So here is my update for the week. I don't have much time ,p (again).
But it's been great! Me and my companions are going on runs every
morning. Which has been great. Stress comes as usual but I am also
learning to handle it and keep it at a level that it keeps me moving
and working effectively.
One thing that had been bothering me lately,
and that had been adding to my stress, was something that every
missionary wants more than anything. I felt like I wasn't getting
spiritual promptings from the Holy Ghost. Well, not that often that
is. I want to always have the Spirit with me, and I felt that in
order to know that I always have the Spirit to be with me I had to
feel Him always. Always guiding me. Always showing me the people I
needed to meet, always tell me exactly what to say. But I learned
something very important from my wonderful companion, Elder Taylor.
At times we may feel like the Spirit is not with us at times, but
we know we are doing the right things. So why do we not feel the
Spirit? The answer lies in the main purpose of the Holy Ghost, and
that is to guide us. He guides us in the direction that we need to go
to eventually return to our Father's presence. So when there is a
specific person we need to talk to or an important decision we need to
make for our future, or if we need a sense of purpose in our lives to
keep us moving; the Holy Ghost is there to turn us in the right
direction and help get us going. But what happens when we are going
in the right direction and we are still moving? Then we don't have to
have Him taking us by the hand anymore. In others words, we don't need
to constantly feel his direct presence every second of every day. And
The Lord doesn't need to carry us along the path of life, he walks
beside us and praises us taking the correct steps without Him holding
us up.
So here is the story with Elder Corbridge. Saturday night we finished
our final lesson and we were driving back to our apartment. That's
when we got a call from Elder Bryson, one of the assistants to the
president. He asked if we could have Elder Corbridge go out to teach
with us the next day from 6-9pm. Of course we were shell-shocked and
after the initial shock was gone we said "yes of course!"
So Sunday rolled around and we were getting really excited for
this opportunity. However, when we were driving back from church our
car said"Low on gas" uh-oh..... So we were brainstorming how we could
get gas without having to buy any (because it was Sunday and we didn't
want to break the Sabbath Day.)
After a short prayer we were inspired to call members to ask for
any extra gas they had. We found one! So we put in about 2 gallons
figuring that would be enough for the trip. Well it was just enough
to get us there, but we went through half of the gas. So we then had
the problem of not having enough gas to drive back after our visits!
But President Griffen came through and lent us his car for the night.
So the night began, and boy were our expectations different.
Definitely not set too high, maybe even a little too low, but definitely
different from how things went.
Elder Corbridge wanted to speak completely in Spanish, which we
were told ahead of time. But he was a little rusty, so I was a little
worried he would have trouble in the lessons. We talked just to get
to know them a little better on the way. And they were a little
quiet, probably just getting to know us and warming up to us. So we
arrived to our first lesson. Obviously the family was super excited
with the fact they had a general authority in their house, so their
house was super clean. That was great. So the family we were
teaching are all members except for an inactive father. Our focus was
to help him know how he can strengthen his testimony and how it was
important, because he works with some anti-Mormon people that bash on
him sometimes.
We were teaching the first lesson, and it was going well. Later
Elder Corbridge commented on how well we did a good job at being
invested in the lesson, even while the other one wasn't speaking. He
actually brought that up in the mission tour with half of the mission
the next day. And we also asked him to contribute as well. He made a
lot of good points, but at the end he said something that caught us
off guard that he ended up teaching in the mission tour the following
day. He told the father that his testimony was important to have, but
the most important thing was something more than that. He needed to
be sealed I the temple with his family so that he could live with them
forever. Wow! He skipped all of the fluff and went straight to the
whole reason why we were there as missionaries! We want them to go
into the temple so that they can be with their families forever and
return to live with God. Without going through the temple and making
those covenants, we can't live with God. That was something we learned
I the mission tour, show those that your are teaching the ultimate
goal. That is to return to live with our Father in Heaven and be with
our families forever!
On the way to our next lesson we were talking with them again.
Fortunately he gave us some compliments and advice for teaching. The
thing that really was great for me was that he praised me for my
confidence as a missionary that had been in the field for 1 month. He
also pointed out something that also was a big confidence booster.
Obviously I am far from fluent from teaching, but I am also learning
at quite a fast rate. He said . . .
Elder Nathan Benson
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