Do you know what's so exciting? To
see miracles. To see the Lord doing the heavy lifting and giving you
the results. This week has just been FULL of that!
To give you a taste, one day we went to visit a guy in
the ward and we noticed a girl out trying to fix her bike. We went over
and helped her out with that, and then she accepted an invitation to
hear the lessons with us. Another day, we were trying so hard to plan
and figure out how we could get one of our investigators, Jim, to get
excited about the Book of Mormon. Lo and behold, we go and he says "I
have a bunch of questions for you." He had been reading and wanted to
know more about Nephi's vision. After we talked about that, he then
said "Well, let's keep going!" We then kept on reading. In another
visit we had with him, he was just even more excited about what he had
read. Of course, he remembered how he had told us how he wasn't sure
if the Mormon church was for him, so he added "Now don't get any
ideas..." We know better though. He is starting to feel the POWER in
the Book of Mormon!
Then, a lady in our ward brings two more people in
for us to teach. She helps out some from the homeless shelter in
getting settled here, and that in turn opens the door for her to share
the gospel. One of those was Marc, a guy from Oregon who literally
walked into the shelter, and she was the first person he met. We had
the most amazing first lesson with him! The Spirit was just so strong
as we taught and testified of the Plan of Salvation. I was so grateful
for what I have learned about teaching for the past few months, for that
really helped me to work with my companions to bring the Spirit there!
With another of our investigators, Robert, we went
to the Boise temple to tour the grounds. His girlfriend's dad explained
what we do inside, and later as we were teaching him he described
feeling just a warmth come over him as that was being explained. We had
a great lesson after, and he committed to setting a baptismal date in
November. Wahoo! He is such a solid guy. I can't wait to see how the
gospel keeps helping and changing him!
So yep, what a week! The one sad thing that
happened was that Elder Kinderknecht was transferred to be with another
missionary, so now we only have Elder Taylor and I left. He will be
missed for sure! We'll keep on trucking here - things are always going
up!
I thought a lot about commitment this week. (Thank
you SO much, David, for starting me off on that one.) What I have
realized is the following: Our commitment to the Lord shows in ALL
areas of our life! Everything really plays off each other. This is
partially why the Lord gives us commandments such as the Word of Wisdom:
as we become more committed and diligent physically, we develop a
greater capacity to be committed spiritually, emotionally, mentally,
etc. Likewise, if we improve mentally, it will have repercussions in
other areas, and so forth.
So, what that was to me was a big wake-up
call. For if I want to be really committed to serving the Lord, I need
to be committed in every aspect. For if I make excuses in one area, I
usually will make them in all. If I am lazy in one aspect, I probably
am lazy in all. And if I am not diligent in a certain thing, my
diligence in all else suffers. A chain is only as strong as its weakest
link!
I can be more committed to the Savior by making slow
improvements in every area of my life! I realize now that if I show
more commitment in any area, my capacity to be committed improves. And
if I improve in all, then those improvements will play off each other
and my progress will be exponential! This is why we are asked to offer
our whole souls to Christ - it is only by giving our ALL to Him that He
can help us become like He is! Each link in our chain will be strong,
and we will not break under pressure or temptation. Life is a game of
fixing weak links.
Thank you ALL for your prayers in my behalf! I feel
them. I know the Lord is there. He is there for all of us! Let us
get closer ourselves and then invite others to "Come, join with us!"
Love,
--Elder Usevitch
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