Thank you for constantly reading all of the long long emails that I write each and every week. I'm enjoying the snow over here and all of the blessings that come from being on a mission. Enjoy the letter for this week. Also, send me some emails, I love responding.
Susan: So we were finally able to meet with Susan again. When we finally sat down with her and learned about how the past couple of weeks had gone, we started talking about the Book of Mormon and her reading. It turns out that she was a little bit scared to read in it, because she felt that she was cheating on God or something. When we really deeply discussed what she felt we learned that she was a little bit scared about learning weather it was true or not. We asked her what the worst thing that could happen if she read in the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, and her answer is beautiful: The worst thing is I don't get an answer. And then we asked what she thinks would happen if she read it and got an answer: She said that she would know that it is true and that the church is true. All we are asking Susan and anybody on a mission is to read in the Book of Mormon, because no matter what you may have heard about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, if God sends his Holy Spirit and gives you the answer of the truthfulness of these things, then wouldn't you come to a knowledge that it is true? Susan is amazing and she is the only southern person that I know up here in Idaho. Her strong faith will lead her forward, even if I am not here to see the destination.
Splits/Youth Initiative: So because of tons of appointments on Tuesday night, we had to go on splits. I took with me an 18 year old youth from one of our wards and we went out to our appointments for the night. First we met up with the Young Men's and Young Women's president from one of our wards. This was because of the new tool we have, working with youth to share the gospel over social media and stuffs. After this, we went to a combined youth activity where the youth there sent a message and saw how easy missionary work really is. Following that, we went back to the same ward that we had talked to the presidents about early and did the same thing with the youth in a combined activity. Then, with the 30 minutes before we had to go for the night, we stopped by a member's home that we had to leave early for dinner from and so we came back to share a message. Turned out that they had a bass, even though it was a Half-Size. It was fun to play a little, but I have already forgotten over these 5 months, all of my solos, my favorite orchestral pieces, and everything else I used to practice, so I guess I'll just have to work hard when I get back. But going out with Youth is fun, he had some questions about missions, as he is going to the Bangkok, Thailand Mission, and he was able to bear testimony with the youth, as someone from their stake, which is always good.
District Meeting/Study: While planning for District Meeting this past week, I knew that we needed to go over and talk about personal conversion. After spending a long time and getting nowhere, I came upon a scripture that everything just flowed out of until the point of completion. Mosiah 3:19:
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
This made my mind turn to the state of the investigators that were getting baptized that week in our district. They were 9 and 11 and I had the opportunity to interview them last Sunday. Being like a child, being like Christ, was the whole point of the scripture and something that stood out was that it is the point of conversion. We are changing day by day, little by little, to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ, even though it is very very hard. It was then that I turned to Preach My Gospel at the end of Chapter 6, something That I have personally studied a lot over the course of my mission so far. It was there that i saw the steps for a process of increasing Christ Like Attributes and also becoming more converted.
• Identify the attribute you wish to develop.
• Write a definition and description of the attribute.
• Record questions to answer as you study.
• List and study thoroughly passages of scripture that teach about the attribute.
• Record your feelings and impressions.
• Set goals and make plans to apply the attribute in your life.
• Pray for the Lord to help you develop the attribute.
• Evaluate your progress periodically in developing each attribute.
It was there that my mind turned to the story and conversion of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
He followed these steps before and after the first vision. He Identified what the problem that he was facing- The confusion among churches. He wrote down and explained what he was feeling and why he was confused- The bashing of the different sects and confusion between the doctrine in the Bible. He listed out the questions that he wanted answered-What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? He then studied, and pondered on what he studied- James 1:5. He set goals and made plans to go into a specific part of the woods on a specific day and planned and believed he would received an answer from God. And then he prayed-the First Vision. After all of these, and after he had gone three years, he followed up on himself about what his progress had been, and about the answers to the questions that he had- Verse 28.
How wonderful it is that we have this pattern, and as you look on how prophets over the ages have received answers or had visions or revelations, it is a hard thing. They usually work diligently and struggle before they receive the answer, but they are willing to submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon them.
Ward Mission Day: On our Ward Mission Day on Friday, we had a couple of appointments with people, and the main messages we shared were of hope and also of missionary work. The message we shared about hope was of turning to the scriptures, something we found that day in Companionship study was a scripture in on of the Epistles of Paul, found in Romans 15:4 and also for missionary work, something we say everyday, 3 Nephi 5:13.
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Ray: So it's been a while since I talked about Ray because he has been in Mexico. Butttttt, he just got back in Town and yesterday was his confirmation, so that is just awesome awesome stuff.
Yep, this week was a lot of study in the scriptures and stuff, and because of that it was amazing.
Last weeks p-day was mario cart and our team sadly lost, oh well.
Love Y'all,
Elder Carson Baker
Also,
We found a pretty cool spot off a cliff or something, at night.
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