This week my mission was privileged to have Elder David A. Bednar speak to us in Salt Lake City! We had been given 3 talks by him to study 2 weeks prior, having no idea he was coming. We prepared inspired questions and studied the talks even more after we found out he was coming. He didn't preach at us but asked us what we learned from his talks the first half and then the second half we asked our inspired questions. Yes, Sister Wright-Carruthers and I were slightly nervous that when Elder Bednar looked into our eyes, he'd see our souls and judge us, but he wasn't intimidating in that way at all. He is an apostle, but he cracked jokes and laughed with us at times too. Something that struck me was in one of his talks we read, called "Converted unto the Lord" talked about the Book of Mormon story where the converted Lamanites eagerly buried their weapons of war in a pit, never to dig them up again. He compared this to how we all need to bury our own cherished "weapons of rebellion against God" in a pit and never dig them up again too. Some weapons could be pride, disobedience, etc. I've grown up hearing that story but I never understood the significance of what it means to us--that if we are converted, it means we have experienced a change of heart so we no longer have any desire for evil, but to do good continually. If we have let our testimonies and the knowledge we have of the gospel work within us, and let the Spirit speak to and change our hearts, our desires change and we eagerly and gladly cast our weapons of rebellion into the pit, and never look back. When we are truly converted--when our hearts desire only to do the will of the Lord, then we will never fall away. Elder Bednar gave us a lot of advice for lessons, such as asking questions, having an active two-way discussion, and he said regarding daydreaming while your companion is teaching, "You don't DARE check out during lessons. This isn't about you." It's true--your mission isn't for you, it's all about other people. We were called to serve, and these 18 months are all about other children of God who don't have what I have.
We saw many small miracles this week in Layton. After about 4 days of both of us being sick, we were so ready to just get out there again and serve! We invited a returning member and his nonmember girlfriend to church on Sunday, she didn't come but he came and he was dressed in a white shirt and tie, which was a first in all the time he's been coming! His girlfriend did talk about baptism to us and wanted to learn more about it so we set up an appointment with them for this week. The lady who loves genealogy like me is feeling more comfortable with us and we are going to give her a Christmas message this Thursday, and I'm so excited for the excuse to finally talk about Christ with her! More people we are inviting are showing up for church, there are miracles happening all the time. Yesterday we had 3 appointments back to back and we were rushing everywhere. I find that I'm the happiest when I'm the busiest--because I feel like I'm actually fulfilling my missionary purpose and bringing as many people as I can closer to Christ. Our Stake High Councilman in charge of missionary work had us over for a 20 minute dinner (that's all the time we had) and when we rushed to our next appointment he said from the door, "Go ye therefore, preach to all nations!" and kept reciting the scripture. It is so great to have the support of so many great members here in Layton. It's definitely a group effort--we need the Wards to be fellowshiping, visiting and home teaching these people too, because we can't possibly do it all on our own and it wouldn't stick anyways when we leave. This week is going to be phenomenal because we are both finally healthy and able! Wish you all the best.
-Sister Fluegel
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