Easter Sunday was fantastic! We had a really good meeting. The first counselor of the Stake Presidency came and gave a talk purely about Christ. It was fantastic, and just really a bummer that we weren’t able to get any investigators to come to church. However, afterwards we spent a lot of time out talking to people on the street talking about Easter! We had a nice old homeless man come and tell me that we don’t believe in the true Christ. After about 25 minutes of just yelling in my face, the police happened to walk by and I just basically, nonshallantly (don’t know how to spell that) pointed at the homeless guy and said "Help me"...in the end he left, but then came back about an hour later. This time however I asked him if what he was doing is what Christ would do. He got very quiet, and walked away....if I only I had thought of that before the 35 minutes of yelling. But, it does allow now for a funny story :) After he left, a lot more people were interested in what was going on. It was a blessing in disguise, and our district found several potential investigators.
Then that night, we had halusky at the Pohořeličti home. Wow! It was fantastic! We got 5 kg of potatoes, 2 kg of bryznda, and 1.5 kg of bacon. Very healthy, and definitely very good.
MLC was terrific on Thursday when we discussed finding new people to teach, and also about urgency in the work. It was a good, and very inspiring. President got fiery, in a good way, at MLC and really tried to inspire the faith of the missionaries. We had a mission wide fast and prayer, then we have been just brainstorming ideas. We have also tried filming contacts, practice runs within companionships, and so we sat with popcorn with President and the Sister Training Leaders watching 3 hours of film basically planning a training on contacting people. Most missionaries look really sad, and sometimes way too serious when they talk to people, or they do not get to know the person, I have named it the Robot Syndrome :)
We sincerely hope that in the zone trainings in the following weeks, we will be able to focus and help these two aspects of the work. We talked about the passion of missionary work, and why our heart must be set into the work. My companion Elder Hanis has more heart for the work than anyone else I know, and I am excited to with him share thoughts in the upcoming zone trainings about this!
This morning I was studying in preparation for a zone training and came across the story of David and Goliath, and I was reading about the tremendous faith and courage that he had even before he entered the battle field.
1 Samuel 17:25-33
25 And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.26 And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? 27 And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. 28 ¶ And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. 29 And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?30 ¶ And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.31 And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.32 ¶ And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. 33 And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
David faced tremendous amounts of opposition and lack of faith from those that he served. He was told that he could not conquer such a mighty man. But with faith in the Lord, using the talents and abilities he had been given, not someone else’s, we know that he was able to conquer the Goliath. All of us face modern day Gladiators, things that we don’t have faith that we can do, whether it be overcoming a sin, a difficult decision, or a life trial, and by having faith over fear we can also slay them. Faith is a true power manifested in those that give their all to the Lord and rely fully upon him. On my mission, I have seen it time and time again, I know that it is true.
Have a great week!
Shout out to my Dad! His birthday is Monday! He's the best! :)
S Láskou,
Starší Belshe
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