The Weekly Elder Poe Report
This week had several amazing opportunities. Monday early in the morning we had an appointment with a Less Active member who has been struggling lately because she is feeling overwhelmed with all she has to do, she has two daughters she is trying to put through college right now, her job isn’t going well, and her ex-husband could be described in terms that aren’t very Christlike. Seeing one of my fellow saints struggling like that was deeply moving and a powerful reminder to me that the reason I am out on my mission is to help other people be comforted and come closer to Christ. We had a wonderful lesson about the Book of Mormon though and how through it we can come closer to Christ by abiding by its precepts.
Later on in the week we had a lesson with another less active member that we had set up an appointment with the week prior, he had been born into the Church, actually around my home town of Clearfield many moons ago, but had become inactive after leaving home and join the marines. We reviewed the Restoration with him, and although the lesson went well and he totally believed and agreed with everything we said, he wouldn’t commit to come to Church at that time, we did get a return appointment, and I know that this member would be a Kingdom builder of the Church if he would come back to the Lord, and he himself admits that if he were to go to Church he would be more blessed. He doesn’t understand the Restored Gospel though, he believes it, he knows it, but he doesn’t understand it. This speaks to me how although we hear things in Sunday School, and Sacrament meeting, and we know about them and of them, we don’t really understand principles of the Gospel until we incorporate them into our behavior, our thoughts, and our actions, allowing them to change the very nature of our being; allowing ourselves to be changed through the power of the Atonement of Christ is the only way we can truly progress.
On Sunday we had a devastating event happen; we have an investigator we have been working with since before I arrived in the mission field, and he believes everything we have taught and he understands it, has read the Book of Mormon and everything, yet he has been having some problems giving up coffee, and has missed several baptismal dates in consequence of it. On Sunday we received a text from him informing us that due to health and family matters he would like to discontinue his studies for right now. That was one of the saddest and most disappointing things that has happened thus far on the mission, I was entirely crushed, it is saddening to see someone who has tasted of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and has seen what it can do for him in life decide that don’t want a part of it. It also shows me how we must always ensure we are striving our best to be the best teachers we can be, and to bring the Spirit in, in every lesson if we want to be sure we have done all we can.
The week wrapped up on Monday quite well though, the ward was holding a Memorial Day breakfast, and we invited several people we were working with, to come. Although they were late, one of our less actives came and her daughter who has been investigating, and another daughter that has potential, it was great to see them getting fellowshipped by the ward and having a good time, in addition the Strongsville ward has some pretty decent cooks so the food was tasty. At the end of Monday we had a lesson with a friend of one of our investigators who had shown an interest in learning more about the Church. We opened by asking him why he had agreed to meet with us and what he thought he would get out of it and all of his questions and everything he wanted to know about was exactly what the Gospel provides, I am sure he has been prepared by the Lord, we taught a pretty good lesson on the Restoration with him and got him to commit to a return appointment. I can see him and his family getting baptized in the near future.
The Lord his moving his work forward and he is on our side, like in the days of ancient Israel we need not fear for the Lord fights for us and his work and Gospel will continue to go forth until it fills the whole earth. The outcome is determined the battle has already been decided our only choice is whether we will choose to be on the Lord’s side and raised up to glory, honor, and righteousness, or whether we will be on the side of the great whore of all the earth, the mother of all abominations, to be brought low at the last day because we have no foundation.
Helamen 5:12
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall
The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe
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