Week 62 - Clinton, Oklahoma - Sept. 9, 2013

Mi querida familia, We've had some great experiences this week in following the Spirit. Many finding miracles. Also, we've had some rejection miracles as well. What I mean by rejectioo miracles are mainly lessons I learn from being rejected. First off, we've found some young 18 year olds to teach this week. Let me demonstrate how subtly the Spirit works with us. During weekly planning one day, I asked Elder Tanner to look at the map and pick a place to go tracting. He pointed one out and we went. As we talked with people, on the streets, knocked doors we didn't find too much success. Then there was this young man working on trimming a tree. The spirit prompted us to talk with him. So we did, briefly introduced ourselves and asked if we could come visit him t o share a message about how Christ has restored his Gospel. He said yes and we exchanged information. We didn't set a return appointment though. So we left it alone for a week. Then again during Daily Planning we felt prompted to plan to go and visit this young man (Santana). So we did so, got to his house at the time we planned. We met his mother, and share a Heavenly Gift with her and set a return appointment for later in the week. We come back and Santana is there and we share a lesson with him. He's very respectable and humble. We invited him to a specific baptismal date and he accepted. And it turns out the he is the brother to one of our inactives members. I don't know if he'll get baptised or not. I've seen lots of people stop progressing even when we set a baptismal date in the first lesson, but I have hope. The Spirit inspires us more effectively when we plan! Set goals and make plans. When we do that effectively, the Lord can use us more effectively. I cannot imagine doing this mission without the use of my Daily Planner. It is basically our life. We've had many other experiences like that this week and in the past. I guess it's an eternal principle. I am so grateful for this mission because it is teaching m,e to follow the Spirit. The mission provides so many opportunities to build that skill in following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I am slowly starting to recognize how he speaks to me. Rejection Miracle: We found this one family and set up a return appointment for yesterday. WE went over and the Dad came out and very politely said they weren't interested. Well, I couldn't just leave it at that, I wanted to know why. now it's improtant to udnerstand that I already udnerstood that he was not willing to listen to the full message, but I felt like I didn't want to just walk away and not talk about why. This is where you have to just be social. So I asked him what he was expecting us to teach him, and he said he didn't know. He mentioned that he looked up the differences between mormons and christians (sigh of frustration). So I asked him what were some of the differences he noticed. He mentioned how we believed that we could become God. I smiled, acknowledged that he was correct (we do believe that we can become like God) and asked if I could share a scripture from the Bible Romans 8:16. This little encounter slowly turned into a teaching moment from us to him. Even though he was not willing to investigate or even accept a Book of Mormon, we asked him friendly questions and we ended up having a wonderful conversation. Even though we probably won't visit him again, I felt like we walked away successful. We had taught him some things we believe and we did it in a non-forceful manner. The lesson I learned: not every teaching opportunity has to happen with a nice sit-down lesson with opening and closing prayer. As missionaries we should be ready to teach and expound at any given moment. We have to become so skilled of teachers to teach things according to the Spirit rather than relying on the format lined out word for word, point by point in Preach My Gospel. The layout in PMG is great don't get me wrong, and it's ideal, but there are some situations where you have to find peoples concerns and then follow the spirit in teaching that "portion that shall be meted unto every man." Lots of lessons this week. I wish I could go on and on, but this is where I'll stop for today. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Con Amor, Elder Powley