Things are going better here. We finally had someone come to church on Sunday. That was nice. Everything is picking up. We had a pretty tough lesson on Monday with one of our investigators. It was a great learning experience for us and a definite testimony builder because he would just not listen. It was really sad though. After, Anz. Schwiermann and I were talking about our investigator's reaction to the things we were saying and the scriptures we read and the Spirit there in general, and we are both positive that he knows what he was saying is wrong. He just couldn't admit it. I hope one day he sees that. It was sad overall because he knows the Church is true; he is just hung up on a couple of small things that don't matter that much. He wants a solid scriptural answer for every single thing and sometimes it just requires a bit of faith to accept that all the answers don't come right away. Sometimes they don't even come in this life.
It's getting warm here. I'm kind of glad I don't have to do another summer in Italy. Too hot and too many yellow shirts.
I've been reading a lot, especially from Jesus the Christ. Really good book. It's a really fascinating, in depth analysis on the life of Christ. It's especially interesting to read about all the different possible lessons learned from His various parables and miracles. For example, one that I never thought of a certain way was the feeding of the five thousand. Every body is getting hungry and the disciples come to Christ saying that they should send the multitudes into the city to get food. Christ says that He will take care of it. The disciples say, "But we only have 5 loaves and 2 fishes." They only saw the lack. Christ, on the other hand, being the Optimist of the group, saw the great abundance they had. He took the loaves and the fishes, broke them and told the disciples to pass it all out. After all had partaken, there were left 12 BASKETS full of bread and fish. First off, Christ takes our lack, our weaknesses, and makes them strengths and some. Second, He doesn't look what is right in front of Him, but what it has the potential to become through His power. That is what He does with us. That's what He teaches us to do with others. We see people and usually we see they only have five loaves and two fishes. What we should see is their potential through Christ to be even more. That is what He asks of us. It's difficult, I know. But we've got to have some hope.
President Monson once said,
"We can help them to overcome their shortcomings. We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present but as they may become when they receive testimonies of the gospel of Christ."That's the goal.
I hope you all have a sweet week. Thanks for everything you all have done, do, and will do. You guys rock.
Do great things today.
Anz. Ben Guthrie
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