Canberra Zone Week 17

Dear Everyone,

BEST WEEK EVER!!!! :) Christmas is the best, missionary work is the best, and this life is just awesome. I am sorry I do not have long to write today. We are back up in Sydney for Missionary Leadership Conference. I am so excited for this upcoming week though. Starting off a new year will bring so much energy and some new and improved goals that I want to accomplish. Christmas was great- don't have time to go into the details though :( 

We have seen SOOOO many miracles this past week that have made me so much more grateful. The Lord truly is merciful. Have to go, Love you all!

What a wonderful week down here. I greatly enjoyed the Christmas Conference before Christmas and then spending Christmas day here with the families and missionaries that seem almost as if they are my family. This Christmas was a very unique and special Christmas that I know I will not forget. Though there was no hot cocoa and snowmen or caroling in the snow, the true message of Christmas was present and influential in my life. On Christmas eve it was great to have a little "Christmas devotional" as a flat. We sang together, shared our feelings of Christmas, and listened to President Monson's address that he gave at the worldwide Christmas broadcast. Listening to it made me really wish that we would have had the opportunity to see it, but I know the message is still the same being heard or seen. I will also admit, I don't think I have ever been so excited to open a christmas gift as I was on Christmas day to find that I had been sent new socks and some new pants. Both of which I was in desperate need of. My family does know me very well since they also sent some of my favorite goodies and some heart felt letters and cards. I am so grateful to represent the Savior, especially at this special time of year. 

This week as I studied the Christlike attributes, I was grateful to see that over the course of my mission, I have improved in Christlike attributes. I have rated myself several times using the attribute activity, and though I am not yet all 5's... I have improved in many areas. As we continue to work on improving ourselves, we not only become better at doing things like Christ, but we become better at being more like Christ. He wants us to truly change and become better permanently. 


Sorry this week's letter will be shorter, we don't have too much time to write on emails today because of Missionary Leadership Conference, but we will be seeing you shortly.

Sincerely,

Elder Shafer

Canberra Zone Week 16

Unfortunately we don't have an email letter to share with everyone this week.  However, we have an extra special post.  For Christmas, each of the missionaries are able to speak with their families.  This Christmas, we were able to Skype with Kyle.  We aren't able to share the entire call with everyone, but we do have a few favorite pieces to share with everyone.

Grandparents: "I have never in my life heard a more sincere testimony.  I could just feel how close he is to the Savior.  It meant so much to hear that he is prepared to meet the Savior.  He is so close to the Savior and I felt that in his testimony.  I just felt how much the Savior loves him."

Mom:  "I loved hearing about his experience with the missionaries that he has served with.  I appreciated the love that he has for the missionaries, especially at whatever stage they are at and the service they are able to render knowing that they come from so many different backgrounds.  It was so neat to hear how it inspired him and helped him grow."

Dad: "I really appreciated how he distinguished his growth in the different areas of his mission and the types of members he was able to meet, and how he sees the gospel working in different dimensions and families and changing individuals lives."

Mark/Laura: "I loved seeing his radiant smile."

Chris/Michelle: "I loved how Kyle showed gratitude for the love and support of his family.  He said people in Australia don't know my first name, but they do know my family name.  I am glad that I not only get to represent the Savior, but also my family."

As an extra special treat, we did record a little bit of our Skype session with Kyle.  He is sharing his testimony with us.  It was honestly, probably the favorite part for everyone!  Hope you enjoy it as much as we all did!

Canberra Zone Week 15

Dear Everyone!

 

Because of our mission-wide Christmas conference next Monday, I am not sure if I will get to email or not before Christmas day, so I figured I would use the time now and say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! :) This past week was another glorious week here in the Canberra zone. Stacey Smiler was baptized. Her husband plays for the Canberra Brumbies (professional Rugby Union team) and is an RM. Things went a bit south for him for a while, but thankfully he got things figured out since the missionaries started meeting with him and he was able to baptize his wife just 2 days ago! The sisters have been teaching her steadily, but Elder White and I had the privelige to go over to their home a couple times for dinner and a lesson and have gotten quite close with them. Even last minute he texted us saying the white pants he thought would fit actually don't and asked to wear mine. Although they were a bit short since he is 6'4" the waist was adjustable just to the right size for him. It was really weird to see him all dressed up nice like that because normally when we see him he is still in his workout gear and is just RIPPED haha. Seriously, everytime he opens the door to us, I just get a tiny bit scared but luckily he is so nice and doesn't squeeze us too hard when he gives us "bro hugs." One of the greatest things that just made the weekend for Elder White and I was when Stacey shared the experience that made her choose to be baptized. She had been thinking and praying for a long time about if she should actually get baptized. She had been taught all the necessary lessons, but just felt that she wasn't ready yet. She then said over the pulpit the following: "I haven't told anyone this yet, but I feel I should share it now. Just the other week I was at home doing chores and cleaning up a bit and was thinking about my baptism. I decided to kneel down and pray to ask Heavenly Father if I should be baptized, and that if He wanted me to be baptized, to please show me. I finished my prayer and kept doing my chores when about 10 minutes later Elder White and Elder Shafer knocked on my door. It surprised me because we didn't have a set appointment and Jordan wasn't home so they couldn't come in. They said they were really excited for me to get baptized and just wanted to drop by and say hello. After they left I remembered the prayer I had just said and realized that Heavenly Father had sent me them as a message that I should be baptized." This was very surprising for Elder White and I to hear because normally people's prayers are not answered in such a way, however we were both so grateful we had acted on the prompting to go. After she told that story I remembered how Elder White and I were driving to another appointment near her home and felt that we should drop by. I remember talking about it because we knew Jordan wouldn't be home and so we couldn't go in, but still decided to go and just say hello to her and say we were excited for her to be baptized because the sisters had told us she wanted to be baptized, but didn't feel comfortable yet. We figured just a friendly drop by couldn't hurt, but thankfully, Heavenly Father had it planned out to be an answer to Stacey's prayer.

They are the COOLEST little family ever. She will be giving birth within a week or so from now and so it was just in time for her baptism haha. We were afraid she may have a water birth when she entered the faunt, but luckily... all went well :)

 

I am so excited for Christmas!! :) I am grateful for Jesus Christ, because "He is the reason for the season." The more I am out on the mission the more I realize the world does not revolve around me, but it does revolve around Him. Without Him, we would have no hope or light but only be left with a dark world. Just as we walk down the streets and see the Christmas lights lit up and beautiful, if you shut them off, the world automatically becomes dark again. He is the Light, the Life and the Way. I encourage everyone to go and share this light with those around them. Even a small glimmer of light can be seen from far away when all around us is dark. No matter how small you may feel your light is, Let it shine forth for others to see. There is a wonderful mormon message in which we learn of the Light of Christ. I invite all to watch and enjoy it : http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-01-010-patterns-of-light-the-light-of-christ?lang=eng

 

I do believe He lives and I am grateful He does. I wish everyone a merry merry Christmas with their family and friends for "christmas time is family time, and family time is sacred time!" :)

 

Love you!

 

Elder Shafer

 

p.s. I almost forgot My letter to president ;b sorry!

 

Merry Christmas!! :) The time is fast approaching in which Christmas day will be here. We had a great ward activity down here in which two of our recent converts joined with us last Friday night. It was spectacularly done and they really enjoyed it. It also really helped me to welcome in the Christmas Spirit as the days are fast approaching. Yesterday the talks were all focused on the Spirit of Christ and how He needs to be the focus of Christmas, not all the other fluff that we give Christmas. I am so grateful to serve as a missionary at this wonderful time of the year! People are happier and enjoying themselves more as they continue to look forward to Christmas coming. Just last night we shared a message with a less active family about the true meaning of Christmas, and immediately afterward, the 3 yr old son went and grabbed some candies off of the Christmas tree and gave them to Elder White and I. It was a touching moment as he was willing to give because this particular child in times past has NEVER given things away. He is usually a very rowdy and energetic kid, who doesn't like to share, but for some reason, even he was touched by the message of Christmas and freely gave us of his candy. I love this festive season where we can focus on giving to others, and it seems that people are more willing to give than at other times of the year. It is true that the Spirit of Christmas is contagious. 

 

This week, from studying the Book of Mormon, I have continued to learn how often Christ speaks to and leads His people. Many of the references in the first couple chapters of the Book of Mormon to the Savior are when He has commanded them to do something. This is a thought that has impressed on my mind more deeply this past week. He speaks often and commands often. Lehi and his family were commanded to leave. Then when 3 days away from Jerusalem, His sons were commanded to go back, then when they had returned to their parents in the wilderness, they had to go back AGAIN in order to get Ishmael's family to go with them. The question came to my mind: Why did the Lord command them to do it that way? Couldn't they have just packed up with Ishmael's family in the beginning and then all left together with the Plates? Surely the Lord could have made that possible, but He didn't. He wanted to try their faith and help them to develop trust in His commandments. There were many more trials that awaited the family, and I feel that He had to start small and try to help them develop faith and Trust in Him before their 8 year journey into the wilderness, then building a boat, followed by crossing an entire ocean to try and settle a new land. I am not sure that these are all of the reasons why it happened that way, but as for my personal opinion I give it that often we need to be tested in small things before we have any hope to deal with the large problems in life. I learned from them that I need to follow His commandments even when it doesn't quite make sense, or even when they seem repetitive, because He, unlike myself, can see the end from the beginning.

As I studied more from Preach My Gospel chapter 9 this past week, I came to realize I do not pray enough for people to find. I often pray for those I am already teaching and the ward members, but my prayers directly to find new people to teach are lacking. This is something I would like to change. I want to specifically pray for more people to find and share my testimony with every day. Doing this, and then going forth and opening my mouth with the thought "perhaps this is the person I prayed for today" will really help me to have faith to find. We had a great experience the other day with doing this. Elder White and I were walking to our apt and on the way saw a teenage young man with his bmx bike just standing by himself near the walk way. Though we were most likely going to be a minute late to our apt with our investigator, I figured I had better take this opportunity and just pray things worked out for the best. They did! We were able to talk to him, and 2 of his friends that came up shortly after we met him. We had a quick but good discussion with them and exchanged contact details to meet again at another time. Feeling excited, we hurried off to our apartment to find out that he was actually running late as well and were able to talk to several more people while waiting for him to come. I am so grateful I decided to "step off the path" so to speak and talk to him instead of justifying myself by saying I don't want to be late to an appointment. I really hate being late to things and so it is easy for me to get into a "tunnel vision" mode when on my way to appointments and things, but thankfully, that day and from now on, I want to get out of my tunnel vision, and look around for the opportunities the Lord has given me. I know that there are many people out there waiting to hear our message. They are looking for the truth. We need to make sure we are also looking for them.

Canberra Zone Week 14

Dear everyone,

 

A picture is worth 1000 words, so I will include some pictures from the baptism to explain how great it was. But, it was such a rewarding week this week for Us. So crazy to think of how quickly time goes by. Noni, whom we just met 6 weeks ago was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was such a special experience for her and for us to see her make that first covenant.

As we need to go, I will let my Letter to President and the pictures tell the rest of the story :)

 

The best week ever in Canberra for me!! :) Noni's baptism was a great experience and the confirmation the following day was superb. She truly has qualified herself for the blessings that come from making and keeping this first covenant. After the confirmation, the bishop invited her to come and share her testimony as part of sacrament meeting and she shared a brief, but very sincere testimony. My favorite thing she said is that "since I have been meeting with the Missionaries, I have come to know that Jesus Christ really did die for me, and that Heavenly Father loves us." This was really significant to me because she has grown up being a Christian and believing in God her whole life, but it goes to show that the spirit bearing witness of the truth makes an impression that will always be remembered. I feel that her testimony of the divinity of Christ and His sacrifice truly has been strengthened so much. As has mine. Everyday as I ponder and search the scriptures, I come to know Christ better. I know that there is still much for me to learn which excites me, but the things that I have learned are priceless. Today as I studied for a lesson we will be having tonight regarding repentance and the atonement of Christ allowing us the opportunity to repent and be forgiven, I continued to find scripture after scripture that talks about how we must be penitent in order to be forgiven. Although Jesus Christ has already paid the price for our sins, we still have to allow him to take them from us. We have our agency and He will not make us clean against our will. I think sometimes how this is like when I was a young kid playing around outside. My mother never chased after me with a bucket of soap and water making me clean when I wanted to keep playing and get dirty, but when I wanted to go back home, I had to make sure I was clean before going inside. I had to be willing to come in and have her help me get rinsed off. The same is with the Atonement. The price has been paid, the bucket of soapy water is available for use, but I must be willing to offer up my sins and repent from the things which I have done. I must truly have changed my desire so that I no longer want to do that thing in order to become fully clean. And through it all, Christ is there supporting me and welcoming me back to Him. One of my favorite verses that I found today is 3 Nephi 9: 22- "Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved." I am so grateful this opportunity is always available to me and to all of us. Noni has experienced this and I know she will continue to grow stronger in her testimony through time.

This week, honestly the greatest miracle was seeing her be baptized, confirmed, and stand to bear her testimony. She has always been a very shy person, but her testimony affected all of us present.

From studying more about key indicators I realized that these truly do Indicate what we are focusing on and they can very acurately indicate what we need to improve upon. They are not just numbers for reporting and recording, but tell us signs and can help us see what we need to adjust to continually be more effective. For example- as a lifeguard we had to regularly check the chemical levels in the pool. These numbers indicated how much chlorine we needed to add or if there was something deficient in the filters etc. Such is the same with key indicators. if we look at it merely as numbers we could be swimming in a "toxic pool" and not even realize it. But if we learn from our key indicators every week and truly focus to achieve our goals, then we can all be swimming happily and enjoy the work. Maybe that is not the best analogy, but I now understand better the importance of evaluating our actuals and setting goals that will help us truly be successful.

I love starting to read the Book of Mormon again as a mission. My companion and I daily have had very similar questions arise as we read and we are able to discuss them and gain new insights during our studies together. For example, today Elder White mentioned that the question came to him "why didn't Lehi go with his sons to get the brass plates?" and I just laughed because I had thought about the SAME question. Why did the Lord command Lehi to send his sons, but not go himself? We discussed how we felt that it may have been to be a test of faith for the sons as well as for Lehi and Sariah. It may not have been the most important question, but I do enjoy truly trying to put myself into the scriptures and think about what it would have been like to be there. The Book of Mormon has such a simplicity about it that I love, yet there are many things which allow you to ponder on questions and gain deeper insights as to how the Lord communicates and deals with His children.
I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am excited to increase my testimony of it by reading it yet again. 

 

 

 

As you can tell..... I was pretty excited hehe. Elder Roberts said to give the "biggest smile you've got." So I gave it :)

 

Love yous!

 

Elder Shafer

Canberra Zone Week 13

Dear Everyone,

Transfers just happened yesterday and we have THE BEST zone ever! Elder White and I are still here and the new missionaries we have in the zone are just awesome. 8/12 of them have been out less than 6 months and so there is some extreme fire and faith in the zone which gets me really stoked. The Spirit can teach us how to be great missionaries, but we must put forth the desire. I believe we will see great sucess because I can see that every single one of these missionaries that we have has great desire to share the Gospel. I wish time was longer today, we are meeting with Noni in 15 minutes and need to go, but here is my letter to President Lew.

This week was quite an interesting week down here. It was still really good but we have had HEAPS of service hours which I would have preferred to be spent in teaching, however I know that serving the ward is extremely important. I am not sure exactly why, but we have 4 families that are all deciding to move within 2 weeks of each other, and so last week and this week as well we have been asked to help them move. Last Saturday was particularly rough. A family was moving into our ward, and we had heard the ward they were leaving would help them move out of the house, and our ward would help move in. We coordinated with the missionaries from the area they were leaving and they mentioned they could probably use some help, so we decided to go and help them as well. as it turns out, only one member from their ward showed up, so we helped them unload everything that we could get into the truck, then drove up to their new house and helped them unload and repeated the process until is was finished. Long story short, communication wasn't the best in announcing the move and so the job fell upon just us 4 missionaries to complete. I have never been so exhausted from moving in my life- from 9 am until 4:30 pm we helped this family move from one house into the other in the sun. All of us got a bit burnt, but we definitely slept amazingly well that night since all of us were really tired from the move. This and other moves that were similar have made me really appreciate the opportunity to serve. When it comes right down to it, we are here to serve. I am obviously more excited about serving through helping people spiritually come closer to Christ, but also the opportunity to just dig in and work hard in helping with temporal affairs is satisfying as well. After this week I know the importance as well of setting up good plans and spreading the word so to speak :) We have two more families that are moving this week as well, so here is to hoping these ones go better than the previous ones!

On a happier note, Noni is getting baptized this weekend!!!! :) She has been an ongoing miracle since day 1. We met her just 6 weeks ago. She has attended all 3 hours of church ever since and has been studying, praying, and diving into the gospel ever since. She is so well prepared. She just texted us last night expressing how excited she was and that she feels "God is in my heart." I have been able to see first hand how the Spirit has affected her. Without any promptings or teaching by us, her lifestyle began to change. For example, before we had taught her the Word of Wisdom, she committed herself to not drink anymore. She also started dressing more modestly and using more refined language. The best part is that she truly searched these things out for herself. We had planned a lesson to teach her the 10 Commandments one day and she pulled out her notebook wherein she had already written them all down and her "modern day interpretation" of what they meant. She nailed them all right on the head, but still was humble enough to ask us more questions and asked us to still go over them and teach her more about them. She truly has been such a miracle to witness how much this gospel blesses lives. Her children love coming to church and have even used their sharing time in school to talk about Jesus. Something that is quite remarkable since religion isn't a very popular thing here in Australia. The Spirit has been working through her and she honestly has been growing in her conversion, and now, 6 weeks later she will make her first covenant with Heavenly Father through baptism. It is so exciting!! :)

From studying page 6 and 7 of Preach My Gospel this week, I have come to understand better that I need to always testify of the Restoration. Everything that we teach ties back to it, because the truth of everything that we teach relies upon it. If the restoration had not happened, everything that we teach would be of little to no benefit. But because it did happen, our life here has true purpose and our future has hope. There was a great lesson that I learned from pondering an investigators question this week. He has a hard time believing that God is real and that there is life after this. He mentioned that in his mind, this being the only life we have makes it all the more valuable. Since this is all that we have, he feels it is rare and precious and not a single moment should be wasted in false hopes or beliefs that are not true. I will admit his opinion suprised me- that the notion of life after this had a certain appeal to him. The next day I sat there pondering his question and realized that our life is an investment. Such as the parable of the talents, all of us have been given a certain amount of time here on this earth. Some will live long lives, others short, but it isn't the amount that matters, it is how we use them. The servant who made 10 talents out of 5 received great blessings, but so did the one who made 4 out of 2. They both were promised they would receive much much more than they had been given. However the one who saved his talent lost that which he had been given. Such is our lives. When we invest our life unto Christ, we are promised things beyond what we can comprehend at this time, but if we invest our lives into our own selves and satisfying our own desires, we lose those things which we could have received. Understanding this helps me to realize that having a life after this makes this life extremely valuable and of great importance. Back to my investment analogy- if we invest our money into a company that has extreme sucess, we receive great reward, but if we invest in a company which tanks and returns nothing back, we have lost all that we have. Therefore, after pondering this, I really want to meet with him again and help him understand the same concept so that he will realize how important this life is. How rare and valuable it is because our future and potential happiness depend upon how we invest our time and talents in this life. I am so grateful for the good questions and sitatuations that investigators ask.

I have gained a true testimony that although I do not have anywhere near all the answers, the Lord does. And when I am humble and seek revelation, He is willing to give me the answers that I need to receive. I have had many situations on my mission in which I respond "I do not know" but always, I back that up with bearing testimony of what I do know. I know that Jesus Christ lives and Atoned for me. I know that this is His church on the earth, not just another good church that makes us better people, but this is THE church that He watches over and guides through modern day prophets. My testimony of this burns within me and grows each time I testify of its truth. I am so grateful for this blessing that this knowledge brings into my life. I do not fear for the future because I will always have hope through Christ. I had the opportunity to testify that truth to another investigator who had difficulty believing what we were trying to teach and testify of. I said "the message that we share is hope." Without Jesus Christ, all is hopeless and useless. If not for Him, all would be of no signifigance in the eternal scheme. We would live, die and that would be the end. No happiness or joy. But because of Him, we have hope. Hope that one day we can live with Him and our families again forever. To enjoy the happiness that is found in unity and love. Of all things that can be hoped for, is there better? I believe there is not. There is no better solution or idea than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is perfect. We are not perfect, but He and His plan is. I am grateful for my testimony of this and am grateful that during this Christmas season, I will continue to have the opportunity to declare to the world that Jesus was born, crucified, and lives again. I believe this with all my heart.

Till next week,

Elder Shafer

Canberra Zone Week 12

Hello everyone!

 

Because I am back up in Sydney for the day, and have to pay for the internet, this week will be a shorter email. We have another Mission Leadership Conference, so we enjoyed a nice drive up last night and will be having the conference today then return tomorrow morning. Oddly enough, driving in Australia is a beautiful thing. So many amazing things to see in the environment as you drive over 300 kilometers. Here is the email:

 

What another great week down here in Canberra! The weather has finally warmed up (perhaps a bit too hot on some days) but I won't complain because of the miracles we keep seeing! We keep accomplishing several of our weekly goals, and for what I can remember as the first time ever in my mission have exceeded the Member Present Lessons goal that my companion and I have set for a month. We really have focused on having more effective teaching, and so we have continued to push to the very end to bring a friend along to help our investigators feel fellowshipped and welcome. We have had a great response as we have done this. Members now come to us and are offering their schedules for when they are available and are asking for us to schedule appointments during when they are available so that they can help teach our investigators. It has been great to see the ward continue to grow closer together and come to continue supporting missionary work more and more every week. This week we saw a great miracle in using the phone more. We have hundreds of numbers that are saved in our phone that are either potential investigators that previous missionaries have talked to, or former investigators. Everyday we try to make some "miracle calls" We will say a prayer and then one of us will start just scrolling through the numbers until the other one says stop. Even though it may seem silly, we have seen some intense miracles by doing this! This week when we tried it, my companion spoke to Dominic. He mentioned it had been a long time since he had talked with missionaries but he would be keen to meet us. We scheduled an apt and invited him to bring any of his friends along. The 2 days later we met him and his classmate named Tam. Though they are quite opposite, they get along pretty well and we struck up some great discussions with them from How to Begin Teaching and then shared with them how they could know that God really does exist. Dominic has a hard time believing in anything that cannot be proved by science, but Tam already believes In Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, he is just not sure where he exactly stands in regards to faith. He goes up and down as I believe all of us do, but lacks a strong testimony. Though teaching them seperately would be help them to overcome their concerns because they are quite different, I feel we did a great job in trying to teach to both of their needs. They committed to come to church the next day, and Dominic said the first prayer of his entire life to end the Lesson. We are meeting with them again this coming Wednesday and are really excited to continue to share with them more about the restoration. Tam asked such a great question that we will love to answer more fully on Wednesday. He asked "which domination of Churches do you fall under?" After a simple explanation of the restoration, I think his interest was definitely perked and I wished that we would have had more time to fully explain, but this Wednesday we definitely will answer his question. Such a great miracle from a small and simple thing as a phone call

Also, we had the opportunity to meet with Richard Morutu, the Referral you gave us this week. We had plans to meet him eariler, but he had to cancel because his wife was sick. We texted him on Wednesday just to say we wished his wife well and to ask if there was any way we could help, and he called us out of the blue saying he would like to meet on his lunch break that day in just over an hour (thankfully we didn't have another apt scheduled at that same time!) So we met with him and he is great! He has done so much personal research and has actually read the Book of Mormon since he was a little kid. He has great memories of reading it and looking at the pictures that were included in the childrens edition. He said he would prepare himself for baptism since he knows it is God's will to do so. He is a man that is very, very obedient to God's will. On our first meeting he talked about that for about 10 minutes- of how even though he doesn't want to do some of the things because it would be difficult or uncomfortable etc, he feels that it is right and so he proceeds to do it. He has had some really interesting spiritual experiences that he shared with us, to where he knows God is real and can't deny it. We look forward to continued visits with him. He lives about an hour away from our flat and the chapel, but works down in woden area, which is just 20 minutes from us, so it is convenient for us to meet him twice a week on his lunch break. Thank you so much for the trust you have placed in us to teach him.

This week, from Chapter 10, I have learned more about How to Begin Teaching, making sure that we really teach to someone's needs and discover those needs as early as possible. I think a great example of this was meeting Tam. At first, I thought that he would be against the church just because of some of his initial comments, but as it turns out, once he saw that we are there to help him grow closer to Christ and not to tear down the faith he has, he was much more open with us. He mentioned that he really hates when Religions or churches talk negatively about other faiths and so he was happy to hear that we agree that all men are free to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience. He is an honest seeker of truth and is quite excited to continue to meet with us. I am glad that I had reveiwed points about how to begin teaching before meeting with Him and dominic because we definitely needed to establish a relationship with them before they would feel open to talk with us. I am so grateful for Preach My Gospel!! I can't imagine how I would function as a missionary without it

 

Love,

 

Elder Shafer