Well hello everyone back in the states!!!
Hard to believe that this week has already gone by! I can`t believe that
things have already gone by! This week was a challenge for us, but we worked
hard, and that`s really what matters. I feel like God is finally answering my
prayers with the challenge that I asked for. I felt the spirit witness that to
me on Sunday. I know that if I can continue to follow His councel and guidance,
I will be able to overcome any challenge that I have and be able to have an
unshakable faith in our Heavenly Father that will bless my life and the life of
others forever.
So this week I had quite a few really good experiences, as well as some not
so good. The first one is Hermana Magnali. We have taught her a few times, and
when I challenged her to be baptized the first time, she completely shut me
down. She accepted that when she knew that things were right, she`d be baptized,
but was NOT willing to set a date at all. I left that lesson just praying that
God would be able to touch her heart and change her mind. We had given her a
Book of Mormon, but she hadn`t read. This week we visited her with Yanis, one of
the young men in the ward preparing to go on a mission. The lesson didn`t go
great, but something must have got through, because she read!
When we got to the next lesson, I could see that something was on her mind.
At first, I thought that something had happened in the family, or something bad
had happened. I began questioning her, but that just wasn`t it. Finally, I asked
the question we ask in every lesson: did you pray? Did you read the Book of
Mormon? She answered yes...and in that moment I knew she had felt something. I
asked her what she thought, and she said she had only read three verses, 2 Nephi
2:11-13, but she had felt something she had never felt before. She said that it
was some kind of relief, a peace of heart that she simply hadn`t ever
experienced. After reading, she said she prayed as well.
Can I just say, God answers prayers. I have been praying for a long time
that she would read and feel the spirit. She did! Unfortunately, her husband got
home exactly at that moment so the lesson got a little off track and we weren`t
able to really have a conversation about what had happened, but I know that God
is answering our prayers, and I hope that she will continue to read and feel
that same spirit, the spirit that each of us can feel as we read and are
obedient.
The second experience I wanted to tell you about wasn`t the most pleasant
of my mission. We were walking one day when a motorcycle stopped and Cristian
introduced himself. He said he had met a member and wanted to know more. He
began talking about how there are a bunch of religions that believe in the Bible
but don`t practice what`s in their. Initially, I got excited thinking that he
had been prepared to receive the restored gospel by reading and understanding
the scriptures. We set up a lesson, and came back on Saturday. However, my
initial impression really couldn`t have been furthur from the truth.
When we got to his house, it was dark. That was the first time I felt the
spirit telling me that we really shouldn`t go in to teach him. We began talking
in the doorway and I just didn`t have a great feeling. So, I asked if we could
go in and turn on a light, thinking that he didn`t have a light in his front
porch and that we`d just set up another appointment. Well, turns out that we did
go on. It also turned out to be a sort of ambush. Cristian had set up a meeting
so that his teacher from the Jehovah`s Witnesses could come and we would have a
`debate.`
Once in...I didn`t feel like we could immediately leave, so I said a silent
prayer asking for God`s help. Before we started, I stated the fact that we were
there to share what we knew from personal experience, and we weren`t there to
dispute. Then we said the first prayer...and the first issue came up. Of course
the teacher asked me why I didn`t call God Jehovah. He wouldn`t allow us to move
on without explaining `where in the Bible does it say that.` Well, I knew of
Isaiah 53, how it explains very clearly that Jesus Christ is Jehovah. We shared
that with him, and I could tell he got it, but just moved on to another point to
try to battle our doctrine. Thus went the `lesson.`
In the end, they didn`t accept what the Bible teaches: that God calls
prophets, that He communicates with His children through revelation, and that
there is such thing as divine authority here on Earth. I felt really sad to
feel, see, and hear how their hearts and become completely hardened. I invited
them to pray to know if what we were saying is true, even pleaded with them to
do so. I know that God would help them to see the light if they would let
Him.
I think Dad said it right in this email...we believe in experiencing the
gospel. Those two men believed in knowing the Bible intellectually. I, however,
learn from the Bible how to experience the love of God in my life and how to
spread it. I know that God speaks to men through personal experience. I know
what a prophet is because I have listened to one. I know what the authority of
God on Earth feels like because I have been baptised by someone who holds that
authority, and have even been blessed by the opportunity to excersize that
authority myself. I believe that Christ lives. I believe that He continues
acting among the children of men, and that it did not cease after the Bible was
written.
One thing that came to mind during the lesson is that the Bible could be
likened to a letter from God. It`s His will, right? He wants us to know His
will. However, Dad sent me a letter this week. Does that mean that he know
longer wants to communicate with me? No. One letter and that`s it? No. There is
such thing as a telephone, and there is such thing as not being able to write
everything in one email, one book, or even hundreds of books. There is
more.
Love you all, have to go!
Elder Schofield
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