Sunday, April 26, 2015

Semana ochenta y uno!

Week 81 of 101 (3/30-4/05)

HELLO!

This last week was great! We met new people, did interchanges, and, best of all, got to listen to the prophet of the Lord and also His twelve Apostles! Lots of spiritual growth and opportunities to learn. I am so grateful for all that the Lord does for us and I am grateful for the knowledge of the restored gospel.

However, today I mostly wanted to focus on an experience that my companion and I had last night. Every Sunday, we meet with a member family to help them with their family home evenings. They have the family home evening on Sunday because that is the only time they really have to do it because they have busy jobs. As usual, we showed up to their door and knocked. We waited for them to get the keys and unlock the door. As we entered, I noticed that the mother seemed a bit frazzled. They had visitors and the rambunctious kids were bouncing around the house, playing. This seemed to get compounded by the fact that as we tried to gather everyone together, the video which we were trying to show wouldn't work.

Finally, as we got everything sorted out, we chose to start with a prayer. When we asked who wanted to say the prayer, the six year old little girl volunteered to teach her two year old nephew how to pray. It was one of the sweetest moments I have ever to witnessed as that six year old whispered into her nephews ear the prayer and he tried his very best to copy her. But, perhaps even more importantly was the content of the prayer. That little girl that our Heavenly Father for everything with sincere gratitude. She didn't ask for anything, but just told Her father that she was grateful.

As I thought about the experience afterwards, I thought about the effect the mother was having on her children. Although she was frustrated and may not have seen the fruit of her labors, her daughter was learning from her. What a great example of the effect that parents have on their children as they raise them. It reminds me of a talk from this general conference in which the speaker asked if we sometimes ask children to do things that we aren't willing to do or live. What kind of example are we giving to those around us? Are we dedicating our will to the will of the Lord from our sincere love for Him? Or are we giving a message of twisted hypocrisy as we say one thing and do another? Do we draw near to him with our lips while our hearts are far from him through "casual commandment keeping?"

I know that as we give an example of love and righteousness to those around us, the Lord will bless us. I am grateful for our Savior and the example he gave us. I love the gospel and I am grateful to be a missionary.

Elder Vierkant

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