Wow you had quite a week with parker hurting his leg. It sounds way bad and I pray that he is doing alright. He's a tough kid though, I know he can pull through anything. I can't believe he had to get stitches though. You'll have to explain to me what happened in person, ugh I don't like talking about that:), because I was a little confused how it all happened. You really have had quite a lot of trips at hospitals. Hopefully the curse won't cross over to me anytime soon.
Uncle Scott sounds like he is doing so well. That is amazing to hear that he is a high preist now and that Robyn is in the Relief Society Presidency. I am so proud of them both for coming so far. That will be fun to go with them through the temple after the mission. Oh temples, I can easily in two seconds get tears come to my eyes when I talk about how much I miss temples. It's so so hard to go so long withot going to temples. Lets just say once I am off that plane and we are heading home, I want to go straight to the temple, even if it means going before I'm set apart.
I can't believe October Konference is already here. President Chomskis translates a lot of the talks and he told us that Jeffrey R. Holland's talk in preisthood is really intense. I can't wait to hear it. :D That will be a lot of fun to hear and I am excited to see what new counsel we are to hear from the mouth of the prophets and apostles. We will probably be able to start watching the sessions next week. I'm way extatic about it. Also I hear that the October Ensign is a special issue about the Book of Mormon. Maybe I would like to get one of those in the future.
When you mentioned studying in the D&C about Joseph Smith and how he probably felt when he was trying to get the church going, I can see how he feels at times. We have been visiting a lot of less actives and so far no one wants to meet, it's sad because we want them to come back so bad because from what is written about them, they sounded like great people. The church here in Šiauliai is so fragile that I look up to the members who are still holding on strong here. There really is no support system for them here for eachother. It gives me such a great strength a greater love for them. When I go to the church, even if I had a really hard week with no success, I always have the desire and goal to make sure that I make the members day and be there to help them and lift them up when they are down. I have seen so many chances of helping the members out and lifting them up. It has built so much love and trust between us and the members. It touched me when transfers came and went and a lot of the members said how happy they were to see my smiling face the next sunday and especially now in the front of the church as the first counselor. I love the members here so much in Šiauliai. They have become such a big part of my life and I would do anything for them.
Last week, I probably sounded really stressed out and overwhelmed but now everything is so much better. I love being a District Leader and a counselor and clerk in the branch. We had a great district meeting on tuesday. I taught about our callings and titles as elders. I quoted a lot from the talks of "Only and Elder" and "Rise to your call" and we had a really great and growing District Meeting. They said that they really like it during the week to some other elders we talked to on the phone and that made me happy to hear. We have become really close, us three here. This past week we worked really hard and found a lot of lessons. We found a really cool guy who is interested in hearing more about the gospel. Sadly he might be leaving to Holland to try and find a place to live and work. We are praying who won't have a chance to leave.
We met with a less active lady who is so great. It had taken us a long time to finally meet with her but we finally did on Saturday. She still has such a strong testimony of the gospel and she said that she will come to church. Her son ended up coming to visit so she wasn't able to come to church but we hope next week she will be able to. Church was a real treat because President Boswell and Sister Bosweel came down to visit. It was a really good week for them to come especially because a lot more people came to church. I sat by them and translated for them what people were saying. They said they really liked the branch here. It was fun too because I had to teach preisthood that day and I taught about Home Teaching and we had a really great discussion about why it is important for us to do as preisthood holders. After we had interviews and mine was so good. President Boswell is such a great man and such a powerful leader. He said that he was so happy that I am a District Leader here and that he loves how I am serving. He said he saw the mantle of the calling I got when I emailed the next monday and he said he made him tear up. He is really nice to me and makes me want to be a great leader. I look up to him a lot. He told my companions to learn from me and watch how I serve. That made me feel pretty special and gave me an even stronger desire to serve harder and better than I already am. I have been setting a lot of small goals of trying new contacting ways I have never tried before because I was usually uncomfortable with doing but I have seen so many blessing from it. For example, there was a guy in his garage working on his car one night and normally I wouldn't have walked all the way up to his garage to talk with him because it was night time and he seemed busy, but I stopped and realized I had to be the example that President Boswell said I was to my companions, then I said a silent prayer to Heavenly Father to give me the courage to go talk to this guy. It caught my comps by surprise because I stopped and they went on for a sec but turned around to see me going up to this guy. They guy turned out to be way friendly and we talked to him for a while and he gave us his number. It may seem like a pretty small thing but to me, it meant a lot. The Lord blesses us when we forget ourselves and give our everything to him.
We got a great week ahead of us and I hope that we will be able to find some more of the Lord's prepared. I really want to find some solid investigators. If we work in faith, the Lord will bless us and we will become powerful servants of the Lord. Thank you so much for all you do for me and all the love and support. I can't wait to hear from you next week like always :D
We got a great week ahead of us and I hope that we will be able to find some more of the Lord's prepared. I really want to find some solid investigators. If we work in faith, the Lord will bless us and we will become powerful servants of the Lord. Thank you so much for all you do for me and all the love and support. I can't wait to hear from you next week like always :D
su daug meilų,
Elder James Senfordas
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