Well we were able to finish up the lessons with Danica and she is going to be getting interviewed on Wednesday. Her baptism is going to be on Saturday and they have asked Elder Darrow and I to give talks at the baptism. I will be giving a talk on baptism, and Elder Darrow will be giving one on the spirit. We have been told that there are going to be some non-members from the family there, and the missionaries in our zone will be trying to get their investigators to the baptism as well. It is going to be a great experience.
We have been able to teach Aaron a few times this week, one of them was on the temple grounds of the Calgary Temple. He was able to go into the waiting room with Brother Hamilton, who is a temple worker, and was able to talk to him. He gave him a cool binder with a lot of information in it about temples it was pretty neat.
At the beginning of this week we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what was cool was that he realized that he was already starting to live the Gospel before he even knew what it was. He had exercised his faith and because he exercised his faith he had experiences that helped him come to know that it is true. And because he knew that it was true he has been repenting or changing his life to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. He has made some big changes in his life. He has been 2 weeks without coffee and 1 week without smokes. He is wanting to go 2 weeks without any smokes to know that he is done and that he isn't going to pick up another smoke. In 2 weeks he is going to be baptized.
Something that kinda hit me while we were teaching Aaron was that he said, "I like to pray, it makes me feel good." It hit me because it made me think what we all think about praying. It was cool to hear a person who hasn't said a prayer since he was around the age of 14, start praying and then feel good every time he prays, and to pray a lot because of how it makes him feel.
For the past couple of days I have been thinking about one of the 10 commandments, to not take the Lord's name in vain. When we read that we instantly think to not swear by using the Lords name. When we were teaching Aaron about this Brother Spackman pointed something cool out. He said, "If we aren't doing what Christ would have us do while representing him we are taking his name in vain." When you think about it when we are baptized we enter into a covenant with God to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end. So in a way we who have been baptized are representatives of Jesus Christ and His church. And it just makes me think if we aren't becoming like Christ and doing the things that he would do, we are taking his name in vain which is a pretty scary thought. Since non of us are perfect and are not like Christ because of the natural man that is in us we have been given the Gospel to have the opportunity to constantly repent and to become better and better. A famous scripture that talks about this is Mosiah 3:19 which says, "for the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Elder Bednar talks about this verse and how bad men can become good, and good men can become better. I like how it says to follow the promptings of the Spirit because as we listen to those promptings which are good we will be led to become better and better people.
This week we had a corn bust in both the Tuscany and Rockyview Wards. There were quite a few non-members that came to the ward parties. We talked to all of them, it's pretty strange to go up to someone you have no idea who is and talk to them, something that I would definitely not do back home. We invited Bob, a guy that we work at a garden with to come and to invite his family. He ended up coming and brought his daughter and son-in-law and their family to the corn bust. We were talking to his son-in-law, his name is Chris about the gardens and how nice they were and he said, "Man I sure wish that I had someone that would come and help me with my yard." We immediately offered to help. He was pretty shocked, he is a pretty well off guy. He is from Germany, and speaks english very well. We ended up going and helping him out. He is a really nice guy, we will have to go and help him out again.
This week we might be able to pick up 3 new investigators, one for sure. He was referred to us by the Elders who are in Stathmore he seems super solid. I will have to let you know how that goes.
Elder Darrow and I gave each other hair cuts, they actually aren't that bad, they actually look pretty good I think, haha. I will have to send you some pictures, I have been slacking on that.
Well that is pretty much it for this week, hope you are all doing well! Love you guys
Love, Elder Allred
