The Lord is in the Details

This was a nice week.We set up our Christams decoration in the apartment (we found a small bag of it in a corner). And we had a specialized training on Tuesday. We discussed some great things. We've been instructed by the Area Presidency to focus especially on (1) praying more and on (2) using the Book of Mormon as a springboard to revelation and lastly to realize that (3) we must come to church to stay i.e. we must become converted to the gospel. We had some great discussions and I learned for my personal improvement and how I can share that with the people I teach.

Our epic Christmas tree!

The Lord is in the details of our life!

I surely saw His hand in my life this week. I had some wonderful experiences. This week we met in the beginning of the week with Ahmed (investigator) and he'd been teetering on the edge of stopping to learn from us but on Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with him. We taught with power and authority given of God (not as the scribes xD). The spirit was thick in the room as we discussed the importance of scripture study and prayer just hours after having discussed it in the training. He felt the Spirit and you could see how He was teaching Ahmed. When we only mentioned church, he started bringing up excuses for why he didn't come, then he said he knew he should have come and then he committed himself to come every Sunday from then on forward without us having to say anything. It was truly the Spirit working on him. I know it was real as he came to church this Sunday and was there even before us!

Karim (member) who's preparing to go on a mission and I.

One other time where I saw the Lord having His hand in my life and in the life of my investigators was on Thursday. We had a lesson with a young man named Daniel. He lives here with his mom and has family in Africa still. We taught him the plan of salvation at a member's house. He's made quite some progress from the time we began teaching him. He grasps the gospel much quicker and he's growing in his desire to do good. As we were ending the lesson and we wished to share one last scripture, his phone rang and he picked up. After the phone call he looked shell-shocked. His sister in Africa had just died! All of us in the room went very still and you could feel that reverence that enters the hearts of men when they learn of the death of a loved one. Just as I felt that I didn't know what to say the word of President Monson came to my mind and I remembered his account of a similar situation and the scripture he shared. I turned to Alma 40:11 and I read it to Daniel. Then Elder Uhlig and I bore testimony of the truthfulness of that verse and the reality of life after death. He nodded and seemed to pull himself together and Elder Uhlig offered up a fervent prayer on his and his family's behalf. I know that the Lord placed us with him in that hour and he inspired us to teach him that doctrine in this time. He is looking out for His children.

Let us count the blessings we receive from our Father in Heaven on a daily basis and we'll come to see that we've received far more than we could have ever imagined from our Father. In the words of President Monson: I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness.
As I have reviewed the past 49 years, I have made some discoveries. One is that countless experiences I have had were not necessarily those one would consider extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired, they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary. And yet, in retrospect, they enriched and blessed lives—not the least of which was my own. I would recommend this same exercise to you—namely, that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received. (from: Consider the Blessings - Oct. 2012)

It is my prayer that we may heed the counsel of the Prophet of God!

Coming up next: Dinner with the Coleman's, Training with Elder Texeira and Ahmed's baptismal interview...