Hello again!
This week, like always, just blew by. We were super busy and
a lot of things happened, so I'll have to just give an overview of the week.
On Tuesday, we did some visits with a member getting ready to
go on his mission. We taught a young man who doesn't have faith in a supreme
being. We talked a little bit about God's influence that we don't perceive, and
we talked about how the Book of Mormon can help us have faith, and we left
Mosiah 27 for him to read. At night we went to the church to help prepare a
primary presentation (they asked me to play the piano for them).
Wednesday, we ended up doing a lot of contacts, and finding
more people to teach.
Thursday, we tried to contact a reference in the northern
part of our area, but the man wasn't home. At night, we went to Julianna and Eliomar's
to give them the Joy to the World DVD, and we watched it, and then we read the
account of Christ's birth in the Americas. As we talked, we related to how the
signs of his coming are like an answer to prayers. In the story, there was the
prophesy of the prophet, which is hearing a message, which some people believed
from the first part. Then came the actual sign, or our answer. Afterwards,
there were two kinds of people... the first who believed and was baptised, and
those that let Satan lie to them, and ended up not believing, or people that
let little things keep them from being baptised.
Friday, we went and did visits with two young men (one is
Miller, going to Sao Paulo Sul). We went to contact a man named Emerson, that
we had met at an investigators house. We went to the address that I had written
down, and it turns out it wasn’t his house, but we asked if we could leave a message with them
instead. We talked a little bit about ourselves, and then we started talking
about the Book of Mormon. The first thing I said was that it is like the Bible,
words of prophets, but prophets here in the Americas. Then the man of the
family said he always had a doubt about prophets and why we don't have them in
these days... as well as the scripture in John where Jesus says that he has
other sheep not of this fold. Anyways, it was an absolutely AMAZING experience
for the two young men. We were truly guided to that house, without being aware
at all. First off, we ended up going two hours later than we had planned, we
contacted a daughter of the family in the front of the house, and the man of
the family felt that he should let us in. Many times in the lesson he would say
"Brothers... I like what I am hearing!" He said that many people had
come into his house to talk about Christ, but he never felt like he did when we
were there. Talk about incentive for those two to go on a mission!
I'll skip to Sunday now, but we went to church with a young woman
who wanted to see how church was (her mother is inactive, but we didn’t know
that). At church, a high councilor spoke and told a story from his mission.
They went into a house to teach a couple, and there was another man there that
every five minutes would make a disparaging comment about the church. At one
point, he stopped the lesson and said that to preach the gospel, one must have
the spirit, and they didn't have it. The high councilor replied "Absolutely.
There are two people here that want to hear our message by the spirit, and you
are interfering with the Spirit. Now please leave because this couple wants to
learn more about the Gospel." The man got up and left. Another day, they
went back and that same man was there. But this time, he stayed quiet. At the
end of the lesson, he said, "You two were absolutely right. I was
interfering with the Spirit, and I felt its presence today." He then continued to talk about how we let
ourselves interfere with the Spirit in our lives. He talked about how we need
to keep our selves sensitive to the spirit and to be sure not to get in the
way. This includes writing detailed notes in a talk, where we focus more on
note-taking than what the person is saying. He asserted that if we pay enough
attention, every talk we hear, will have a word or phrase that will change our
lives. He talked about how some people more sensitive to the spirit because
they pay attention to the spirit see marvelous things in what would appear to
be ordinary meetings. I thought it was a very interesting talk, and very well
done. I hope I passed the good part of his message on to you all.
Well, that was my week! I hope this letter is meaty enough
for you, and I guess now it is appropriate to wish a Happy Holidays! (Christmas
will come soon enough)
Elder Cornwell
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