The need to know the Savior.
Hello everyone!
once again, sorry for not writing yesterday, we had another activity as a zone, and on top of that we had to spend quite a bit of time making our......ZONE SHIRTS!! it was fun making those, for they are custom made to the mission. photos to come.
well, another week has passed in the mission, and in my experience, i have seen that really the weeks are never hard. the hardest thing as a misisonary are the days friday thru sunday, for that is when all the stress comes and things get really difficult. In this email, i would like to describe the reality of how a misisonary feels often on the misison, when things are hard. so, on sunday, we had zero investigators in church. again. It was very trying to have felt all the good things we had done in the week, and to only come to sunday and not have anyone in church is really hard. Heres usually how things go (at least in this area): we will have a ton of sweet lessons throughout the week, we found 13 new investigators last week, and some of which, in addition to the investigators that we already had, committed to for sure go to church. so we are all stoked, we get to saturday and we work really hard in the morning because in the evening was our ward activity "noche mexicana de talentos" (ward talent night), which was very fun. but then, as a misisonary, the only thing you desperately desire is that the investigators can come to church so that they can get baptized and live with their families forever. so then the phone calls start. we call all of our investigators to make sure they are gonna go, and things just happen to have come up, like "oh, i wont be able to" or "im going out of town today"--huh?? haha its just interesting, and then i remember that this particular sunday, one family said they would come an hour before church, and we dont know if they couldnt find the church, but they didnt make it either. the feeling of standing in the doors of the chapel, waiting and waiting, only to wait in vain is sometimes so crushing. This week, i remembered the talk mountains to climb from president eyring, and asked myself "(when i have felt like i have had success all my mission), why has this happened to me? "heavenly Father, what are we doing wrong?"
well, through counsel of the Zone Leaders, and prayer of repentance, i am feeling better about it, and it doesnt mean the world is over, it just means we have to keep trying harder. it felt really good to go eat after church with the familia garcia galvan, where all the kids are returned misisonaries, and we all talked about the joys of the mission. one of the sisters said that her mission president challenged her to highlight every type of name of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon, and so in my goal to finish the Book of Mormon before returning home (im in 2 nephi chapter 15), i am going to do that as well. which is where the title of my email comes in--i feel that in the time that i have bn here on the mission, i have gained a doctrinally accturate knowledge of the Savior. i have felt his redeeming love many times, and so i know how that love feels. but i think that one of the most crucial gifts that a missionary needs to bring home is the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, and the gift of a testimony that he lives. So i am going to be focusing a lot on that, knowing my savior and not freaking out so much about the key indicators or the numbers we use to represent the fruits we bring to the Lord, rather in strengthening my testimony that he lives and loves me personally. though i often still feel as if i were a weak man, humbly i testify that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World. This is his work, for as i saw in this last week, it is not, nor will it ever be My work. i know that my place here on earth is to keep his commandments and serve him and his children. I thank my Heavenly Father for this marvelous blessing it has been, not a sacrifice, to serve him and his cheildren in this labor of love. i testify of these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
love,
Jason
Elder Newman
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*Elder Newman*
Misión México Chihuahua
November 2013 - 2015
Alma 26:12
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