Hello friends and family,
Another week has gone by, the weather is cooling down, mosquitoes
carrying the west Nile virus are out, and the work of the Lord moves on. This
week however was particularly hard for us. This week Satan worked harder than I
have ever seen him work before in trying to discourage me and stop the work in
Fabens from progressing. Last Sunday we had 7 at church and all 3 of our
families where progressing towards baptism. And to be completely honest, there were
a few minor things that we were slipping in when it came to the white handbook.
Nothing super serious, but breaking rules is breaking rules. Well I suggested
to my companion that we start cleaning up the rest of the stuff we are doing
wrong so that we can have the spirit strong for these 9 people that we are
teaching that were progressing. At first he wasn’t to sure if he wanted to, but
on Friday our zone leaders challenged us that for at least this month, we
follow 100% to the rules in the white handbook. That’s what got him motivated.
So we started to do EVERTHING the Lord asks of us and prepared to enter the
temple this week.
Well that is when Satan really turned it on. We first went over
to see Angel who was going to get baptized on Saturday, and we met his mom for
the first time. She was super nice to us and we had an awesome lesson with her
and she told us to come back. Well after we left we got a text that we shouldn’t
go back to the house and that Angel would need to be meeting us somewhere else
for a while. She was being fake to us the whole time and after we left, she had
a huge fight with Angel. So he was not baptized. Later we were kicked out of a
less active's house because they asked us to break a rule to do a favor for
them. When we told them we could not, They got angry and kicked us out of the
house. Then with the other 2 of the families, there started to be a lot of
contention in their homes all over again, and when we went by for our
appointments, they fell through because they didn’t want to let us in while
they were fighting. I had a really hard time this Sunday when 1 person came to
church.
I had a question, Why does it seem like when someone is not
completely obedient to the rules, they get so many baptisms in their mission
that are just handed to them and nothing seems to go wrong with their
investigators, but someone who is completely obedient has very few baptisms and
everything seems to go wrong?
I got my answer pretty strong in the temple. The spirit told me
that Satan, does not work as hard on those who are being taught by
"Apostate missionaries" because he knows later in their lives he can
give them some challenges, and they will go inactive, and like the scripture
says, it would be better if they never knew the gospel at all. Where as
missionaries who are fully obedient to the rules can teach more with the spirit
and bring "Lasting Conversion." So even though their investigators go
through so much before they are baptized, they are usually so converted that
they and their generations after them stay active in the gospel. Which actually
brings "more" baptisms than the missionaries who just baptize many
during their mission. I can feel that this is true, and I am comforted in
knowing that these challenges that my investigators are having only meaning
that true and lasting conversion is on the way and a big part of their success
depends on my obedience.
I love you all,
Elder Stewart
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