This week was short, long and in between. It feels like it was just Wednesday yesterday yet, so much has happened in the last week and I am left wondering how it all went by so quick. Well here is a run down of how the week went:
This week our mission gathered in Kirtland for a special visit from President Uchtdorf!
President and Sister Uchtdorf have a grandson leaving on a mission next year, so they brought him out to tour the Kirtland sites this past week and took some time out of their schedule to meet with our mission. It was such an amazing opportunity. A few of my favorite highlights from his talk include:
1.We need to set goals for our life. He said that if we don’t have a destination in mind then it doesn’t matter where we go. We need to always be planning but at the same time be humble, submissive and willing enough to change the destination as we go along when God shows us what we need to do. In using the specific goal of serving a mission he said that no matter what our intentions were in coming out, we can make the most of this experience and it will impact the rest of our lives.
2. Some other brief highlights from the talk were when he talked about how we shouldn’t underestimate the power of prayer especially the power of praying for toher. He mentioned how each week when he meets with President Monson that President Monson never fails to say how grateful he is for the prayers of the members of the church. He talked about D&C 121:45, which is one of my favorite scriptures, saying that if we don’t feel "confident before God" that the solution is right there. We are promised that confidence as we let virtue Garnish our thoughts. We can Judge that by how we feel as we pray each night when we come before God in Prayer, are our thoughts ones that if we were thinking them in the presence of God that we would feel comfortable? Thoughts become actions at some point so why not let virtuous thoughts garnish our mind then our actions will reflect that.
3.Since we had recently celebrated Independence day, he told us that we can make each day our own independence day. No matter what sorrow the previous day has brought, we can go to bed that night and thank Heavenly Father for how we have grown through our trials, then we can wake up the next morning and thank Him for our blessings--then live that day to the fullest! Then to end it out he gave the mission an apostolic blessing saying, "You will be confident before God and find joy in your service and feel God with you, as will your family, especially those that have strayed as you serve diligently and give dedicated work to the Lord. He is such an incredible speaker. I also loved the fact that he kept cracking jokes--that helped me remember that he is a person just like us. He explained to us how he felt when he received his calling to be an apostle, and that our responsibility in our callings is just as important in our area of responsibility as his is in his area of responsibility.
Two days after that we went to all of the available church history sites in the Kirtland area with Brother Stone and a member from the Branch. We first went to the John Johnson Farm which I think is a hidden gem in church history because of the fact that Section 76 of the doctrine and covenants was received there. Sadly, we missed President Uchtdorf being there by one day. He had gone the day prior with his family and had talked with the sister Missionaries there and the whole 9 yards and if we would have decided to go the day earlier we would have run into him! That's alright though it was still really awesome and it was really good for Brother Stone to be able to get out of the house and go learn abut Church history as he is still having a hard time with his wife having passed away only a month ago. I know I have said this before, but I am so extremely Grateful to be serving in this mission where so many events of the restoration took place. President Uchtdorf called this place the "Hub" of modern day revelation.
Alright last story for the week, we have been doing a decent amount of finding and have seen some good miracles happen! We found 1 new investigator last night and 2 more on Monday and we also picked up a few more potentials so that was good but we had a not so normal experience last night happen to us as we were tracting. We knocked, a Lady answered and at first she seemed not all that interested and said she didn’t have much time. But we testified of Christ and apparently it softened her heart and she told us that Sundays would work best for her and that she needed to write it down on her calendar so she told us to come in while she went to write it on her calendar. While she was doing that she asked if could share something more with her while she was writing so we talked about the importance of prayer and how starting that right now with her daughter will help her have a solid foundation for when she is older. Well while we were talking about that she just up and says "Hope you don’t mind, I am going to breast feed my baby" and next thing I know she was breast feeding her child with no cover or nothing. I was Grateful that her other child had brought a helium balloon over with a weight tied to the end of it and put it down in front of me so then I didn’t have to look at her as we finished talking about prayer. But poor Elder McCarrey wasn’t as lucky as I was and the look on his face was priceless right when it first happened. shortly there after she stopped and we left her with a word of prayer and a return appointment for a week from now which hopefully will be a little less eventful.
Well, that is all for the week! A statement that I heard this week has had me thinking and I thought it was pretty good so I will share it as my closing thoughts. The statement was, "This world is full of too many "Christians" that care more about being politically correct instead of Jesus Correct." Oh how true that statement is. There is no spiritual power in being a convenient Christian. There is no power in only keeping the commandments when it is convenient. I hope and pray that we all may stay strong in our testimonies of Christ and not fall into the trap of convenient Christianity. As my time comes to a close out here, I am ever more grateful for the many lessons that I have learned and the habits I have formed. God is Great and his Gift that he gave to us of his Son Jesus Christ is the worlds #1 greatest gift ever. That I know to be true.
I love you all! Have a great week.
Stay Cute,
Elder Frandsen
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