Transfers came and I stayed!
This week was great! Dawn and Te told us they are getting married next spring! And the reception is going to be at the Nagasaki church! I am so excited for them!
I met my second cousin who is serving in our mission, sister Joyce Curtis for the first time. The conversation went something like this:
"Hey sister Curtis are you from Arizona?"
"Yeah I am"
"We're second cousins"
"What really? Does your dad write picture books?"
"Yeah he does!"
"Oh I have been to your house! We probably met like 10 years ago!"
That makes cousin number three I have discovered on my mission! How many more will I find I wonder?
Anyways, the biggest thing that happened this week was on Monday we had an almost all mission conference with 180 missionaries gathered in Fukuoka church to hear Brother Heaton director of the MTC speak to us. It was so amazing to see missionaries or companions like my MTC companion big Hawaiian Elder Ho I hadn"t seen in a year and a half since the MTC. He ran up to me and picked me up in a huge hug and just held me with so much love.
Brother Heaton was so amazing. I can't even describe what it was like, but what I really took away feeling is that sometimes we feel like we talk to people on the street or work with investigators or whatever and then they don't listen or drop or something. Often we feel like well it's over they're done they won't make it, or maybe feel like we ourselves failed.
But in realty that mindset comes from thinking that WE are gathering Israel. But if we read in the Book of Mormon it says countless times "The Lord will gather Israel." He is working with each individual person. And we are only a part of that. He has and will be working with these people even after we are gone and was before we were there. Every single person we talk to or work with, we help them make the next steps God needs them to make to come unto Him.
And sometimes I get frustrated at my investigators or people for not coming to church, or appointments or whatever. But in reality I realized that they are so so precious, and they are really trying their hardest. God doesn't get angry at them when they don't come, he is loving, and guides and loves them along. He helps them feel good about themselves, feel safe, feel loved, feel belonging, and if we want to help them come to him we need to help them feel those same feelings of the spirit.
When I heard that, I realized that I had been feeling that way about an investigator who didn't come to church, a little disappointed, but then I realized how hard he was trying to change his life despite all the pressures around him, and school and 2 jobs, and how truly amazing he was. And so instead of telling him to do better next time in coming to church (which wouldn't have brought those feelings of love) I simply texted him and thanked him for everything he was doing to try and come closer to Heavenly Father, and all the time he gives us each week, and what he means to us.
I know each investigator is so so precious to Heavenly Father, and just because they don't make it all the way now doesn't mean that anything is ever wasted. God is gathering them and He will continue to. Maybe right now isn't the time for them to be baptized, but as we simply seek to bring his light into their eyes, and be his instruments and follow the spirit. He will do the miracles in their lives.
I love and am so grateful to Him.
Elder Walton
Nagasaki Japan
Transfers came and I stayed!
This week was great! Dawn and Te told us they are getting married next spring! And the reception is going to be at the Nagasaki church! I am so excited for them!
I met my second cousin who is serving in our mission, sister Joyce Curtis for the first time. The conversation went something like this:
"Hey sister Curtis are you from Arizona?"
"Yeah I am"
"We're second cousins"
"What really? Does your dad write picture books?"
"Yeah he does!"
"Oh I have been to your house! We probably met like 10 years ago!"
That makes cousin number three I have discovered on my mission! How many more will I find I wonder?
Anyways, the biggest thing that happened this week was on Monday we had an almost all mission conference with 180 missionaries gathered in Fukuoka church to hear Brother Heaton director of the MTC speak to us. It was so amazing to see missionaries or companions like my MTC companion big Hawaiian Elder Ho I hadn"t seen in a year and a half since the MTC. He ran up to me and picked me up in a huge hug and just held me with so much love.
Brother Heaton was so amazing. I can't even describe what it was like, but what I really took away feeling is that sometimes we feel like we talk to people on the street or work with investigators or whatever and then they don't listen or drop or something. Often we feel like well it's over they're done they won't make it, or maybe feel like we ourselves failed.
But in realty that mindset comes from thinking that WE are gathering Israel. But if we read in the Book of Mormon it says countless times "The Lord will gather Israel." He is working with each individual person. And we are only a part of that. He has and will be working with these people even after we are gone and was before we were there. Every single person we talk to or work with, we help them make the next steps God needs them to make to come unto Him.
And sometimes I get frustrated at my investigators or people for not coming to church, or appointments or whatever. But in reality I realized that they are so so precious, and they are really trying their hardest. God doesn't get angry at them when they don't come, he is loving, and guides and loves them along. He helps them feel good about themselves, feel safe, feel loved, feel belonging, and if we want to help them come to him we need to help them feel those same feelings of the spirit.
When I heard that, I realized that I had been feeling that way about an investigator who didn't come to church, a little disappointed, but then I realized how hard he was trying to change his life despite all the pressures around him, and school and 2 jobs, and how truly amazing he was. And so instead of telling him to do better next time in coming to church (which wouldn't have brought those feelings of love) I simply texted him and thanked him for everything he was doing to try and come closer to Heavenly Father, and all the time he gives us each week, and what he means to us.
I know each investigator is so so precious to Heavenly Father, and just because they don't make it all the way now doesn't mean that anything is ever wasted. God is gathering them and He will continue to. Maybe right now isn't the time for them to be baptized, but as we simply seek to bring his light into their eyes, and be his instruments and follow the spirit. He will do the miracles in their lives.
I love and am so grateful to Him.
Elder Walton
Nagasaki Japan
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