Savior, May I Learn to Love Thee

Savior, May I Learn to Love Thee

This week has been absolutely incredible. The Lord has
really started to take control of His work through the Spirit. Like I
said before, this isn't my mission. He is really telling me what I need
to do and know.

My companion and I were talking about staying awake.
This has been a struggle for me. 16 hour days are a lot longer than you'd
think. I had previously thought of what I call the three S's of energy,
being singing, smiling, and serving. They work well, but I was still
struggling. Elder Welburn said something to me: he said how he only has
three ways to stay awake. Exercizing, being angry, and having the
Spirit. The first is physical, the second is emotional, but the third is
actually the only true way to be awake and aware while serving the Lord.
I love Elder Welburn and will be sad when he leaves Monday. Please pray
for him. He has MRI's today, and finds out Saturday if he enters the field
Monday, or goes home for surgery.

Tuesday's devotional was the most spiritual experience I
have had in the mission so far. Elder Alonso of the 70 spoke, and it was
just awesome. Some points:
This gospel must be taught simply and clearly. Do the
right things at the right times, with out delay. We are not intersted in
numbers. Our interst is to INVITE, and LOVE PEOPLE. This generation
will do more as missionaries than any previous one. This requires more
diligence and obedience. Then at the end he stated saying stuff that just
made me overflow with the Spirit. These weren't all his words.
Mostly my impressions: Start exemplifying Jesus Christ. Start
living like Him BEFORE you start inviting other to follow Him. Strengthen
your personal love and testimony of the Savior. Humility enables
Boldness.

The closing hymn was "Savior, May I Learn to Love
Thee." When we sang the words to that hymn, my heart was overcome by
the truth of the words. Please look them up and read them, as I do not
have time to transcribe them here.

After devotionals, we have district review, where we talk
about our impressions. There were about 5 Elders before me as we bore our
testimonies. I honestly was having a really hard time waiting my
turn. For the first time in my life, I felt somthing a kin to what Nephi
describes when I says that the "Spirit constraineth me to
speak." I got up and immediately started bearing testimony of my
Savior Jesus Christ. I had so many thoughts while waiting my turn, that I
feared that I would just say a bunch of garbage. I said a prayer that the
Spirit would guide as to what to say. I don't remember everything I said,
but the Spirit confirmed to me with great power that the Savior Jesus Christ
died for me and all men. He was foreordained to do so, and everything He
does is for us. Yesterday, today, and forever. Two years is nothing
in comparison to His sacrifice for me. I love Him so much, and know that
He loves each of us beyond our ability to comprehend. I am so grateful that
Heavenly Father blessed me with the oportunity to learn this truth even
greater than ever before.

Yesterday, durring a workshop, we did an inviting
activity. We prepared for 10 min to invite some other missionary to do
something to invite them to Christ. On Sun, Clayton Christensen spoke
(which was SO awesome). He talked about something he did for one of his
friends. He asked him to do seven things to find answers to his
questions. 1.pray on your knees to God 2.read from the Book of Mormon
about that specific question 3. write about two paragraphs to answer the
question. 4. Pray again about what you wrote. 5. Re-read the
chapter. 6. Re draft the answers 7. Then kneel again in prayer to
confirm the redraft. I invited the missionary I did the activity with to
do this thing, specifically to know if Jesus Christ is our Savior. What
he challenged me to do was about trusting the Lord. The Sister in our
group challenged us to strengthen our faith in Christ through our trials.
I wish that I could add more detail, but it sufficeth me to say that the Spirit
was really strong. I challenge everyone to do these seven steps about
this and any question they have about life. I'm doing it too with
personal questions that I have written.