Date

August 1, 2016

Area

Flower Mound 3rd Ward

Companion

Elder Jacob Parsons

Always Get Back on the Horse

Well, this week, like just about every week, was a roller coaster. We

had some pretty awesome and we had days that nothing got done. It

seemed like we had a lot of days this week where nothing really got

done, but the things we did get done were awesome!

On Friday, we had a Meet the Mormons movie night where members could

invite their friends just to come and break the ice. There weren't as

many people there as we would have hoped, but we did learn some things

so we can improve the next time we do it. Do it Saturday night at 7

not on Friday at 5:30 haha.

Another lesson that we learned this week is that when a member says

that they are going to order you pizza, respectfully decline. Because

sometimes, the delivery service is 2 hours late and you can't do much

of anything with the time that you have left in your night. So that

was that!

Bradon Smith is finally home from vacation and we met with him last

night. He said that he either wants to get baptized this Wednesday

before his brother leaves to his dad's home in Arizona or the 20th of

August. We have another meeting with him tonight that will determine

which he decides on.

We haven't met Chris Tarrantino this past week, he didn't seem to

respond. He has a lot of financial issues so I hope that he is

alright. We will prbably swing by him here soon to check up on him. He

has been reading Job in the Old Testament and so now we are going to

move on to the Book of Mormon.

We visited the Dallas temple on Tuesday. Going to the temple for the

first time in 15 months was amazing! The session ended up being

delayed once we were in it and the 1hr 45 minute session turned into

almost 3hrs! At that point, I couldn't be frustrated. It was nice to

just be in the temple and learn. I learned at least where to start

learning what I wanted to learn about the relationship between

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It really helped!

Yesterday, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting, my first one since I

left on my mission 15 months ago (I will send it). The subject was on

following the example of Jesus Christ and Inviting all to come and

see. I tried to teach enough doctrine that the Ward would understand

the important reasons why we need to share the gospel but also give

the a simple formula from Preach My Gospel that helps the members see

how it all works and that they can do it. Pray, ponder, act in faith.

That is basically the pattern. It all starts by starting a

conversation then, bc of the way that we live our faith, our religion

will come up at some point in the conversation. And if it doesn't, oh

well! That person just had a positive experience with a member of The

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I found that it is the

pattern for just about everything! The rest of the meeting and the

fifth Sunday meeting were all on missionary work. The leaders in this

Ward are truely inspired and the work here will soon become very much

alive!

My call to repentance this week was about talking with everyone. I

feel like I have been pulling punches and not talking  to as many

people as I can or should. I am going to repent of that this week and

get back to talking to as many people as I can. After all, nothing

happens in missionary work until we find someone to teach. So that is

what I am going to work on this week.

I felt impressed to share some thoughts on something that I am in the

middle of learning and perfecting, well actually, I think we all are

in the middle of learning and perfecting this. It is becoming better

everyday. Basically, everyday repentance. We have the awesome

opportunity to live here on this earth during a time when 1) The

gospel of Jesus Christ is once more upon the face of this earth, 2)

there are temples, literal houses of the Lord, all over the world, 3)

technology helps us is so many different ways for learning,

healthcare, communications, security, preserving our family history

and so much more. But I think that some times, we have so many things

that we over look that are simple. Like waking up ever morning and

having a chance to start over again and improve.

 A few years ago when I was in the 8th grade, I think, I was grounded

in my room for a week. I don't remember what happened to get me there,

but my parents were prbably wrong ;P jk, I probably deserved it! While

I was in there, I only had one book to read since my parents took all

my other books as I loved to read and would read books for hours on

end. To this day I don't remember the title of the book nor most of

the stories in it. But I do remember what the message of the book was.

It was this: "live so that when someone asks you how your day is, you

can answer 'it's the best one I've had so far!'" Now, 5-6ish years

later, I am starting to gras the principle that my parents wanted me

to learn. Daily improvement and progression. That is the purpose of

this life. That is why we have this time on earth. That is why we have

the Atonement and the grace of God to help us become something better

tomorrow than we were today.

"For behold, this life is the time for man to prepare to meet God;

yea, behold the day of this life is to day for men to perform their

labors ... Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis,

that I will repent, that I will return to my God ... For behold, if ye

have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death,

behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil." (Alma

34:32, 34-35)

Really, God has given us a never ending supply of chances. If we mess

up we aren't cut off from the presence of God externally because we

have the gift of repentance. We are not expected to immediately

change, and neither should we expect others. It can be just as had for

them as it is for you and it might even be harder for them. "We need

to keep in mind that people can change. They are put behind them bad

habits, they can repent from transgressions." But we can change

everyday.

Recently, as you might have seen from my emails, I have been

prayerfully picking one thing to consciously work on every week. I am

not perfect in that thing by the end of the week, but I have tried to

work on it. That is repentance. Working on becoming better. I guess,

my whole rambling on of thoughts is that do not be discouraged when

you mess up or when you see your behavior inconsistent with what you

know is right. That doesn't mean that we get complacent, but that we

don't hate ourselves and give up on ourselves. God hasn't.

In the movie "Zoolander," it was put this way:

Morey: "What do you do when you fall off the horse?"

Derek: "I'm not a gymnast Morey."

Morey: "We get back on!"

Always get back on the horse!

Keep the Faith and Hurrah for Israel!

Love, missionary son and brother, Elder Jefferies

Quote of the week:

"Strive to be that kind of disciple of the Father and the Son and your

influence will NEVER FADE!" - Elder D. Todd Christofferson




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