Familia y Amigos,
Hello once again, I can't believe it has been another week. It was a busy one for us and a lot of great things happened! I hope you all can say that great things happened for you as well!
Anyway, to start out this past week we went out to Broken Bow to do exchanges with the Elders serving there. During those 2-3 days, we saw several miracles that strengthened my faith and taught me a lot. First of all, I went with Elder JACKSON first!! Yeah, every time I hear "Elder Jackson," I think of Corey! haha I hope you're doing well, Corey! Anyway, this Elder Jackson is about to finish his missionary service and so he has a lot of experience. When I first went with him, we walked to go see a former investigator. I swear my legs felt like they were going to fall off because we walked a few miles and I'm used to just using our car. But, when we got to the house, it was pitch dark and didn't look like anybody was home. And nobody was. At this point, I was just thinking to myself, "Well, we are here for a reason. We didn't come here for no reason." So we walked around the block to check out the area and as we walked down one block we decided to knock a few doors. Nobody was really interested in the message, but then we saw that there was a lady outside next door out BBQing. So we acknowleged her from a distance and said "Hey, what are you cookin'?" haha To make a long story short, this lady was way excited to see us. She said, "I was hoping you guys would come to my house. I saw you walk by my house the other day and knock a door across the street and you didn't knock on my door." We were like wow! Well, as we got talking to her, she said she knows some members of the Church and that she use to go sometimes with an older lady, but she isn't a member and she said that she hasn't gone back to Church because she thinks the members might judge her for not coming. We then testified about how Christ's Atonement is infinite and that all that matters is what God thinks of us, etc. She then accepted a Book of Mormon! And just the other day, the Elders there had a great lesson with her. So that was super cool.
Then, like 10 seconds later, we started walking down the street again and we saw a guy pull into his driveway and kind of speed-walk to the front door. I said "Hey, are you just getting back from work?" And he was like yeah! haha And to make a long story short, he told us that he used to go to church and mutual every week as a kid with one of his friends but then he just graduated from high school and got a job and is just too busy. He said that he works from 8am-7pm everyday. But then, he also said that he believes that it is very important for people to go to church and he said that he wants to come back to church and meet with us. My faith was greatly strengthened by this experience. He said he wants us to come over again in the evening one day after his work. This guy seemed more sincere than many other people I have met and I can totally see this guy being a powerful missionary and helping many people come unto Christ.
So in all, I feel like I learned a great lesson: Elder Harker and I need to walk more. We mostly just use our car to go from appointment to appointment, but the last few days we have started walking more and we have seen great things happen. And also, we saw our first snow fall of the winter the other day! haha but it was only a trace...which actually we were very happy about. No snow is nice for us missionaries, but not for the farmers and such.
Later on this week, we had a ward Christmas party and Elder Harker and I sang a few songs again. Santa was at the party too. It was fun!! We talked to a ton of people there and several members brought some of their friends so we talked to all of them as well.
Then, just yesterday, Elder Harker and I made a "team-up" calendar and talked about it in the Ward Coordination Meeting before church, and the members were very supportive of it! So Elder Harker and I are like doing handstands right now...because we feel that the foundation of the work here in Lexington is growing! As Elder Bangerter said about his mission in Germany, I also feel that the work is hastening in Nebraska! And then, last night our Bishop came on team-ups with us and we had some great visits with some of our investigators, and that was great. So, life is going great here in Lexington.
As for an update on a few of our investigators:
M: she has been taught by missionaries before and when we met her she said her concern was with the Book of Mormon. She didn't believe it was true. But then we probably had one of the greatest 1st lesson's with her and she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and would be baptized if she receives her answer. And, basically the same thing happened with a guy named J that we're teaching. And then we saw F and M last night with our Bishop and that was great. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and attend the baptismal service this next weekend for a child of record in the ward here.
To finish up, I just want to bear a brief testimony about the study I did this morning. We have zone conference tomorrow and we were asked to prepare a talk.
I was thinking about our Heavenly Father and the great love He has for us. He wants us to be happy and receive Eternal Life. But in life, there are two things that hold us back from receiving Eternal Life: 1) Physical Death and 2) Spiritual Death or Sin. Because God loves us, He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to perform the infinite Atonement to make it possible to have Eternal Life. So Jesus Christ provided THE WAY to receive Eternal Life which we can access through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives by faith, repentance, baptism, etc. we can come closer to Christ. All in all, the only way that we can receive Eternal Life is through Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. I am so grateful for His Life and all that He has sacrificed for me and each of God's other children. And I know that it's only through Christ that we can live with God again. The Church is true!
I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember Jesus Christ. I will strive to do the same and continue to strive to apply His Gospel in my daily life. Thanks for all of your great examples and support.
Love,
Elder Vawdrey
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