Hello everyone!
The Christmas season is a time of family togetherness, and being with the ones you love. But, new young elders still come in this month, just as they do every month. This was the case last Monday, where we got our largest group since I have came to the mission, a group of eight! I couldn't imagine leaving the family right before this time of year - it would be tough to fully feel the spirit of Christmas in the hustle and bustle of activities and emotions of a new missionary! But, they seem to be doing alright. As always, I look forward to seeing what happens in their first month of the mission - where they serve, who trains them, etc.
But, despite the season and the arrival of new young elders, the work carries on as normal, mostly. However, some of you may have heard that, as of recently, FamilySearch now requires people to be signed in to an account to search their records. Previously, there were many people who have used FamilySearch without signing in - they could search records without an account, though they could not access Family Tree. As a result of this change, there are now a lot more calls coming in about account registration and the like. As you can imagine, some people have had strong feelings about the change in protocol. One of the missionaries in the zone got a chat from a patron who only wanted to complain about this change. The zone work is still good though - most people who call us are pretty agreeable, though they definitely have varying levels of computer skill. If nothing else, the extra work keeps things nice and interesting.
This week, I have had the privilege of attending three mission conferences this week. The first was the senior mission conference last Wednesday, which I sang with the choir for. It was President Fenn and his wife who spoke for this one. The content for this conference was a sweetened condensed version of what he shared with the Young Elders at our recent chili party, that is, what can be learned from the story of the birth of Christ. But, there was no time after this conference for me to even go back to zone - right after this conference, we had our young elder mission conference in the JSMB. Because this was the season where rooms in this building are hard to reserve, due to everyone wanting to get one for a holiday celebration, we had our young elder conference in a room on the top floor of the building. The view was actually pretty good, and the messages shared were great! The third conference I attended was the other senior mission conference - again, I sang with the choir. However, I did not stay after the performance. I had places to go, and I had already listened to the message twice, so me and Elder Duran, who I was on an exchange with so we could both perform in the choir, went off to our zone work.
Now, some of you may be wondering right now why I am sending this E-mail so late in the day. Well, I have a good answer for this: I spent the first part of my morning doing service. More specifically, me and my companion had been assigned, along with a few other companionships, to volunteer at the bishop's storehouse on Welfare Square here in Salt Lake City. For those of you who do not know what a bishop's storehouse is, imagine a small grocery store, but without any cash registers - instead, the people who come in work with their bishop who sets up a food order with them, and they take this order to the storehouse and take what they need at no cost to them. For more information about this place, and others like it, here is a link to a news article telling about President Trump's visit to this same storehouse a couple weeks ago: https://www.
 |
President Donald J. Trump met with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Welfare Square Monday, December 4, 2017.
| |
Finally, this has been a week of a lot of mail! I may have said this in my last E-mail to you guys, but I appreciate all that I have been sent! I read each one of your letters and cards, and I plan on holding on to each of them throughout my mission. Again, thank you so much! However, mail from home is not all I received this week - I have received a card informing me of an interview with President Fenn tomorrow. Usually, I would not pay much mind to something like this - every young elder in this mission gets one like this on a monthly basis. However, I have already had an interview with him this month. Interviews like this right before transfer conference generally mean that the interview is leadership related. So, one or more of three changes is going to be happening this month: I could be training one of the new Young Elders (which is definitely possible, considering there are eight of them), I could be made a district leader, or I could simply be getting released from my current calling as an exercise coordinator. Either way, I am a bit anxious about what could be happening this coming week. Either way, I am ready to take what comes, and do the best I can with it.
And there is my week. Again, thanks a ton for the support from home, it does me good to hear from you all. I look forward to writing you again next week!
From,
Elder Bryce Petersen
Challenge: The Book of Mormon is the word of God. In this sense, it is like the Bible, thought the Book of Mormon was written specifically for this day and age. However, the standards of the world keep falling further and further away from what God has declared acceptable. For this purpose, it is more important now than it ever has been to gain and/or strengthen a testimony of this book. Prophets ancient and recent have spoken on the importance of this. The only way to gain a testimony is through a three-part process. The first part is to read the book. How can one gain a testimony of something he or she does not know? Of course, in my last challenge to you, reading the book is not enough - simply reading the book does not provide the reader much more than momentary entertainment. The book must be studied, it's doctrines pondered, and it's message understood. The second part of this process is to pray for a witness from the Holy Ghost about the truthfulness of the book. Keep in mind that this witness will most likely not come in a dramatic manner - it is unlikely that an angel will be sent to testify. Because of this, a moment must be taken to listen after a prayer has been said. The Holy Ghost is often said to speak in a still small voice - it cannot be heard unless you listen for it. The third step of this process is to repeat the first two steps: after listening, go back to reading and pondering. It will only be after deep searching that one will receive a witness to the truthfulness of this book. This method is not only for those who do not yet have a testimony - these steps are also beneficial to strengthening an existing testimony of the book. It has been said that one can never receive too many witnesses that the Book of Mormon is true. This testimony will be what will help one survive the maelstrom of opinions and false doctrines which infest the world we live in today.
No comments:
Post a Comment