Monday, May 17, 2010

Prayers of Faith


Note from the editor: Just a reminder that we have created a flicker account to show whatever pictures we receive from Elder Carter. You can find them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin_g_carter/

On to this week's adventures...

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Heya!

This week has been yet another tough week, but it was full of blessings as well. I have been switched around companions for a couple weeks lately, and that's been hard on my success, but it's inspired of God through my teachers and all is well. I look for the blessings in their decisions everyday. This last TA was successful, but I wasn't teaching with (my companions). Our investigator last week had just lost his wife in a car accident recently and turned to drinking to get away from the pain. So, we taught the second lesson which is the Plan of Salvation. It went well, and I've never understood Chinese so well. It's all thanks to tinglihuodongs. Gotta love listening activities.

Our investigator this week is a recent convert and just got baptized a week ago. We are teaching the Second lesson again as an "after baptism" lesson. So (my teaching companions and I have decided to have them teach us. So all we will be doing is asking questions, and maybe sharing scriptures. No baptismal commitments to mess up this week (I messed it up last week... :P) because this week is a recent convert. So no worries.

Do you remember the Prayer of Faith? I want you guys to study that... Well, not last Friday, but the Friday before that, I learned about a Prayer of Faith from (my teacher). So I tried it out. It consists of telling God what the desires of your heart are, acknowledging your weaknesses and understanding why he may not grant the particular blessing, then converse with the Lord about it. Literally discuss with Him why you think you qualify for the blessing and why you think it is a good thing, and understand from Him why He thinks it is good or not good or maybe why it's not something you need right now, or even at all.

After conversing with Him and coming to a knowledge of His mind and will, you mention how you qualify for the blessing and what you will do to qualify for it. I did this because I really wanted to Host for Elder Leyva. (Hosting is what the missionaries do on Wednesday when new missionaries come in. They wait at the curb for families to pull up and then they help the missionary get his luggage and say goodbye to family. Our hosts were awesome!)
It wasn't something amazing that I needed, and if it didn't happen I was gonna be fine. But I knelt down and told God just how I was going to qualify for this blessing. Through my conversation with Him (Them, actually) I realized God's mind and will and knew exactly what I needed to do. The blessing was promised to me on conditions of Faith (hence, Prayer of Faith). I wanted to see if my faith was strong enough for a Prayer of Faith to work and bind God to His promises.

Out of 400 new missionaries and about the same amount of Hosts on Wednesday this week, the chances were pretty low that I would actually see Elder Leyva and catch him. I hosted one Polynesian Elder from Alaska headed to Texas, then two sisters (one in Elder Leyva's district, the other, Spanish speaking) and finally got back to the street to host for others. I waited and waited. I had told Heavenly Father that I would go where I was assigned, and if I wasn't assigned I would stand at station 7. That's what I did. No more cars came, and I was worried that I missed him. I wasn't too depressed, because I knew the reasons why I might not have been able to claim the blessing of hosting for one of my best friends.

So, knowing where his classroom was, I ran up to that floor (it's only 5 or 6 doors down from my classroom) and he wasn't there, and no one knew if he was coming. Before I went to his classroom though, I had a prompting outside to wait for a few minutes. So I stood there, all the other Elders had gone in and the traffic Elders were cleaning up. You are allowed to be alone when hosting, so I was. Then I went to the classroom- not there, and I decided, since my companions had not returned yet, to try one more thing. I was getting worried that he wasn't even coming in.

I went to look for his bag of materials in the bookstore, and found it. I decided to just write a note, slip it in his bag, and hope I found him at some point, accepting that I might not see him, and that my faith wasn't strong enough. I said a quick prayer of thanks for the learning opportunity, and turned around to leave.

A split second later, Elder Leyva walks through the bookstore doors. I take over his hosting and was never happier for the rest of the day. so cool!!! My prayer was answered! Not in the way I expected, but I listened to the promptings of the Spirit and I was able to claim the blessing. It may have been a small thing, but it affected me for life.

I am so happy that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me. And even more happy just to know that. So I want everyone else to know that, too. It kills me that not everyone knows that. That's my mission. To help people know that.

If I hadn't have waited like the Spirit directed me, I would not have claimed that blessing. I would have seen him later, of course, considering he is down the hall, but still. I was on a super spiritual high that day. 

I love you all!

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