Monday, February 22, 2016

Letter #84

Dear Mum and Family,

This week has been a better week. As you know we have been struggling lately with getting people to listen to us so we can share our message. It hasn't gotten any easier but we have seen some tender mercies of the Lord as we have worked this past week. 

S***** is doing really well. This past week we have been keeping up with him and helping him to see the importance of reading the scriptures and praying daily. He has also been to church the past two weeks, which is great. He is excited for his baptism in the next couple of weeks. There has been some excitement in his life as he has done all he can to receive his answer. It's been great to teach him and help him come closer to Christ and prepare for his baptism. 

We tried to see D**** a couple times this past week but he is so busy with school that he had to keep switching the day to meet and it just never worked out. Hopefully we will be able to see him sometime this week. He is just trying to get things figured out with school and his new job. 
I think the most fun I had this week was going on exchange with Elder Shaw. It felt kind of weird to serve with each other for a day and thinking how a year ago we were together. Time goes so fast. We had a great time teaching and finding people all day. Talking about good memories we had gave us a good laugh. It was a lot of fun. Going on that exchange was definitely a tender mercy. 

The other day we went tracking. Before we went out to tract we were having our dinner and I didn't really want to go out. It was raining and pretty windy. I knew that we needed to though because it was what we were guided to plan in our planning the night before and I knew that God had prepared people for us to see. So we went out and we found some great success. And I got man cave points since we got wet. Haha But anyway we found some really cool people in the little time that we were out that have invited us back to see them. We had a couple great conversations with some people on their doorstep and I am so excited to go and meet with them again sometime. We will be stopping by sometime during this week so hopefully we will find them in and be able to teach them. 

It is good to hear that you are jealous because we were wearing shorts. Haha. That was a pretty nice day I have to admit. It was still a little chilly but I am not complaining. It was definitely not cold enough to receive snow like you are experiencing. Haha. The weather is actually quite nice today also. There are a few clouds in the sky and it's probably not warm enough to wear shorts but it is pretty close. 

Well I guess I will get to the weekly thought since I am a man of few words and I don't know what to write. 

Weekly thought 

I will be honest I didn't take the time to really study out Ezekiel 47 this week. So my thought won't be on that chapter. Sorry about that. As I have been going throughout the week I have focused a lot of the first principle of the Gospel which is Faith in Jesus Christ. I thought I would share a few thoughts with you today.

Let's start off with what is faith. We know the Scripture in Alma 32:21 which says: 
"...faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
In Hebrews 11:1 we read:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
In order for faith to be faith it has to be centered around something that is not known. It has to be something that we cannot see with our physical eyes. "If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, then there is no need for faith. Indeed, there is no room for it. …" (Boyd K. Packer)
Joseph Smith said that faith is a confidence in 3 things:
1. God exists
2. God has divine attributes and He can do what He says he can do
3. The path you are on is the correct one.
When you know these things to be true then you have faith. When you know these things are true and you know you have faith in God you are able to do things by faith. 
In Hebrews 11 we read about different people who did things by their faith.
Verse 4 "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain..."
Verse 5 "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death..."
Verse 7 "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house..."
Verse 8 "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed..."
It goes on and on but I will stop there because I believe you get the point. 
I want to ask you a question now concerning your personal faith. What have you done by faith today?  
In Mathew 17:20 it says:
"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you can remove mountains. Well we don't need to remove mountains we just need to have the faith to get out of bed and say our prayers. We need to have faith to have daily scripture study. We need to have faith to follow the Prophet.  Sometimes we make the gospel too complicated when really it is simple. Dieter F. Utchdorf said, "This beautiful gospel is so simple a child can grasp it."  I can guarantee that you have done something that requires faith at some point today. You just need to look with your spiritual eyes. 
So how do we increase our faith. In Preach My Gospel page 116 it says:
"Your faith will increase through diligent study, prayer, dedicated service, and obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and the commandments."
Earlier I said that they way we use faith is by daily scripture study, praying, following the prophet, following the commandments. From that we learn that by using our faith we increase our faith. I believe the opposite is true too. By not using our faith we lose it or it weakens. 
My challenge for you today is to use your faith more. Do those simple things that will strengthen your faith.  We express our faith through action or through the way we live. Show our Heavenly Father that you have faith in him. I can promise you that as you do so your faith will be strengthened and you will grow close to our Savior and our Heavenly Father. 
Have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Peterson
PS.
I think it's funny that you think I have a girlfriend to write. Haha keep dreaming. You won't be a mother in law until Lyndsey gets married. With the way she is I don’t  think that will be anytime soon. Haha

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