Choose By Your Actions To Become
Date
February 27, 2017
Area
Burleson Ward
Companion
Elder Matthew Newey
Choose By Your Actions To Become
Man... These weeks keep flying by! Who has the remote? Change it back
to normal speed please. I have really deep mixed feelings how fast it
is going by. haha. This week was awesome.
I went on exchange with Elder Flake in Colleyville and as always I
learned something. He is so humble and meek which is a great example
to me. Humility is something that I want to continue to develop so
that I don't get self righteous because I served a mission. I don't
plan on it, but I also have a firm determination to live in a way that
the Holy Ghost can always be with me and that will require me to not
participate in things that some of the people around me participate
in. But, following the Saviors example I will strive to continue to do
what I can and be humble.
Victor is chugging along with his family history. He just needs a
printer to print off the names that he has found. The dude has found
so many names haha! He is just thriving on the gospel.
We met with Steve this week and he had some questions about priesthood
and how in the world Peter, James and John appeared to Joseph Smith.
We answered his questions and then moved on to the Book of Mormon. We
testified of it, we taught him what it was, why it is important and we
invite him to read it. He said that he really would try so we will get
to see what happens!
Joann is our ward mission leader's sister in law who has a different
background in religion. We taught her for the second time on Tuesday
and it went fairly well. She is really excited to get into the Book of
Mormon and to read and understand more.
Brian decided to quit smoking this weekend and we have an appointment
with him tomorrow night. We tried making contact with him over the
weekend but he didnt really respond. We are hopeful! He is super
awesome. Victor has become our best fellowshipper for him! Brian over
him because they have basically the same exact story. He will probably
be the one to baptize him.
Mel's baptism didn't happen... :/ She had to move last minute so now
she is in Azle for a little bit. Hopefully one day I will see her
again. Either way, she has a testimony of the gospel and will
eventually be baptized. That I know. The power of service right there.
We did the Bible study again this week for the first time in a while.
We have had meetings like every other Friday this past month so we
were unable to go. We basically just took turns preaching everything
we know about prayer haha. It was a blast! It is so much fun to see
their faces light up. It is also funny because when I use scriptures
from the Book of Mormon or the D&C, I always just say, "in the
scriptures we learn..." or "the Lord once said to one of His
servants/prophets..." and they don't know haha. We are happy to do it.
We had interviews with President Whitney this week, it is crazy! I
only have like 2 left haha. I had a couple concerns about how i can
overcome feelings of disappointment that I haven't been as diligent as
I wished I were over the past two years. There were things that I wish
I had learned faster and things that I wish I did or didn't do. I
expressed that to him, wondering how he had seen other missionaries
overcome that. He responded that out of the maybe 100 missionaries
that he has interviewed to go home, maybe 99 of them he the same
feelings and the one that didn't was lying to themselves. He said that
we need not worry about it because the Atonement covers it and all the
Lord expects is that we do better today than we were yesterday and do
better tomorrow than we were today. And that is exactly what it is.
The Lord is a wonderful man to work for. That is one thing that I have
come to understand in a greater light for me.
I had another thought this week that I love. As I was going through
the vision and goals portion of this program called "My Plan" (a
program to help missionaries adjust for home and apply everything we
learned), the spirit taught me that in life, we partner with the Lord
to create our own life's story. I thought that it is so cool! We al
have agency, and we all have choices to make everyday. God put us here
in that situation to see what we would do with our agency, what we
could create, hopefully with Him. There is a talk by Elder D. Todd
Christofferson that teaches this so beautifully. Some of my favorite
quotes are in this talk. "God will not make us something that we do
not choose by our actions to become." When we partner with God, we can
have a life that is so much better than what it could be otherwise.
And, we can all turn back to Him if we have turned away! All we need
to do is to learn to depend upon Him and look to Him in all things!
I am loving my mission! I am starting to feel more peace than I have
for the most part of my mission! Things are coming together and I am
understanding a lot more. I love this! :)
Keep the Faith and Hurrah for Israel!
Love, your missionary son and brother, Elder Jefferies
The link to Elder Christofferson's talk:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng
to normal speed please. I have really deep mixed feelings how fast it
is going by. haha. This week was awesome.
I went on exchange with Elder Flake in Colleyville and as always I
learned something. He is so humble and meek which is a great example
to me. Humility is something that I want to continue to develop so
that I don't get self righteous because I served a mission. I don't
plan on it, but I also have a firm determination to live in a way that
the Holy Ghost can always be with me and that will require me to not
participate in things that some of the people around me participate
in. But, following the Saviors example I will strive to continue to do
what I can and be humble.
Victor is chugging along with his family history. He just needs a
printer to print off the names that he has found. The dude has found
so many names haha! He is just thriving on the gospel.
We met with Steve this week and he had some questions about priesthood
and how in the world Peter, James and John appeared to Joseph Smith.
We answered his questions and then moved on to the Book of Mormon. We
testified of it, we taught him what it was, why it is important and we
invite him to read it. He said that he really would try so we will get
to see what happens!
Joann is our ward mission leader's sister in law who has a different
background in religion. We taught her for the second time on Tuesday
and it went fairly well. She is really excited to get into the Book of
Mormon and to read and understand more.
Brian decided to quit smoking this weekend and we have an appointment
with him tomorrow night. We tried making contact with him over the
weekend but he didnt really respond. We are hopeful! He is super
awesome. Victor has become our best fellowshipper for him! Brian over
him because they have basically the same exact story. He will probably
be the one to baptize him.
Mel's baptism didn't happen... :/ She had to move last minute so now
she is in Azle for a little bit. Hopefully one day I will see her
again. Either way, she has a testimony of the gospel and will
eventually be baptized. That I know. The power of service right there.
We did the Bible study again this week for the first time in a while.
We have had meetings like every other Friday this past month so we
were unable to go. We basically just took turns preaching everything
we know about prayer haha. It was a blast! It is so much fun to see
their faces light up. It is also funny because when I use scriptures
from the Book of Mormon or the D&C, I always just say, "in the
scriptures we learn..." or "the Lord once said to one of His
servants/prophets..." and they don't know haha. We are happy to do it.
We had interviews with President Whitney this week, it is crazy! I
only have like 2 left haha. I had a couple concerns about how i can
overcome feelings of disappointment that I haven't been as diligent as
I wished I were over the past two years. There were things that I wish
I had learned faster and things that I wish I did or didn't do. I
expressed that to him, wondering how he had seen other missionaries
overcome that. He responded that out of the maybe 100 missionaries
that he has interviewed to go home, maybe 99 of them he the same
feelings and the one that didn't was lying to themselves. He said that
we need not worry about it because the Atonement covers it and all the
Lord expects is that we do better today than we were yesterday and do
better tomorrow than we were today. And that is exactly what it is.
The Lord is a wonderful man to work for. That is one thing that I have
come to understand in a greater light for me.
I had another thought this week that I love. As I was going through
the vision and goals portion of this program called "My Plan" (a
program to help missionaries adjust for home and apply everything we
learned), the spirit taught me that in life, we partner with the Lord
to create our own life's story. I thought that it is so cool! We al
have agency, and we all have choices to make everyday. God put us here
in that situation to see what we would do with our agency, what we
could create, hopefully with Him. There is a talk by Elder D. Todd
Christofferson that teaches this so beautifully. Some of my favorite
quotes are in this talk. "God will not make us something that we do
not choose by our actions to become." When we partner with God, we can
have a life that is so much better than what it could be otherwise.
And, we can all turn back to Him if we have turned away! All we need
to do is to learn to depend upon Him and look to Him in all things!
I am loving my mission! I am starting to feel more peace than I have
for the most part of my mission! Things are coming together and I am
understanding a lot more. I love this! :)
Keep the Faith and Hurrah for Israel!
Love, your missionary son and brother, Elder Jefferies
The link to Elder Christofferson's talk:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/free-forever-to-act-for-themselves?lang=eng
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