Hey peeps!I hope everyone had a great week! I miss you all very much.
Tuesday we had Zone leaders training meeting in Managua. We woke up at 4:30 to get ready and catch the bus to get to Managua on time. President Monestel talked to us about the Atonement. I love President Monestel. He is a powerful teacher and leader, and I could just sit there and listen to him for hours! I learn a ton whenever he talks to us. He shared with us a talk that Elder David A. Bednar gave at BYU in October, 2001 that is called "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality."
Here is the link to this talk: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?ang=eng&query=atonement+journey+mortality+(name%3a"David+A.+Bednar")
These were my two favorite paragraphs:
"I suspect that many Church members are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming and cleansing power of the Atonement than they are with the strengthening and enabling power. It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us—that is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us—not only to direct us but also to empower us."
"Most of us know that when we do wrong things, we need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives. The Savior has paid the price and made it possible for us to become clean through His redeeming power. Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints—for good men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. We may mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves, through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities."
I had never really looked at the Atonement as a source of power like Elder Bednar explains it. The atonement doesn't just clean us of our sins, it enables us to overcome the natural man and reach our potential as sons and daughters of God. It is through the enabling and strengthening power that worthy church members can go from good to better, and better to best. I feel like the commandment to be perfect (found in Matthew 5:48, and 3 Nephi 12:48), is something that ultimately we can achieve as members of the true church of Jesus Christ as we apply not only the redeeming and cleansing, but also the strengthening and enabling powers of the Atonement in our lives.
The missionaries of the mission are working like crazy to reach their goals for the month of March. Zone Granada is currently in the lead in the mission with 9 families baptized. Our goal is 10 so next weekend we will reach it and pass it! The goal for the whole mission was to baptize 60 families. As of right now, the mission has baptized about 30. There are 9 zones in the mission. The idea was that each zone would baptize about 7 families to reach the goal. We have seen a lot of miracles up until now in the month of March, but we are still working our tails of and exercising our faith to see more.
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| Zones Granada and Masaya |
The rest of the week was pretty normal. Sunday, we broke our record of investigators that came to church! We had 2 families, 5 priesthood age men, and 2 women. Needless to say the Lord really blessed us for our efforts throughout the week. This upcoming Saturday Hildebrando is getting baptized! We are pumped.
We have found a lot of new people to teach, thanks to references from members, and the next couple months are looking bright :)
Well, I love and miss you all! I'll talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Parrish
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| I think that is supposed to say, "Wilson" |
