I'm back in Kona! Back in the same zone I was in last time I was on Big Island, but on the other side of the island. Last time I was up at the very top, now I'm on like the bottom left side in Kailua-Kona, the main town. I love it here so far. We have a nice apartment, my companion Elder Langi is super cool, and the ward is just awesome. So many people in our ward are very missionary minded, and we had a meeting that helped with that even more.
On Friday we had mission tour with Elder Johnson of the Seventy. He came and talked to all the missionaries, ward mission leaders, and other auxiliary leaders from all of Big Island. He started off talking about Moses 1:39, how God's only work, out of everything that He's created and everything He has to do, is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Then Elder Johnson talked about what made Christ, Christ was His willingness to submit to all things that the Father commanded Him. Elder Johnson then related it to the fact that we need to become more like our savior, and align our will with our Father in Heaven's. So in reality, our work and our glory should be the exact same thing, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Elder Johnson had us split up into wards and had the missionaries teach a principle too all the ward members present. He told them to clear their mind and to not judge. But, he said, if they listened and payed attention to the spirit they felt during the lesson, at least one name would be given to them that the missionaries needed to teach. We were able to get lots of referrals from this one simple exercise, which we then repeated in ward council yesterday! I think a key element in this was not judging. Because God's ways aren't our ways and we never know who He is preparing. Elder Johnson talked about how there's often times when a name is given to us by the spirit, but we brush it off saying "oh he's not ready" or "we already tried her". He said how many times have we thought someone was perfect to receive the gospel. The way they were living lined them up to be the next bishop or stake president, but when they are asked to investigate the gospel they decline. He then said how many times have we seen someone come to church or be baptized who we thought was the last person we would see there. We really can't judge those people the Lord is preparing, and more importantly need to be in tune with the spirit so we can recognize those names that are prepared when they are given to us.
I wish I could put into words how spiritual the meeting was and the impact it left on everyone there to go out and do more. Its' effect was so influential that members took action almost immediately. Our 2nd counselor took us out to the Burger King drive thru after the meeting and while we were there asked for a He Is the Gift pass along card. We didn't really know why, but gave him one, and he proceeded to give it to the guy working at the drive thru window! I was sitting there like: this guy's more missionary minded than me! It never crossed my mind to pass cards out through a drive thru. And it was also incredibly easy. Nothing long or intimidating. He basically just asked the guy if he could give him a card to help him remember the reason for the season, then told him there's a link to a video on the back to help us remember Christ this Christmas season.
Love you guys and remember that He is the gift!
Love,
Elder Merrill
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