Gospel path.
We met Shaunta when we were in the wagon wheel. It's a part of town that literally looks like a wagon wheel. Shaunta was at one of our other investigators houses when we taught the Book of Mormon and she wanted us to stop by her house and teach some more. When we went back there was a ton of people and we gave out 3 Book of Mormons and it was great. Something that I have been doing with all the Book of Mormons that I give out is marking my favorite Scriptures and the ones that I feel would help them. I pray about the Scriptures and then I write a note on the very first page that is like a letter to whoever reads it. That way they have more of a personal tough to it.
We also met Patrice when we were walking through the wagon wheel. When we stopped by again we talked with her about how we had a message that would help her feel more peace in her life. After we said that the spirit came and gave her a big hug and she started crying. The Spirit was so strong and she just opened up. She is super prepared by God. It was so cool. She said that she knew that God was there and that He loved her and that she wanted a better connection with him. After hearing that we shared how the Book of Mormon would help her have that better connection with God that she wanted and how we were sent by God to help her. She committed to read it and we are going to go back there real soon.
That's pretty much the highlights with my investigators this week.
We had the most wicked storm blow through here. We had so much rain fall. I think they said 7 or more inches fell. The lightning kept going from about 7 pm to about 3 in the morning. It was crazy! We couldn't really sleep very well because of the thunder and how loud it was. That, and the emergency radio that went off about every twenty minutes warning us of severe thunderstorms and tornados. When it would announce a severe thunderstorm warning I would wake up for a second and fall back asleep. When it would announce a tornado it had a different noise so I would wake up a little bit and blink my eyes a lot to stay awake long enough to hear the counties that the warning had been announced for. I didn't hear my county so I fell back asleep every time. I've never seen or heard anything that crazy in my whole life. The whole state is a mess now because of the storm. They have had to open the flood gates on quite a few dams because of the sheer amount of water. The rain plus the opening of the flood gates has lead to massive floods throughout the area. Church was actually canceled because the road to the church was under water. We got a ride to the church before we found out it was canceled and the car almost turned into a boat. It was something to behold to say the least. I will send some videos that I took.
In my studies this week I have learned sooo much. Before I conduct my studies I pray and ask what would be the most beneficial for me to study. This has taken me to read from Jesus the Christ. I am currently in chapter 32 and have only been reading for about 2 weeks. This is such a fast paced read for me. I have learned so much about the Character of Christ. It blows my mind. Reading the new Testament gives kind of an outline as to who the Savior was if you just casually read it, but when you read, study, and dive deep into it like how Jesus the Christ is then you can get so much out of it. Elder James E. Talmage has done a great job in helping me see the real character of the Savior and it has been such a feast for my Spirit. Wonderfull Stuff. I have also learned a lot about the character traits that I need to have and work on. I love how the Savior teaches in parables and puts so much meaning into just a few short words. At night before I head to bed I have been reading about the Grace that our Savior has to offer us. Grandma sent me a book called "Changed through His Grace" and it is so amazing. Right now I'm on page 35 I think. One of the biggest things that I have taken away from it is the difference between the way the vast majority of Christendom, and the majority of the church think about Grace. The majority of Christendom think Grace will save them in their sins with little need of repentence. There are some in the Church that feel like they need to do everything on their own efforts and focus so much on repentance and not the forgiveness aspect of the Atonement . Grace is the power that flows from the atonement and helps us be At-one-ment with Christ. Grace is the process that Divine power comes into our lives to help us grow and learn from our mistakes and enables us to put off the natural man and become a Saint through Christ. Isn't it amazing to know that we can receive help in every single aspect of our lives through Christ's Grace?
One question that I have recently asked myself is how have I relied on the atonement today? How have I relied on the Savior's Grace today? Doing this has opened my eyes a little to the amazing amount of individual involvement that each member of the God head has in my day to day, minute by minute life. I love how much God is involved in my life. I have seen his hand so much, and the more I learn about him, the more I see his hand. It is really, really humbling. I know that by myself I am nothing, as to my strength I am so weak, but with the Spirit as my Guide, my Savior at the helm, and my God as my Navigator I know that I will make it safely home.
If you could all keep praying for me and my investigators that would be fantastic! Dexter is being baptised on May 20th. Pamela also. Please also pray for Rick, Paige, Alvin, Carmon, Crystal, Jerrio Patrice, Zach and Rebecca, James and Linda, Shaunta, Willie, and Carly. These people are amazing and are close to my heart. Please pray that they might feel the spirit and want to know more.
I love you all and I pray for each of you to be safe, happy and for the spirit to be more abundantly bestowed upon you. Please keep praying, God wants to hear from his children. He literally is your Father and you literally are his children. Pray to him and just talk with him. Find a quiet moment when you can just talk with him, and I promise you that he will speak back to you. It may not come right when you are praying but his answers will always come to you.
I love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Elder Skyler Glen Larsen
The rains came down and the floods came up :)
A pic from the car on the way to church.
Candy the same color as the tie :)
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