We have been committing people to baptism right on the spot when we first meet them. We are out to find the ones the Lord knows are ready, and hungering for the happiness and purpose and joy that comes from His message.
We are being led to families who are ready to begin working towards having their families be sealed for all eternity. They are accepting and then we are teaching them. The Lord is preparing the hearts of the people, and as we choose joy, all walls that stand in our way, become our way of ascent!
No obstacle can hinder us when we are choosing to see them all as blessings and to see how we can bless others around us in the midst of it.
We have been very sick this week. We have been facing tremendous opposition. Heavenly Father is blessing us by sending us through refinement.
We had an investigator a few months ago, who was a Police Constable. She was one of the best people we had ever taught, but then her husband told her that she could no longer meet with us because he was a pastor for another faith. She was very sad because she knew that she and her family wanted this message and really felt the spirit of the Lord testifying to them when we shared it. We had to drop them though.
Well, on Tuesday, we were walking past her police post, and we saw her and were strongly prompted that we needed to go say hi and just see how things were going in her life. We went over and asked how she was, and she said, "Not good. My husband passed away."
She is now taking the lessons again. We are meeting with her and strengthening her family. The Lord has eternal plans for these dear people, and He opens doors as we allow Him to be His instruments in helping these families and individuals follow the Savior Jesus Christ and become eternal families.
This was a miracle, and we know the Lord knows what He is doing.
(all photos from lds.org: https://www.lds.org/media-library/images/mountains?lang=eng intellectual reserve 2015)
I truly am able to choose the better part. I am able to look back into all my past and find all the good and bring it into the now of my material present being. Heavenly Father is teaching me, one day at a time, how to be a fully refined and usable tool in this great work.
The congregations here, the Lautoka 1st and 2nd wards, have both doubled since February. It has been amazing to see what the Lord is doing to help and bless His children in this beautiful land.
I am really happy. Now I am becoming the man that Heavenly Father wants my wife to marry. I am becoming a completely different person, in only positive ways. The mission is a burning fire of refinement to my soul. All of my old self is shed and without a trace. Only good stuff kept back now. i am an adult now. fully self assured, self motivated, and self reliant and usable and confident and with a clear direction of who I am and why, going purposely with fullness of life.
I was once a spark.
The Lord can make a spark a bonfire, but only if the spark is willing to fly where the Lord knows it's potential can be reached. The mission certainly is that place! It is the gasoline-soaked timber, and each of us is a spark. The mission is the best investment one can make in life.
I only had the power to go on my mission because the Lord believed in me. That gave me the power I needed, and sustains me in the hardest trials and pain and storms of life.
He commissions me to say the same is true of you and His will for you: Take the step of surrendering-faith in Him, and He will show you the way.
Heavenly Father believes in You.
I know and testify He will always be there for you.
I have learned that this church is nothing but love. It really is all love. This is a big family. :) And the more we lift others, the more we are lifted.
In my view, seeking and even asking for humility and teachableness, from my Heavenly Father, perhaps was the best, direct specific investment I made into my future.
Matthew 18:3, All must be as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven
Only the humble and teachable progress and become refined and exalted and prepared for eternity. In this life, it is truly amazing how far we can go and a how we can overcome our weaknesses if we will be humble and teachable and submissive and seek counsel and correction from Heavenly Father.
This morning, I was reading this talk:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng
I love the prophets. They are so inspired. The Savior loves each of us, His dear brothers and sisters. And a good way to tell how close our relationship with Him is, is to look at our relationship to the living prophets. Are we following their counsels? This will be a direct way to tell whether we really are close to Jesus Christ.
We will meet Him personally, very soon.
How grateful I am to have Him to help me through this life and prepare me for eternity.
"Train insane or remain the same."
That is a truth of life.
The time comes when we journey and find joy, by realizing that life is and always has been what we choose to make it. Is what I am choosing today, what I want to look back on later? Will the path I am on now and the choices I am making, lead me to really be all I can be--the best I can be, by the end of my mission; or, by the end of this short time on earth?
I testify, you have a destiny. And it's awesome. And it's up to what you desire and do TODAY.
Eternity is always going to happen on a "today," so the best advice would be to make your today only and all about Jesus Christ.
Only He has the key to your full potential.
I testify of Him.
I love Him.
He
is reliable. :)
LOVE, Elder Howard
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