Could you take my picture?
Date
August 24, 2015
Area
Arlington 1st Ward
Companion
Elder Trent Reynolds
Could you take my picture?
Dear Family!
Hopefully you guys are all excited and ready for school to begin! Man that summer flew by fast for me I don't know about y'all but it did for me. It looked like it was a really exciting and fun filled summer with the perfect balance between fun and sleeping. ;)
This week has been one of my favorite weeks but hey, who am I kidding, they have all been really fun! Sure some of them brought disappointment but, hey, it is fun regardless! We made it on the top 8 companionships and top 8 districts. I know that it is not about numbers, but numbers tell you how hard we worked and how fruitful this area is!
This week we did alot of contacting the referrals and less active members in the area. We found a few less active members to start working with anf it has been super exciting! We met a woman named Kalie. She has been less active for 9 years and we found her not on purpose. We were out with an exchange and every single one of our appointments fell through so we were just going down the list of people to try to see. I picked her name out of the list randomly but mostly because we were a few blocks away so we went and knocked on her door. As it turns out she has been wanting to get back into activity and feeling the love from a ward family. She has 3 un baptized kids and she is ready to come back! We haven't met with her yet but we have an appointment with her this Friday so we'll see how it goes.
We also have started to meet with the Alcourte girls again this week. They were out in Lubbock for the summer staying with their grandparents. Their grandma is a temple worker so one of the girls went to church every week which was the thing holding them back. They can almost all get baptize again they just need to come to church...
We went on exchange with the zone leaders on Saturday and it was really fun! I went with Elder Petersen and we were on bikes! We are running low on miles for this b-month because Elder Reynolds can't ride so we bike when ever we can. Elder Petersen hasn't biked in over 6 months so it was a fun day for him! We went up north in our area because that is where we teach everyone and on the way back we went by the AT&T Stadium. It is right in he center of our area. We're biking past it and there is a group of people that are standing around all dressed up. A girl runs toward us, cutting us off basically, in a full on prom dress. She says, "Could you take my picture? We have been sitting around for hours waiting for someone to come take our picture." It was her quincera.. So Elder Petersen and I took their pictures then we went off to dinner with a member. It was pretty great!
This week also had it's spiritual moments. I had the opportunity to help someone start their life to turn around. This person is already a member but they have made some decision that aren't the best. The result of those decisions humbled them greatly and helped them realize what is important and why their life wasn't the best. I love helping people get grief off their shoulders
I think the coolest realization that I had this week was when I decided to take a principle that we teach: specific blessings with the Book of Mormon. I didn't feel like I was where I should be spiritually so I went to Heavenly Father and basically said "I need to be more spiritually in tune than I am. I will read the Book of Mormon everyday to feel the spirit more." I have set aside 15 minutes of personal study just to read the Book of Mormon and I have felt the power come from it. Man, it is so crazy when I actually notice things like that.
This week I also had a really powerful experience with prayer. I have a couple friends that I lost contact with for the past few months and I asked Heavenly Father to prompt them to get in contact with me. In the hall at church yesterday I was going over the gospel principles lesson and I got the notification that I got an email from one of my friends (I didn't read it, I just found that it was there.) that I had prayed about. It was a small thing but I know that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers.
I know without a shadow of a doubt that Heavenly Father exists. I know that the Atonement is real, it is very real. It can change you into the person that Heavenly Father wants you to be. The changing power of the Atonement isn't immediate as we would like it to be. It happens over time. Just as A river forms a canyon, the Atonement will shape us in many different ways. It will wear down the places in the rock where it is weak until they ultimately disappear all together. Of course, it takes time for this to occur. A titanic canyon cannot be formed overnight. So it is with the Atonement. We must be patient as we allow it to shape us and submit to our fathers will. When we do so, we will begin to see a marvelous change take place within ourselves. As long as the river is flowing; as long as we are actively and faithfully applying the Atonement in our lives, our weaknesses will disappear.
I love y'all soo very much and I hope that all goes well in school. Be safe! Hurrah for Israel and Keep the Faith!
Love your missionary son and brother, Elder Jefferies
Hopefully you guys are all excited and ready for school to begin! Man that summer flew by fast for me I don't know about y'all but it did for me. It looked like it was a really exciting and fun filled summer with the perfect balance between fun and sleeping. ;)
This week has been one of my favorite weeks but hey, who am I kidding, they have all been really fun! Sure some of them brought disappointment but, hey, it is fun regardless! We made it on the top 8 companionships and top 8 districts. I know that it is not about numbers, but numbers tell you how hard we worked and how fruitful this area is!
This week we did alot of contacting the referrals and less active members in the area. We found a few less active members to start working with anf it has been super exciting! We met a woman named Kalie. She has been less active for 9 years and we found her not on purpose. We were out with an exchange and every single one of our appointments fell through so we were just going down the list of people to try to see. I picked her name out of the list randomly but mostly because we were a few blocks away so we went and knocked on her door. As it turns out she has been wanting to get back into activity and feeling the love from a ward family. She has 3 un baptized kids and she is ready to come back! We haven't met with her yet but we have an appointment with her this Friday so we'll see how it goes.
We also have started to meet with the Alcourte girls again this week. They were out in Lubbock for the summer staying with their grandparents. Their grandma is a temple worker so one of the girls went to church every week which was the thing holding them back. They can almost all get baptize again they just need to come to church...
We went on exchange with the zone leaders on Saturday and it was really fun! I went with Elder Petersen and we were on bikes! We are running low on miles for this b-month because Elder Reynolds can't ride so we bike when ever we can. Elder Petersen hasn't biked in over 6 months so it was a fun day for him! We went up north in our area because that is where we teach everyone and on the way back we went by the AT&T Stadium. It is right in he center of our area. We're biking past it and there is a group of people that are standing around all dressed up. A girl runs toward us, cutting us off basically, in a full on prom dress. She says, "Could you take my picture? We have been sitting around for hours waiting for someone to come take our picture." It was her quincera.. So Elder Petersen and I took their pictures then we went off to dinner with a member. It was pretty great!
This week also had it's spiritual moments. I had the opportunity to help someone start their life to turn around. This person is already a member but they have made some decision that aren't the best. The result of those decisions humbled them greatly and helped them realize what is important and why their life wasn't the best. I love helping people get grief off their shoulders
I think the coolest realization that I had this week was when I decided to take a principle that we teach: specific blessings with the Book of Mormon. I didn't feel like I was where I should be spiritually so I went to Heavenly Father and basically said "I need to be more spiritually in tune than I am. I will read the Book of Mormon everyday to feel the spirit more." I have set aside 15 minutes of personal study just to read the Book of Mormon and I have felt the power come from it. Man, it is so crazy when I actually notice things like that.
This week I also had a really powerful experience with prayer. I have a couple friends that I lost contact with for the past few months and I asked Heavenly Father to prompt them to get in contact with me. In the hall at church yesterday I was going over the gospel principles lesson and I got the notification that I got an email from one of my friends (I didn't read it, I just found that it was there.) that I had prayed about. It was a small thing but I know that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers.
I know without a shadow of a doubt that Heavenly Father exists. I know that the Atonement is real, it is very real. It can change you into the person that Heavenly Father wants you to be. The changing power of the Atonement isn't immediate as we would like it to be. It happens over time. Just as A river forms a canyon, the Atonement will shape us in many different ways. It will wear down the places in the rock where it is weak until they ultimately disappear all together. Of course, it takes time for this to occur. A titanic canyon cannot be formed overnight. So it is with the Atonement. We must be patient as we allow it to shape us and submit to our fathers will. When we do so, we will begin to see a marvelous change take place within ourselves. As long as the river is flowing; as long as we are actively and faithfully applying the Atonement in our lives, our weaknesses will disappear.
I love y'all soo very much and I hope that all goes well in school. Be safe! Hurrah for Israel and Keep the Faith!
Love your missionary son and brother, Elder Jefferies
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