This was a pretty good week. It started right off with an exchange on Tuesday with the new Zone Leader, Elder McKay. He and I were in Crittenden, so I was leading the area for that day. That was an especially interesting day because of one of our appointments. Elder Woffinden and I ran into a man at the store one day and we started talking about religion. We then set up an appointment with him at a later time. Tuesday happened to be the day that we were meeting with him, in a Starbucks that is a part of the local Kroger store (I know, it is ironic). We were excited to meet with him because he was already a religious person and we thought that we would be able enlighten him with the restored gospel. Not very far into us meeting with him, he was really just interested in Bible Bashing. This guy knew his Bible! I am really glad Elder McKay is there because there is no way that I would have been able to combat what was going on. At one point, this random guy walked up to our table, looked at us and said, "He's right, you're wrong. He can really help you." He then just walked away. We tried our best to do what we can for this man, but there really wasn't anything that we could do. We left him with the commitment to pray and ask Heavenly Father if there could be a possibility of a prophet being here on the earth today. He informed us that he doesn't believe that there could be prophet on the earth today. We told him all he has to do is ask, all Heavenly Father will do is answer him yes or no. He reluctantly accepted the commitment. The next morning we got a call from him saying that he would like to meet with us again but with a few more people with him, but we didn't actually set something up. He also told us that he "can't pray that prayer because that would be denying Christ." We wont be meeting with him again, but I did really enjoy this experience. Even among all this negativity toward the LDS Church and what we believe, my faith and my testimony grew stronger. I highly doubt that the man felt the spirit in our conversation, but I know I did. I felt the spirit telling me "No matter what this guy says, you are right and you know it!" I am grateful for that experience because it showed me how the world's mind is being clouded to the truth, but we have the truth and all of it! It was an experience that I wasn't really sure what to do, but I stand firm in my belief!
This week there was also a mission tour. We had Elder Bennett come speak to us. He gave a talk this last conference, which was really good, but I have to say that the mission tour was better. There were some really great things in that entire (day long) meeting. There was a lot of talk of being consecrated. Elder Bennett broke down the word for us. Con means completely or all, secrate means sacred or holy. So in order to be consecrated, we need to be completely sacred and all holy. Something that President Porter also said about being consecrated is that "We are on the verge of what can be." There is something that is keeping all of us from being consecrated and keeping us from what can be. Our job to find out what it is that is keeping us from being consecrated and the things that can be. Another quote came to my head right after that. The quote is by Shakespeare, "What e're thou art, act well thy part." I am a missionary, I am a representative of Christ and I need to act like it. I am not doing a bad job at that, far from it in my opinion, but there are still things that I can be doing to be a better missionary, a better representative of Christ, and to be more consecrated. This is what I now have to work on and I am excited to dive head first into it. I know that I can do it with Heavenly Father's and Jesus Christ's help, they have helped me before, and they will do it again and they will help me tenfold if I need and ask for it.
I am so grateful to be here to help myself be better in every way but more importantly to serve the children of God, my brothers and sisters, who need this gospel.
Thank you, I love you,
Elder Hayden Cannon
No comments:
Post a Comment