Weekly Update 14 May 2012

Hello!

This week I am grateful for so many things! One of my favourite inspiring questions in the Book of Mormon is found in Alma 26 "have we not great reason to rejoice?" this is my attitude today! We have been blessed with such a great knowledge, such a great treasure. A great quote I heard is that "we have knowledge of the plan of happiness, so act like it!" This is a great opportunity to express the things that I am grateful for. I know it's not thanksgiving, but "What are YOU thankful for?" Just think about it for a couple of minutes and then express in prayer your gratitude for the things in your life which make you smile.

Our efforts with our Slovakian investigator is still quite frequent, teaching him really has caused me to really spend time studying my Bible, I love it! there is just so much growth when you study for a specific purpose, when I have normal personal study I learn quite a bit, but when I study to be able to help my investigator understand a principle it just fills me with knowledge that stays. An interesting principle that we always hear of is the scripture in 2 Nephi 32 "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." Commonly we hear "Feast upon the words of Christ", sure feasting is eating a lot, and we are commanded to study the scriptures diligently, feasting also has the connotation of enjoying as we study, but perhaps for me the deepest insight I learn is that "Feasting" also has a connotation towards variety. When we are at any feast, would we only eat the meat? would we only perhaps eat vegetables because we are on some low- fat diet? When we feast we partake of all the substances on the table and when they are mixed together that is when the true meaning of feast comes alive, similarly we cannot only read "just the Bible" or "just this or that" but we must take advantage of all the scripture that has been revealed to us.

A deeper lesson comes to me from the first line. "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost", after Baptism we have received this great gift. So what I gain from this is: when we speak by the power of the Holy Ghost we BECOME angels. Not all angels are found in Heaven some are found on earth too. We all have angelic moments as we speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, an angel is just a messenger of Jesus Christ, in this Church we currently have about 56,000 full time Angels, for about 2 years. However, I know that Nephi did not by accident put these two great lessons in the same verse without a deeper meaning, we can only speak by the power of the Holy Ghost when we feast upon the words of Christ. Countless times on my mission have I had scriptures enter my mind as I teach a principle. One of my favourite quotes is that "We do not prepare lessons, we prepare ourselves", a missionary can be guilty of giving the same lesson twice, however, that isn't teaching to the individual need of the investigator, everyone has their own differences and needs, and by preparing ourselves through scripture study to meet our investigators is such a wonderful thing! Before my mission, I couldn't see how my scripture study was relevant to my life, now my scripture study is an important hour of the day, if not the most important.

What a great time it is to be a missionary!

Love,

Elder Sapaden