It's been another great week with continued progression! I continue to have increased companionship of the spirit and resultant increased guidance as well as increased power and authority in my teaching. I'm finally learning how to remember that I'm not perfect but continue despite that. The key has been to remember it but not focus on it. And with that I’ve been able to make a lot of progression, which has given me more desire to do better which has helped me learn more which has given me greater desires for righteousness, etc just like Abraham.
One noteworthy thing lately that’s happened is with one of our investigators, Johanna Ondong. She finally knows that this church is true! She came to church, and with the upcoming temple trip, she wants to go see the temple! She knows that she can’t go inside, but she heard that the spirit’s really strong there (even outsdide) and she wants to experience that for herself. I'm so happy for her and the changes she's making in her life - we're hoping to be able to teach her husband and children as well, but in the meantime we'll focus on her and wait for their time to come. It will eventually.
Then there's an investigator family, the Jarana (huh-ran-uh) family - I've been teaching them since the end of November...they wouldn't pray at our first lesson, and when we asked them to pray the second visit they pulled out a piece of paper and read off a prayer they had written according to the pattern we had given them - we tried to explain to them that their prayers were supposed to be from the heart and not recited, and we thought that was the end of it, but they were too used to the recited Catholic prayers. It turns out the had lost their recited prayer for awhile, but time before last they pulled it out again and read off their prayer - later as we planned our next visit I realized if we didn't teach them the right way to pray they'd never be able to pray sincerely with real intent with faith that they'd get an answer, and without which they would not be able to progress. So we taught about praying sincerely, and as we taught I had a scripture come to mind, which was later brought up by our branch president as well - i guess we were on the same spiritual wavelength. at any rate, it was 3 Nephi 13:7-8 about praying with "vain repetitions as the heathen". Earlier they had brought out the prayer, and I had asked for it to show my companion - they never asked for it back, and they understood that they shouldn't use it... while they were reading the scripture and looking at the Book of Mormon I slipped the paper into my bag - it is now in my journal as remembrance of them and how after that thir prayers were more sincere than the prayers of many members.
Hope all's well wi8th you and yours!
-og sulugoon sa Ginoo,
(- a servant of the Lord,)
~Si Elder Dallin Carlson
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