I hope that you have had a good week. Yes, I know. I have four subjects again. But I felt that they should all be addressed. Anyways, this week has definitely been fun.
So, now to explain the "Parable of the White Paper." So, our investigator, Hellen, is doing pretty well. All of her lessons kind of have the same pattern. She comes. We teach her some topic. She asks a lot of questions and explains why she doesn't agree with a certain principle. We do some explaining and ask her some counter questions. She starts thinking about it. Then she see's the connection and praises the missionaries for like 10 minutes. She definitely is a project!!! But it is coming along. Anyways, I have recently discovered that I have a knack for teaching through on-the-spot parables. I will think of or find some object and I am quickly able to relate it to whatever we are talking about. Hellen seems to like that I teach it that way. Anyways, just last night we had a lesson with her again. We were explaining repentance to her. Now, as I was sitting there, a thought came into my head. For whatever reason, Hellen always compares me to a white paper, apparently because she said that I "have so much potential to go any direction in my life," or something like that. Well, I decided to use that "white paper" analogy to teach about repentance. Now, here is how I explained it.
"If we were all white papers, and someone came and told us that we could fly, would we believe it?"
"Probably not. At least not in our current condition. Paper cannot fly without making some changes"
At this point, I start folding the paper so as to make a paper airplane.
"Now, if we start slowly changing this piece of paper piece-by-piece, fold-by-fold, big and small, eventually, this paper will be able to achieve the lofty goal of flight, a goal that at first seemed impossible and too far beyond our reach."
How does this relate to repentance? Well, our Heavenly Father has promised us all that He hath, if we would keep his commandments. Well, in our mortal state, that seems like quite a lofty goal. To become like God seems an impossibility. But if we are willing to slowly change our lives through obedience to the commandments and are willing to repent when we make a mistake, we too, can inherit "all that the Father hath."
Well, this touched Hellen. Needless to say, we are probably meeting again very soon.
Now onto the second point. I was watching the Church's film, The Mountain of the Lord, the other day. Now, in this film, President Wilford Woodruff is talking to a reporter from New York about the building of the Salt Lake Temple, recounting its history and whatnot. Well, he said something that really struck me. It was so simple, but it really hit me. He said, "The Prophet Joseph Smith admonished the Saints to be a record-keeping people." Well, where am I going with this exactly? Well, essentially this is a confession. I have rarely been writing in my journal. And there are lots of things that have happened that I'm sure I would like to remember in the future. So, although the first part of my mission will have only a few entries, I have promised myself that I will write in it every night from here on out. So, that's that.
Now, who is back on track? Ke Di Xiong is back on track. We sat down with him and set up dates for his baptismal interview, baptism, and confirmation. We have confirmed with him multiple times to make sure that these dates are still good. He has said that they are, so we are hoping and praying.
And I'm sure you all have heard. But this last week, President Boyd K. Packer passed away. It seems crazy, we have lost 2 apostles in a matter of a month and a half or so. But, it just goes to show that this life really is our "temporary home." Well, this week, I would like to invite all of you to listen to President Packer's last talk from this last General Conference again.
Anyways, we will all certainly miss him. He was an incredible teacher. And his talks were always so powerful and full of testimony.
Well, that's about it for this week. Hope all of you have a good week and I will talk to you soon!
Sincerely,
Elder Chase Joseph Millett
雷長老
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| some of the funny flash cards I've found in my language study stuff. |
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| some of the funny flash cards I've found in my language study stuff. |
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| The Suan Tou Bridge |
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