Week 81: "Every Nation, Kindred, Tongue, And People"

Good morning everyone! (Unless it's not morning for you) it's elder curtis! Writing this email from the great white North. This week was probably the most success I've ever seen on my mission. We worked so hard and saw an insane amount of miracles. I want to share with you the top 3. Trust me there were about 20 more but these are the best ones.

Coming in at #3 was the lesson we had with our friend Morgan on Thursday. Morgan has been struggling with the word of wisdom recently. He went far up north to visit his family for the holidays and fell off really horribly. His testimony was shaken and this lesson was a do-or-die. We had no idea what to teach him. So we decided to talk about receiving a witness to if the Book of Mormon was true, and what that would mean. We invited him to get on his knees right there with us and ask. He did, and he came up crying. He told us that he knew it was true. In his own words, "I can never leave now."

#2 We were driving to an appointment when we had an impression to stop by someone who was interested. His name was Ibsa. We knocked on his door and Ibsa answered! Turns out he had a family. It was him, his wife, and his 4 kids. They are from Ethiopia. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and invited them to come to church. They loved the book and promised they would. And they did! They took up a whole pew in sacrament meeting. Seenaa (the wife) loved relief society. Ibsa loved elders Quorum. Their son, Sonny, loved deacons Quorum. And their three kids loved primary! We're meeting with them on Tuesday. God is good.

#1 was the best lesson of my mission. We have been meeting with this family the Spitzers for about 2 months. The husband, brother spitzer, is not a member. He has been married to his wife for 25 years. For the last 25 years, he has adamantly told his wife he has no desire to join or learn about the church. In fact, the first time we went over, Sister spitzer told me and my companion to not focus the message on him. But slowly, over the last 5 visits, his heart has been softened. We went over on Thursday and taught him about baptism. He told us he would pray to ask God if it was the correct decision to be baptized. Their whole family had tears streaming down their cheeks. 

To conclude, I listened to music and the spoken word two weeks ago. The theme was, "we are living in the good ol days." Here's a quote:

"I’m even old enough now to at times have remembered a past event and said to myself, “Those were the good old days!” But a somewhat recent thought has stuck with me: “These days are the good old days of tomorrow!”

At first, that concept felt a bit strange, but as I’ve continued to think about it, I really feel it’s true. The very days we are in — days that are busy, days that are challenging, even days that aren’t perfect, and most aren’t — these days are the good old days of tomorrow. These are the days with rich moments that we will look back on and yearn to relive. These are the days that in the future we will recall with fondness, days when we were growing and being stretched, days when we were learning and experiencing, days when we were making the memories of a lifetime."

 

These are the good ol days! The days where we live now are the best days of our lives! I'm so grateful for these days I have to dedicate 100% of my time to the Lord.

Elder Curtis