Don't you wish you had a hat like this!!!Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
All my email is down and I forgot your adrresses
Dear Family,
Its been a dandy of a week. I think for you as well. Good luck to all the brothers and sister with the tests. Tomorrow we have zone conference and we will be talking about the three ways to study scriptures as was taught to us by Elder Bednad: 1) from cover to cover 2)digging in by topic and 3) finding patterns, connections, and the etc. . .We are focusing on extending better commitments to our investigators when they study so that the scriptures will be more alive to them. We are kind of using the analogy of give a man a fish; teach a man to fish as was also mentioned by Elder Bednar. For me it is like this. We can give our investigators a book of Mormon and just ask them to read which is kind of like giving someone who has never fished a pole and saying get on with it, or we can give them some lures and bait and send them over to the river side and teach them how. This we do by giving commitments that will help people study the scriptures and make them come alive- maybe by suggesting them to underline certain key points or words or other scripture study techniques. Elder Bednar shed so much light for me on this and so actually I am really excited about it. President asked us to talk about this more, but I feel like it is all coming to gether. Our presentation is going to try to be modeled after the way Elder Bednar taught us. We are going to seek participation and ideas. We already asked everyone to talk for a minute about what they do in their personal study to make the scriptures come alive for them. Ill tell you next week how it all turned out. As for the work in our are- it is picking up. We had some great meetings this week. Our best was probably with Turbek. He is from Tajikistan and is doing all he can to learn more about the church through a small language barrier (he doesnt know Russian, and isnt perfect in English) but he so strongly wants to keep the commandments. When he prays he prays like the King of the Lamanites who gave up all his sins to know God. Turbek is giving up tea and coffee and is trying his best to read the book of Mormon. In fact it was almost funny when this week we challenged him again to pray to know if the BoM is true. We challenged him that before but he didnt mention it in the prayer afterwards like we asked him to, so this time we said make sure you actually ask God if it is true or not so that you can not, and basically (because he has the heart of a child) he told us that he just didnt know if that was respectful or not because it is scripture to ask God that. He already believes. Every time we tell him a commandment he even prays that those around him like his family will also be able to live that and he promises to God that he will. It was very humbling to hear his prayers. He is a good example for me. Also we were at Idalos and gave him a lesson and at the end a blessing of health because he wasnt feeling to good. Like usual he had three friends there and they all got quiet and watch and were very respectful. We are bringing three book of Mormons next time in French, Arabian, and Russian. Funny thing there is that they all speak a little English and a little Russian. We also did a family Home Evening at Sashas trying to make friends with his brothers a little and so we brought a guitar and played some songs with the other ELders. It was a little smoky after the angry neighbor came in but we were friendly. It is definitely progress because before us Sasha in all his 7 years of being a member never let the missionaries come over except for four times to me in the kitchen only. Tomorrow we are also having a zone Christmas party and I will probably have to be the pianist as they have asked me to being the only person in the zone to play I think. My skills are coming back a little becuase I play in church sometimes when they ask me and also for priesthood. We are also still doing the remodeling at Viktor and Natashas and they came to church last week. We were happy about that. I also gave the lesson in Gospel Principles on obedience. I think God has been trying to teach me obedience for a long time, and I am way greatful for that and for the patience of my parents and mentors. I am still learning. I am also excited that soon will be Christmas, but I am honestly just as excited about the work. I am definitely learning to love missionary work and especially my lovely family.
Love,Elder William Meservy
Its been a dandy of a week. I think for you as well. Good luck to all the brothers and sister with the tests. Tomorrow we have zone conference and we will be talking about the three ways to study scriptures as was taught to us by Elder Bednad: 1) from cover to cover 2)digging in by topic and 3) finding patterns, connections, and the etc. . .We are focusing on extending better commitments to our investigators when they study so that the scriptures will be more alive to them. We are kind of using the analogy of give a man a fish; teach a man to fish as was also mentioned by Elder Bednar. For me it is like this. We can give our investigators a book of Mormon and just ask them to read which is kind of like giving someone who has never fished a pole and saying get on with it, or we can give them some lures and bait and send them over to the river side and teach them how. This we do by giving commitments that will help people study the scriptures and make them come alive- maybe by suggesting them to underline certain key points or words or other scripture study techniques. Elder Bednar shed so much light for me on this and so actually I am really excited about it. President asked us to talk about this more, but I feel like it is all coming to gether. Our presentation is going to try to be modeled after the way Elder Bednar taught us. We are going to seek participation and ideas. We already asked everyone to talk for a minute about what they do in their personal study to make the scriptures come alive for them. Ill tell you next week how it all turned out. As for the work in our are- it is picking up. We had some great meetings this week. Our best was probably with Turbek. He is from Tajikistan and is doing all he can to learn more about the church through a small language barrier (he doesnt know Russian, and isnt perfect in English) but he so strongly wants to keep the commandments. When he prays he prays like the King of the Lamanites who gave up all his sins to know God. Turbek is giving up tea and coffee and is trying his best to read the book of Mormon. In fact it was almost funny when this week we challenged him again to pray to know if the BoM is true. We challenged him that before but he didnt mention it in the prayer afterwards like we asked him to, so this time we said make sure you actually ask God if it is true or not so that you can not, and basically (because he has the heart of a child) he told us that he just didnt know if that was respectful or not because it is scripture to ask God that. He already believes. Every time we tell him a commandment he even prays that those around him like his family will also be able to live that and he promises to God that he will. It was very humbling to hear his prayers. He is a good example for me. Also we were at Idalos and gave him a lesson and at the end a blessing of health because he wasnt feeling to good. Like usual he had three friends there and they all got quiet and watch and were very respectful. We are bringing three book of Mormons next time in French, Arabian, and Russian. Funny thing there is that they all speak a little English and a little Russian. We also did a family Home Evening at Sashas trying to make friends with his brothers a little and so we brought a guitar and played some songs with the other ELders. It was a little smoky after the angry neighbor came in but we were friendly. It is definitely progress because before us Sasha in all his 7 years of being a member never let the missionaries come over except for four times to me in the kitchen only. Tomorrow we are also having a zone Christmas party and I will probably have to be the pianist as they have asked me to being the only person in the zone to play I think. My skills are coming back a little becuase I play in church sometimes when they ask me and also for priesthood. We are also still doing the remodeling at Viktor and Natashas and they came to church last week. We were happy about that. I also gave the lesson in Gospel Principles on obedience. I think God has been trying to teach me obedience for a long time, and I am way greatful for that and for the patience of my parents and mentors. I am still learning. I am also excited that soon will be Christmas, but I am honestly just as excited about the work. I am definitely learning to love missionary work and especially my lovely family.
Love,Elder William Meservy
Saturday, December 1, 2007
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