Namaste! I apologize for not sending an email last week. I was caught up in a lot of work and responsibilities I guess I'm still learning how to properly balance. There has never been a more busy, more golden, more exciting or more miraculous time in this Nation and this Mission, than NOW. We have so much to do, and it is pure joy to be swallowed up in nothing but doing it!
What is my mission in life? Projection for seeking out and saving 30 -100 children of out beloved, eternal, Everlasting and Almighty Father. Children of God have His potential and light and glory inside of them. We were all sent to earth to succeed gloriously and earn an eternity of greater blessings than our grandest expectations could fathom. My Mission really is to Save, Free and Throne the Kings and Queens taken captive and brainwashed and cheated by the Adversary. These people who have fallen or been lost or stolen away into the deepest abyss of darkness. Children of God that are searching for Him. Searching for their True Identity. Feeling in their hearts, that there is more inside of them than meets the eye or meets the world's view of them. Divine eternal beings, destined to be joint-heirs with Christ and the Father in all the eternities to come, if they would but come unto Christ. I am no storybook. That actually really is my calling. That is all our callings. We have to wake all the way up.
Heavenly Father stands ready to tell you your purpose and enable you to fulfill and magnify it. Seek Him. He is ready to be found.
This is part of the view from the Suva Fiji Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
January! It is a very special month. This month, my District has had and will have 7 complete miracle Baptisms, and families being saved and changed and transformed. January is just full of Miracles! Just as the year has started, we are making sure the whole year will shape up to be just as full of non-stop miracles.
We are passing out literally 100's of 1000's of invitations for the Temple Open House this month! The whole Nation is aware. Hundreds of thousands of people will be pouring through the Temple for 2 full weeks!
Every week for the rest of this year, I hope to have 10 miracles written for each week, and some selections from those to report to you as the year goes by. This will be one way I show the Lord "I Expect Miracles" every week of this year. Nothing from me will stop Him at all this year. Only His will is in my heart and hopes, motives, and aspirations. I hope to have accumulated around 400+ specific, reportable, recorded miracles before my Mission closes here in this Full-Time window I have remaining.
Here is the first of it's kind, for my remaining 40+ emails I will report up to you, before my full-time mission cuts off:
1) A boy who had previously not been allowed by his parents to be Baptized, is now allowed. This family is so dear to me. They mean so much to me and I have been blessed to be working with them for almost 6 months now. The Lord has prepared all our hearts and all the path ahead so that things can finally come together just before I leave this area.
2) Going through our day, we were meeting all our investigators and they were surprising us by just suddenly being busy. Because of that, we came to a lesson at a perfect time and in a perfect way to meet someone's specific needs. I know that the Lord arranges the details of everything just to show us He is in control to meet His children's pleading needs.
3) Our Area! We are booming! One of our areas of greatest strength is just our immediate neighbors! We are now to the point where we can spend an entire day just teaching all our beloved Hindi neighbors! We make instant connections with absolutely everybody we meet, and the work is soaring because of it. Our area is an excellent area. We have worked according to your guidelines and see the fruit of it. Thank you, President!
4) Met Paras. This man doesn't have a voice. He has a hole in his neck. Now, people avoid him and turn away from him when he passes them on the street. We were walking past him as we were heading out one day, and we warmly approached him with love and smiles. He is our neighbor and we set up to meet him. WOW! He instantly became one of my top favorite investigators of my mission. He is the most pure, Christlike and desirous and childlike. So pure. He fed us one of the humblest and yet kingly meals I may have eaten in my entire mission. He wants to come to church and he wants to be Baptized. He's a hard worker and loves our lessons. No one is a no one to the Holy One. We just imagine what it would have been like had we not talked to this man. We don't miss any of the opportunities the Lord puts in our paths. We try to seize them all. This man has been saved thanks to that.
5) Saleshni's Testimony of The Book of Mormon. She can't read, but she has her son read with her. She prayed and knows firmly for herself that our whole message and church is true based on her testimony of the Book of Mormon from the Holy Ghost. She continues to stand firm despite all the pressures and trials she faces. She is undergoing a tremendous life-style shift. The Savior is molding her heart and we are inspired every day by watching the process take place in her family's lives.
6) Ansh Survived! He is our Baptismal Date, and his Appendix burst. He had to be emergency rushed to the Hospital and given direct surgery. We informed Bishop Solanki and he took some Priesthood holders with him and they visited Anj at the drop of a hat and gave him a wonderful blessing. Saleshni isn't married to Anj's father and they don't stay together. Saleshni is fully keeping the Law of Chastity. But, Anj's father is supposed to pay child's support and doesn't. He wants to kill the children so he won't have to pay child's support or keep being dragged to court. He was threatening to do this while Anj was in the Hospital. We were at Saleshni's house with her as she cried and dramatically explained the whole situation to us. We were prompted to get on our knees right then and there and command angels to protect Anj and soften the murderous heart of that man. He has no ties to the family except having fathered the children. Anj was okay and he and his mom read the Book of Mormon together every day in the Hospital and he was released on his mom's birthday and got to go home and is now recovering very swiftly! So far not even his healing seems to be a barrier on his ability to be Baptized this Saturday. We'll keep you posted and know for sure this week.
One day he (the father,) too will accept the Gospel. I believe that.
7) Vick! There was a woman we were referred to by a member here, and she had told us that she was really interested and just that her husband was closed and Buddhist so she had to follow him. Well, this week we ran into him on the street and he told us he wants to be close to God and come to our church and was VERY excited when we gave him the Temple Open House card. He wants to come! The wife is very happy and we will be working with them in the coming weeks. Angels are preparing the hearts of men in our land!
8) Sister Afulao was healed! Sister Afualo got really sick all of a sudden and was cold, aching and sleepless. We called the Zone Leaders and went over and all blessed her. She asked if I would give the blessing. Through that blessing I was told to command her to be made well and the next morning she was feeling well and fine. She was able to then be in great shape to minister to her companion, Sister Baki, when she then fell ill just a day after. Sister Baki is recovering. She is very ill. I sent the Zone Leaders and they kindly gave her a blessing.
9) Transportation from Heaven. When we need to get somewhere far fast, the Lord happens to send us a member who is going the same way in a Taxi who pulls it over to give us a lift as well, or when we are in Suva 1st Ward, someone warmly says they were free and able and want to drive us to the Baptism all the way in Suva 3rd ward. It has been amazing to watch how no matter what it is, if we just take it all one step at a time and do all the Lord requires on our side in planning and such, He ALWAYS provides all His servants need to carry out His will for them.
10) Ponderizing. It not only benefits me, but, also I am benefited to hear or see other Missionaries doing it. Their scriptures impact me when I see them in their flats or vans or epistalic lives. I am so glad you have heeded the Father's directive to use this theme as a focus for 2016. It is inspired and will change this mission forever. I was ponderizing Acts 2:37-38. I gained from this that we have 2 jobs as missionaries: 1) Prick people in their hearts through the Holy Ghost[create the atmosphere for it to do so in them], and then, 2) speak up by the holy Ghost in giving an inspired commitment the minute their heart IS pricked. The fruit of feeling the Spirit truly, is the desire to take action to improve. Investigators' feet want to move once they hit step 1), so then all we have to do is direct their feet through inspired COMMITMENTS(:
As well, on Sunday as I was taking the Sacrament and reflecting on the mercy and kindness of my Savior, and how I am doing in my keeping of Covenants I have made with Him, I was touched by a question like, "What is True Greatness?" and what does the Lord want me to become? Then, in Sunday School, we were given our Howard W Hunter lesson books and I was prompted to go to the Table of contents and my eye fell on an entire chapter entitled "True Greatness." Wow! The Lord speaks directly! I am now studying that. Ponderizing is powerful when done under the direction of the Holy Ghost.
11) Elder Datoon confidently began week 11, and is leading everything. In the mission here, when a new Missionary comes into the mission, they get a trainer and begin a 12 Week Training program led by the Trainer. My trainee has gone through 10 weeks now, and on the 11th week, they are now leading everything and taking full charge and handling all that comes up. Time has really flown! We started off the week by finding out about a Baptismal Service he will also be in charge of.
12) We prayed for help in getting all our Temple Invitations out, and right after that prayer, we were able to give out 50 just following that prayer!
13) The wife and daughter of one of our Baptismal Dates both are now following the Savior's example, and that of their father's to be Baptized! We were so excited to see the change of heart that took place in their hearts from attending one of our Baptisms.
14) Ansh's doctors said he could go in the water. He had surgery for appendicitis just before his Baptism, but through a Priesthood Blessing was healed and jumping around all recovered. He was happier than anyone I've seen enter the waters of Baptism. That was a miracle of my mission I shall never forget.
15) 36 people came and attended our Baptism this Saturday! We arranged for pens and papers to be passed around, and they all wrote to our investigators being Baptized. They kept these many many papers of love and testimony and welcome and put them on their fridge at home.
...More to come next week
What is my mission in life? Projection for seeking out and saving 30 -100 children of out beloved, eternal, Everlasting and Almighty Father. Children of God have His potential and light and glory inside of them. We were all sent to earth to succeed gloriously and earn an eternity of greater blessings than our grandest expectations could fathom. My Mission really is to Save, Free and Throne the Kings and Queens taken captive and brainwashed and cheated by the Adversary. These people who have fallen or been lost or stolen away into the deepest abyss of darkness. Children of God that are searching for Him. Searching for their True Identity. Feeling in their hearts, that there is more inside of them than meets the eye or meets the world's view of them. Divine eternal beings, destined to be joint-heirs with Christ and the Father in all the eternities to come, if they would but come unto Christ. I am no storybook. That actually really is my calling. That is all our callings. We have to wake all the way up.
Heavenly Father stands ready to tell you your purpose and enable you to fulfill and magnify it. Seek Him. He is ready to be found.
This is part of the view from the Suva Fiji Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
January! It is a very special month. This month, my District has had and will have 7 complete miracle Baptisms, and families being saved and changed and transformed. January is just full of Miracles! Just as the year has started, we are making sure the whole year will shape up to be just as full of non-stop miracles.
We are passing out literally 100's of 1000's of invitations for the Temple Open House this month! The whole Nation is aware. Hundreds of thousands of people will be pouring through the Temple for 2 full weeks!
Every week for the rest of this year, I hope to have 10 miracles written for each week, and some selections from those to report to you as the year goes by. This will be one way I show the Lord "I Expect Miracles" every week of this year. Nothing from me will stop Him at all this year. Only His will is in my heart and hopes, motives, and aspirations. I hope to have accumulated around 400+ specific, reportable, recorded miracles before my Mission closes here in this Full-Time window I have remaining.
Here is the first of it's kind, for my remaining 40+ emails I will report up to you, before my full-time mission cuts off:
1) A boy who had previously not been allowed by his parents to be Baptized, is now allowed. This family is so dear to me. They mean so much to me and I have been blessed to be working with them for almost 6 months now. The Lord has prepared all our hearts and all the path ahead so that things can finally come together just before I leave this area.
2) Going through our day, we were meeting all our investigators and they were surprising us by just suddenly being busy. Because of that, we came to a lesson at a perfect time and in a perfect way to meet someone's specific needs. I know that the Lord arranges the details of everything just to show us He is in control to meet His children's pleading needs.
3) Our Area! We are booming! One of our areas of greatest strength is just our immediate neighbors! We are now to the point where we can spend an entire day just teaching all our beloved Hindi neighbors! We make instant connections with absolutely everybody we meet, and the work is soaring because of it. Our area is an excellent area. We have worked according to your guidelines and see the fruit of it. Thank you, President!
4) Met Paras. This man doesn't have a voice. He has a hole in his neck. Now, people avoid him and turn away from him when he passes them on the street. We were walking past him as we were heading out one day, and we warmly approached him with love and smiles. He is our neighbor and we set up to meet him. WOW! He instantly became one of my top favorite investigators of my mission. He is the most pure, Christlike and desirous and childlike. So pure. He fed us one of the humblest and yet kingly meals I may have eaten in my entire mission. He wants to come to church and he wants to be Baptized. He's a hard worker and loves our lessons. No one is a no one to the Holy One. We just imagine what it would have been like had we not talked to this man. We don't miss any of the opportunities the Lord puts in our paths. We try to seize them all. This man has been saved thanks to that.
5) Saleshni's Testimony of The Book of Mormon. She can't read, but she has her son read with her. She prayed and knows firmly for herself that our whole message and church is true based on her testimony of the Book of Mormon from the Holy Ghost. She continues to stand firm despite all the pressures and trials she faces. She is undergoing a tremendous life-style shift. The Savior is molding her heart and we are inspired every day by watching the process take place in her family's lives.
6) Ansh Survived! He is our Baptismal Date, and his Appendix burst. He had to be emergency rushed to the Hospital and given direct surgery. We informed Bishop Solanki and he took some Priesthood holders with him and they visited Anj at the drop of a hat and gave him a wonderful blessing. Saleshni isn't married to Anj's father and they don't stay together. Saleshni is fully keeping the Law of Chastity. But, Anj's father is supposed to pay child's support and doesn't. He wants to kill the children so he won't have to pay child's support or keep being dragged to court. He was threatening to do this while Anj was in the Hospital. We were at Saleshni's house with her as she cried and dramatically explained the whole situation to us. We were prompted to get on our knees right then and there and command angels to protect Anj and soften the murderous heart of that man. He has no ties to the family except having fathered the children. Anj was okay and he and his mom read the Book of Mormon together every day in the Hospital and he was released on his mom's birthday and got to go home and is now recovering very swiftly! So far not even his healing seems to be a barrier on his ability to be Baptized this Saturday. We'll keep you posted and know for sure this week.
One day he (the father,) too will accept the Gospel. I believe that.
7) Vick! There was a woman we were referred to by a member here, and she had told us that she was really interested and just that her husband was closed and Buddhist so she had to follow him. Well, this week we ran into him on the street and he told us he wants to be close to God and come to our church and was VERY excited when we gave him the Temple Open House card. He wants to come! The wife is very happy and we will be working with them in the coming weeks. Angels are preparing the hearts of men in our land!
8) Sister Afulao was healed! Sister Afualo got really sick all of a sudden and was cold, aching and sleepless. We called the Zone Leaders and went over and all blessed her. She asked if I would give the blessing. Through that blessing I was told to command her to be made well and the next morning she was feeling well and fine. She was able to then be in great shape to minister to her companion, Sister Baki, when she then fell ill just a day after. Sister Baki is recovering. She is very ill. I sent the Zone Leaders and they kindly gave her a blessing.
9) Transportation from Heaven. When we need to get somewhere far fast, the Lord happens to send us a member who is going the same way in a Taxi who pulls it over to give us a lift as well, or when we are in Suva 1st Ward, someone warmly says they were free and able and want to drive us to the Baptism all the way in Suva 3rd ward. It has been amazing to watch how no matter what it is, if we just take it all one step at a time and do all the Lord requires on our side in planning and such, He ALWAYS provides all His servants need to carry out His will for them.
10) Ponderizing. It not only benefits me, but, also I am benefited to hear or see other Missionaries doing it. Their scriptures impact me when I see them in their flats or vans or epistalic lives. I am so glad you have heeded the Father's directive to use this theme as a focus for 2016. It is inspired and will change this mission forever. I was ponderizing Acts 2:37-38. I gained from this that we have 2 jobs as missionaries: 1) Prick people in their hearts through the Holy Ghost[create the atmosphere for it to do so in them], and then, 2) speak up by the holy Ghost in giving an inspired commitment the minute their heart IS pricked. The fruit of feeling the Spirit truly, is the desire to take action to improve. Investigators' feet want to move once they hit step 1), so then all we have to do is direct their feet through inspired COMMITMENTS(:
As well, on Sunday as I was taking the Sacrament and reflecting on the mercy and kindness of my Savior, and how I am doing in my keeping of Covenants I have made with Him, I was touched by a question like, "What is True Greatness?" and what does the Lord want me to become? Then, in Sunday School, we were given our Howard W Hunter lesson books and I was prompted to go to the Table of contents and my eye fell on an entire chapter entitled "True Greatness." Wow! The Lord speaks directly! I am now studying that. Ponderizing is powerful when done under the direction of the Holy Ghost.
11) Elder Datoon confidently began week 11, and is leading everything. In the mission here, when a new Missionary comes into the mission, they get a trainer and begin a 12 Week Training program led by the Trainer. My trainee has gone through 10 weeks now, and on the 11th week, they are now leading everything and taking full charge and handling all that comes up. Time has really flown! We started off the week by finding out about a Baptismal Service he will also be in charge of.
12) We prayed for help in getting all our Temple Invitations out, and right after that prayer, we were able to give out 50 just following that prayer!
13) The wife and daughter of one of our Baptismal Dates both are now following the Savior's example, and that of their father's to be Baptized! We were so excited to see the change of heart that took place in their hearts from attending one of our Baptisms.
14) Ansh's doctors said he could go in the water. He had surgery for appendicitis just before his Baptism, but through a Priesthood Blessing was healed and jumping around all recovered. He was happier than anyone I've seen enter the waters of Baptism. That was a miracle of my mission I shall never forget.
15) 36 people came and attended our Baptism this Saturday! We arranged for pens and papers to be passed around, and they all wrote to our investigators being Baptized. They kept these many many papers of love and testimony and welcome and put them on their fridge at home.
16) Junior called excitedly one morning and shared with us that he got all his family history information done at the FHCenter and is ready to do their Temple work. He shared with me, "Elder Howard, sometimes I just sit and really think, where would I be and who would I be if you had never brought this gospel to my family. Now, one day I will serve my own mission and change people's lives the way you changed mine, and they'll say the same of me. Thank you for saving me and my family. You are the angel that saved my family." Those words went to my soul. I know he will be an angel to hundreds who await him. I know the Lord loves that family. They are my inspiration! I have watched them become extraordinary! This made me feel so humble and full of thanks to Heavenly Father for helping us find eachother.
17) Elder Datoon leading lessons and pushing in Hindi has led to miracles. We went to one lesson in particular where the woman's needs were perfectly met and she was crying and testified God sent us because He knew she was having these problems. It is so satisfying to see what my companion is able to do now and the growth he continues to gain.
This is Ansh Prakash! He just had emergency surgery and almost died only a little over a week ago. He was given Priesthood Blessings and is now recovered and jumping around and got Baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost! He and his family are one of the biggest and most precious miracles of my mission. This picture was taken just right after he was finally Baptized. He has been ready and wanting to be Baptized for months and months now. And this week, it finally happened. I was blessed to be able to enter the water with this, my best little brother, and take this eternal step with him.
If you have any comments or congratulations or words to give him, email me and I will show them to him! It would mean everything to this little boy if you shared something encouraging and expressing your enthusiasm for this miracle that allowed him to follow the Savior Jesus Christ against all mortal odds.
Something I have gained over the course of my mission:
"Powerful Goal Making Formula"
1) Know the Concern to be Resolved/Change Need to Make
example: stop scratching mosquito bites
2) Your Motives
Negatives (What you'd miss out on) ... List on
Positives (What you would gain) ... List on
Covenants, etc
3) Calendar (Time-Frame) checkpoints and deadlines for re-evaluation and re-assesments and reminders
4) Resources we have: ex. companion, reminder notes, prayer, planner, etc ... List on
5) People I Make Myself Accountable to:
Self, the Lord, Comp, Leaders, etc.
6) How I am Committed to Start it Right Now:
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