California is very nice. It's
hard to remember that it is January because people are surfing...wearing t-shirts or shorts.....its like a nice summer day in Edmonton....totally weird but really nice. The palm trees and different
plantations are amazing. We barely street contact.
We work through the ward and go to the referrals we get from them. We
visit a lot of less actives but do this while everyone is working so
rarely got to reach anyone. My companion is an awesome guy. He is a good trainer. He
knows his doctrine. We get fed a lot in our ward. I am in the ward that is on the
"The District 2". Kind of cool. Our ward is awesome...they are
strong...they love the missionaries and they feed us lots. We get to
speak with them a lot and I love strengthening members.
The first
Sunday one of the speakers became ill and could not come to church to
speak. So, Elder Hinrichson and I got to speak! It's sweet to do a
talk on the fly! Goes to show how important studying the scriptures
is. We gave awesome talks and everyone in the ward was super impressed
and excited about the words we shared. If I didn't study my scriptures
that morning...I would not have shared the words that they needed that
morning. I referred to some of the words that Christ spoke on the mount
during His sermon; the parable of the man who built
his house on the rock compared to the man who built his house on the
sand; related how important it is that our faith be built on a rock.
How we can acquire such a strong foundation? What we can do to
strengthen our foundation? I Brought up how we need to have an eye single
to rightousness....to seek His kingdom first. God knows what we need
and he will provide. We need to have faith that we will be taken care
of and we need to have faith that as we seek His kingdom first....he
will do the rest. When we strive to seek for His kingdom first....our
foundation will become stronger. As we strive for His Kingdom first,
our faith with be strengthened. We have been asked to, "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matthew
5:48. As we strive to become like this....our foundation will become
like a rock. To build a foundation as sturdy as a rock....we apply so
many aspects of the principles and doctrines of the Gospel. We need to
apply the Atonement...repent daily...recognize what we can do better
and do them. We will hit speed bumps but that is part of learning.
Because of the Atonement we can be forgiven and progress. We need to
study the words of prophecy. We need to study daily and we need to apply
what we learn. We need to prayerfully study. We should tell our
Heavenly Father exactly how we feel : ) He loves to hear us. He loves
to hear and see the progress. That brings us to the importance of
prayer. We need to pray daily. Pray and allow time for the Spirit to
help you find your answers. When I get home I have started to say my
prayers to close the night about an hour before I go to bed. This way I
can express my concerns and ask my questions and as I study my
scriptures and think about things, the Spirit can help guide me to the
answers and guidance I am looking for. We need to allow time for the
Spirit to work within us. The more prayers I say a day the more I
learn. It's so cool! We need to act on our promptings. I think a
common problem with following promptings is that we have a specific
outcome in mind. So when that outcome doesn't happen we get
discouraged or don't recognize that it was a prompting. I still think
like this sometimes but my eyes have been opened more to recognize
the Spirit. My companion and I had some dead time before we
had our dinner appointment. We didn't have any more people to see but
had time to find some one. We asked for direction....concluded on
a destination and off we went. It reminded me of Nephi going to get
the brass plates from Laban. He didn't know how he was going to do it,
especially after the first and second time failed. The third time he
stated, "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things
which I should do." But he went. He had the strong feeling that that is
what he was to do. So my companion and I, not knowing what we were to
do, went. We got to the area and it's filled with big houses...some
of the driveways had giant boats...it was a well-off neighbourhood. I
was discouraged. In previous experiences people with nice houses, nice
toys and fancy cars can't see the need for Christ in their life. These
temporal things blind them. But we pressed on. We walked. We were
brought here for some reason. We walked and as we walked we talked about
the Spirit and how God tests us. We discussed how sometimes we are
prompted to do so something, get a result we didn't imagine or don't see the result to test our faith. Maybe He is testing us to see what we
will do the next time we are prompted. Are we going to follow the
guidance or are we going to push the promptings aside because the
previous time was a "failure". We walked this area until we came upon a
man taking his Christmas lights down. He was a super nice guy. We
talked for a bit and got along great. Eventually the Gospel and Christ
were brought up. He held back some words or experiences but said that
he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't even know if he believed any
more. When people say that you know that they really need your help
but when they say, "have a nice night" and walk away, you have to
respect their agency. We headed back to the car....we continued to talk
about what we concluded....how following the Spirit doesn't always bring
you to the outcome you imagined. But we knew that we were in the right place and that the Lord will have us go wherever we need to go
whether it be to teach someone else or teach us. We realized that this
time...it was a lesson for us. It was a lesson and a test to see if we
would follow His guidance we receive from the Spirit the next time. It
was sad but it was happy. I was happy to learn that. I accepted it. I
loved it. As we were getting to the street where we parked we came
across a man walking his dog. He wasn't Latino but he didn't talk with
an American accent. He was French. I called him out, very lovingly of
course, and asked where he lived prior to California. He lived near
Brussels in Belgium...I know. Out of all of California....we came
across a man who spoke a little bit of Dutch...California is either Latino or American....nothing else. We got to speak a bit to one
another. He knew what I was saying but couldn't reply back in Dutch so
he would reply in English. Even though he was way busy with work
he said he hoped that we would come across him again when he wasn't so
busy. Again...the little lesson I shared before about how we are
prompted to do something but don't always get the result we imagined and
the lesson that we don't know why we are prompted to do something or go
somewhere. A lesson that we will receive after our faith is
tested. That was my answer that it truly was a prompting to go where we
did. We were blessed to see that without a doubt by meeting probably 1
out of the handful of people who speak Dutch down here. The Spirit is
real, and he is hard to discern but the first step to understand and
recognize him is to act on his promptings. We need to act and we need
to strive to be perfect to welcome his companionship. We don't always
get what we plan for...but we can always have the companionship of
the Holy Ghost. Start transforming your foundation to that on a
rock. Work to turn that rock into a boulder. It doesn't matter how cool
or big a sand castle is at the beach. It can be 10 feet high and the
same width but once a wave hits it....it's gone. Be that rock
on the beach. Be that rock that gets hit wave, after wave, after
wave, but doesn't move. Start by building your faith. Study faith.
Faith is everything. I love you all and tot volgend weeken,
-Elder Holt
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