Driggs Week 3

This week was pretty awesome! We found 2 new families that we are going to start teaching regularly this week. They are both awesome families. Elder Johnson and I have been praying to find and teach more families and the Lord has blessed us! 

We met a recent convert who moved here with her family, Sister Sheline. She has 2 kids and her husband works on the cargo ships in Somalia. He was a Navy Seal and now gets hired to protect the ships from the pirates! It's soo rad. Sister Sheline told us about her conversion story. It was soo awesome. She is the sweetest Sister ever. She told us about her feelings of light and love as she was learning more about the Gospel. 

        She told us about how she was apprehensive to tell her husband because he was inactive at the time. But she had courage and was baptized and now their goal as a couple is to be sealed in the temple. The Spirit was very Strong as she told us her story. She also told us how her parents were here the other week and she got to be a missionary to them. She said, "even though they believe differently than I, I did my best to help them understand.  When I knew they were coming I started to study for them and tried to find answers and things I could share with them.  I expected this glorious moment where it would click with them and they would feel the way i do, that wasn't the case.”  She said they asked her questions that she didn’t know the answers to.  What she said was so special, especially for only being in the church a few months. "I don’t know the answer to your questions but I do know that it is true and the way I feel is right."  Her faith was unwavering, especially even when her parents questioned her beliefs. I felt a very sweet spirit when she described this. 

I am so grateful to be able to meet such amazing people here. Their testimonies definitely strengthen mine. There are so many Faithful members here.

Last Sunday i experienced something pretty awesome. It was Fast and Testimony Meeting in our new wards. As missionaries we bare our testimonies each Fast Sunday. I’ve done this ever since Elder Duano my trainer told me to go up that first nerve racking Fast Sunday being a new missionary. For some reason those feelings of nervousness were back as I sat in the pews this past Sunday. It was weird. I’ve done this a million times, 3 - 4 times every Fast Sunday. Why am nervous? I sat in the front waiting for my turn wondering if i should just pass this Fast Sunday, a lot of different thoughts came into my mind. But I said a little prayer in my heart and moved up to the podium.  From the moment I made the decision to leave the bench, is when I felt the enabling power of the Atonement give me strength. I bore a confident testimony to the members of the Victor 2nd ward. I felt a complete difference as I concluded in the name of Christ. I felt the Saviors strength help me accomplish what I needed to do. 

I learned a lot from this experience. I realized that the Atonement is something that gives us power to DO. But it doesn't always work if we are not willing to do. Only until we take the first step, acting on our Faith and trusting that He will guide us, is where this power enables us to accomplish the task ahead. If we sat on the bench and waited for someone or something to push us we would never experience this, and we could be sitting a long time and the opportunity to learn a life lesson will pass. Confidence comes from knowing that the Savior has descended below all things and has risen above all things. We may have confidence in our selves to do some things, "But in the Strength of the Lord we can do ALL things." 

Action is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. Even when we don’t fully understand, or "Know all the answers". When we exercise Faith and act, that is where we see our selves doing things that we thought were never possible. All things are possible because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Now we can’t just take someone’s word for it, we must, "experiment upon my words" to know for yourself. 

I love this quote I read from President Kimball, 
"Real intelligence is the creative use of knowledge, not merely an accumulation of facts."

As we use the knowledge we have in a creative manner, we come to gain a testimony of truth, of whichever principal or action we act upon.

This is what came to mind as I pondered and studied this week. It’s been a while since I’ve rambled on about my thoughts. I hope my words may be of some benefit to your week, if it's false thennn pray about it. haha

Love you all from Driggs, ID

Stoked to Serve 

Elder Soren

         cheesee missionary/view of nature photo

Elder Lui- from Utonga/ Utah