Weekly Update 9 May 2012

Hello!

As always we have had such a fantastic week! With it being bank holiday monday we had an opportunity to go to the Preston temple for a little while and it was Amazing, the temple is just such a great place. Being filled with symbolism it can fill the humble seeker of knowledge with hidden treasures of knowledge and power, and to the people who go prepared to receive revelation eyes are opened to millions of possibilities, just like parables they teach those who are ready to receive such light with immense wisdom and for those less ready/ prepared to receive some symbolism it still comes off as a spirit filled occasion.

Something that I have recently gained a testimony of is: "To take full advantage of the Atonement we need to leave our comfort zones, there is no growth in a comfort zone and there is no comfort in a growth zone."
For me my mission is a very great thing, something that I would never trade the world for, I disagree with the statement "the best two years" they are going to be two great years I will often treasure, two years that I will always remember and keep close to my Heart, infact... I believe anyone who takes that statement to heart has limited their potential. The idea is that life continues to go on after the missionary's mission and that spiritual progression is never meant to stop progressing.

These two years are going to be immense, I have grown so much (I do not boast in my own strength for I am nothing, but I do boast in my God, Alma 26) but I will never stop progressing, even after my mission. If you were to ask me "so, Elder Sapaden when do you think we are supposed to hit the pinnacle of our spirituality?" I would say "Never"; some favourite words of mine are found in the last two verses of hymn 284.

"There is no end to virtue;
There is no end to might;
There is no end to wisdom;
There is no end to light.
There is no end to union;
There is no end to youth;
There is no end to priesthood;
There is no end to truth."

"There is no end to glory;
There is no end to love;
There is no end to being;
There is no death above.
There is no end to glory;
There is no end to love;
There is no end to being;
There is no death above."

All of these lines have one running theme "There is no end", it is a principle I am grateful for... because there is no end... no end to growth, there is no bigger lie than "all good things must come to an end", as long as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is one thing we can be sure of : there is no end to good things.

Anyhow, it seems that I have gone off on one. Back to how my week have been,

So as you are all aware it was transfers on Wednesday, you want to know something that I did on tuesday, I prayed to stay in St. Helens, I wonder how many missionaries pray to stay in an assigned area for longer, perhaps the answer is "not enough", it truely is a reflection on how great the area is here... the members, the geographical area, the ward. I cannot name one negative thing about it.

We had quite a saturday this saturday we lost 6 investigators in the space of two hours, by lost, I mean: they because of extraneous variables or other circumstances are unable to continue to investigate, a family we were teaching is moving to London, a part of me knows even though he will not get baptised here, somewhere... whereever that may be he will be able to receive that ordinance. He has a wonderful name, it took my a couple to tries to say it, I told him to write it down for me so I can remember those days, he is from Sri Lanka, and his name is: Apayappirathapan

The fact that we lost that many investigators does not however frustrate me or aggrivate me, it sure would have in the beginning of my mission, sure I'm sad, I would have liked to see him and his family progress in the Gospel... and they will somewhere just not in St. Helens. Heavenly Father sure has a mysterious way of working, one that I will never be able to comprehend in this lifetime but because he works the way he does I learn.

So, in St. Helens we have the best ward mission leader in the world, without a doubt, he invited our slovakian investigator for dinner at his house last sunday, we were there and it just went really smooth, we had a great dinner, we were able to watch a church film from a projector and have a nice little bible quiz (because our investigator loves those sort of things) it was great.

Well, I have to shoot of like a busy bee (like always)

I love you all!

Elder Sapaden - "one of the greatest indicators of a man's conversion is his desire to share it with others"