Howdy,
It's been a pretty great week, and my time in the office feels like a whole world away, it passed away like as it were unto me a dream. We got transfer news last Saturday night. We got the news that my next assignment would be in Florence, Kentucky in the Ohio River Spanish branch and that I would be serving with Elder Moeller from Santa Rosa, California. Elder Parry learned that his assignment would be Florence, Kentucky as part of the Northern Kentucky ward. We currently live 5 minutes away from each other and serve in the same district. I was really happy to hear that! Elder Parry and I served together for 3 transfers while I was in Liberty, and in the same district for 2 of those transfers, took a 2 transfer break while I was in Norwood, served as companions for 6 months, and now are serving in the same district again. Transfers proved to be extra crazy as we tried to help the Speths get everything ready, say goodbye to our friends, and get all of our things packed. We ended up being up until 1:00 the night before transfers making sure everything was all ready. I lived up to the nickname "Cranky Lanky". Luckily since then, we've been able to get to bed on time to recover.
This week while studying in Preach My Gospel, I was led to an insight that brought me a lot of peace. A couple of months ago while serving in Western Hills our friend, Rickey, asked for a blessing. During the blessing, I felt very strongly to promise him that as he shared his testimony with those around him that he would be forgiven of his sins. At the moment I was hesitant to say that because it seemed kind of bold, but I felt very strongly that it had come from the spirit. Since then I have had a concern in my heart if what I said really had come from God and if I had the right to say those things. I knew I had felt the spirit so I trusted that, but I was never sure. Then while reading in Preach My Gospel under the section about bearing testimony I was led to Doctrine and Covenants 84:61 which says in effect that as we share our testimony of the Book of Mormon that we will receive forgiveness of sins. I was filled with so much peace knowing that I really had been following the spirit as I gave the blessing.
I have absolutely loved serving in the Spanish branch! It is so fun to be able to speak Spanish all day! The gift of tounges is a real gift and blessing from God. Most of the time I stumble over my words trying to think about what I want to say and how I need to say it. There are times in each lesson when I know that God needs our friends to hear something very specific and He needs it said in a specific way. The words will come to my mind clearly and they seem to flow from my mouth. I know it does not come from me because words that I do not regularly use will come out of my mouth perfectly conjugated with little thought on my part. I can always tell when our friends have heard what God needs them to hear because I try to expound or say something extra and I am back to stuttering trying to express myself. This happened a lot in English areas as well, but it is much more obvious to me and to our friends as well when serving in an area where I don't fluently speak the language.
2 Timothy 1:7 has come to my mind a lot this last week. "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Sometimes it can be scary to open your mouth and share the message of the gospel with others, but those feelings of fear do not come from God. I have come to see for myself that as I trust in God and act in faith I am filled with the strengthening power of the atonement of Christ. Through Him all things are possible. "God giveth no commandments unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I know that this is a true statement from Nephi because I see it in my life every day.
¡Seguir Luchando!
Elder Rogers
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