Saturday, September 27, 2014

September 20, 2014

hello!!

I'm so happy to hear about all the good things going on at home. Sounds like you guys are working really hard but still giving yourselves some time to have fun. Its so hard to find the balance but for mental and physical health reasons its crucial to make the decision to take it easy when needed. This week has been nuts. Never before have I been so busy with teaching. Heavenly Father blessed us so much this week and I'm grateful that I'm only a little bit sick after all the work this week. I need to get better at sleeping and eating so that will be on the to do list for the week. 

Our meeting in Tønsberg was pretty sweet. We reviewed a lot of all these golden nuggets we got from the conferences with Elder Dyches and Elder Bednar. I realized how crucial it is for us to be converted unto the lord. Heavenly Father looks on the heart and know's when we're really doing our best to be dedicated to sharing his gospel. It's frustrating to make mistakes and still have an imperfect performance even after you desire with all your heart to do good and have no desire to do evil. I would love to see what we as a church could do if we were all truly converted and anxiously engaged in this work. The lord is hastening it.. we just need to do our part to keep up with it. Its exciting to be a part of the "new generation".. big things will happen as we put our faith into action with some energy. At the meeting we also really tried to focus on teaching by the spirit. We worked on simplifying, verifying, asking inspired questions and testifying as part of this and later went on to have one of the most insane weeks of teaching in our zone. So there's some good energy right now in Telemark. The only complaint about the meeting was that I had a sore throat and body aches the whole time. This is partly due to the fact that we had the AP's visit us the day before on tuesday. So Holden and I were reunited and all four of us absolutely tore it up in the city. We had a lot of fun. It was good to come back at the end of the day to see all that we had accomplished. This work is fun but sometimes it takes a toll on my body. My week was better than planned though. 

We're also having some incredible experiences with one of our 18 year old investigators. He's been getting invited over to dinner from this topnotch family in the ward who happens to come from the same country as him. We had some solid teaches and he want's to find the truth so badly its hurts. When we met him he was catholic turned atheist and now he's telling us about how badly he want's to repent and be "holy". It almost seems like he's messing with us because he's that positive. He's been super prepared by Heavenly Father and is just begging for commandments to start living. He's already accepted living the law of chastity. all he wants is some direction. Amazing to see how mature and thoughtful he is. Its also cool to see how quick he is to realize that what the world views as happiness isn't happiness at all. He says he want's to be like us and have that true joy that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm super grateful for the restored gospel and that I've been blessed enough to have accepted it. It kills me to see people totally understand what we have to offer but then just see them shut it down or turn it away. I think sometimes its too obvious that this church is Christ's church and maybe it causes people to think that its too good to be true. Like dad would say "[others]can't find truth even if it was stapled to their forehead". This work sure is a fun and frustrating adventure. I'm loving it. Hope you all have an awesome week:) 


Love you,

Eldste Skinner

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