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This is what happens when elders have too much time on their hands

If ye love me...keep my commandments (John 14:15)

Hello again!

This week has been so much better health wise. I was finally able to stop the headaches that I have been having with a "magic pill." Really it is a crazy pill that makes you super tired and drowsy, but luckily I only had to take one. I have a follow up appointment with my neurologist next month to see how things are going. This next week I am going to see my diabetic doctor for the first time, so that she can see how I am doing. I am not too worried I have been doing fine and I have been checking my blood sugar regularly and it is pretty normal. Just going to go because that's what you do when your body needs some help from the doctors. I also finally got over the flu that I had, which was great because being in the house was miserable. :) So health wise I am doing good. Just thought I would clear things up there since Mom has been worried. :)

This past week I have really been focusing on studying the blessings that come along with keeping the commandments of the Lord. My favorite verse I found was in John 14:15, which says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." What else do we need but love for our Savior and what he did for us to to want to obey the commandments of the Lord. 

One things that I learned though (well always knew) is that we have different levels of obedience. Elder Robert D. Hales, has said: "As we live the gospel, we progress in our understanding of obedience. At times we may be tempted to practice what I call "natural man's obedience," in which we disobediently reject God's law in favor of our wisdom or our desires or even popularity. Because this is widely practiced by so many, this perversion of obedience diminishes God's standards in our culture and in our laws.

At times members may participate in "selective obedience," claiming to love God and honor God while picking and choosing which of His commandments and teachings—and the teachings and counsel of His prophets—they will fully follow.

Some obey selectively because they cannot perceive all the reasons for a commandment, just as children do not always understand the reasons for their parents' counsel and rules. But we always know the reason we follow the prophets, for this is the Church of Jesus Christ, and it is the Savior who directs His prophets in all dispensations.

As our understanding of obedience deepens, we recognize the essential role of agency. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed three times to His Father in Heaven, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."⁸ God would not override the Savior's agency, yet He mercifully sent an angel to strengthen His Beloved Son.

The Savior met another test on Golgotha, where He could have called upon legions of angels to take Him down from the cross, but He made His own choice to obediently endure to the end and complete His atoning sacrifice, even though it meant great suffering, even death.

Spiritually mature obedience is "the Savior's obedience." It is motivated by true love for Heavenly Father and His Son. When we willingly obey, as our Savior did, we cherish the words of our Heavenly Father: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."⁹ And we look forward to hearing, upon entering our Heavenly Father's presence, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: … enter … into the joy of thy lord."¹⁰

Using our agency to obey means choosing to "do what is right [and letting] the consequence follow."¹¹ It requires self-mastery and brings confidence, eternal happiness, and a sense of fulfillment to us and, by example, to those around us; and it always includes a deep personal commitment to sustain priesthood leaders and follow their teachings and counsel."

I can just say that one thing I learned this week is that we have the ability to chose not only to obey but also what level of obedience and dedication we want to show our Savior, because obedience is inward and outward. Inward obedience is our dedication to wanting to live the gospel so we can have Eternal Life. Outward obedience, is an expression of our love for the Savior. 

This week the Lord has blessed us for being obedient and dedicated to his work because this past Sunday we had 5 investigators at church again! Some were new people we started teaching and some where people that I taught back in May that went to church for the first time this past weekend. The ward has been so great here too. They have been praying for some of our investigators that they would have the faith to go to church.

One of the families is the M family, we started teaching them the week I got to this mission back in April, we taught them and the mother had a baptismal date for June but at the last minute things were super crazy with their family situation and they decided to take a break from our lessons. The Lord truly blessed us though because we were out the other day and me and Sister B both looked at each other and said let's go visit them and just see how they are doing. So we stopped by and they opened the door and were happy to see us again! We started to see them and we had the 1st counselor in the Bishopric go and see them last Wednesday to give them a blessing. After that we visited every day with a member and on Sunday when they came to church everyone was so happy to see them there. It was super awesome! The Lord has been so great to us.

I love you all a ton and hope you have such a good week!

Love, Hermana Weller

P.S. I'll take more photos next week I promise.

Sept 1- September 2014 Already!!!

This week was crazy, I got a fever and we stayed at home for 3 days this past week. I am happy to say that being SICK in 100 degree weather is miserable. Luckily my body just needed to rest so I slept for 2 days and then on the 3rd day we got up and went to our appointments we had. I am doing much better now, just dealing with a cough and mucus. When I laugh I have this really bad raspy sound in my throat. 

The Lord has been blessing us so much through all of this. Last week we received a referral from someone who is investigating the church in San Bernadino (have no idea how to spell that), she gave his name to the missionaries and we got it. We started visiting A this last week. He is 75 years old and says he is 100% his religion but he hasn't been to church in over 20 years. We went to visit him and we taught him the Restoration. We then asked him to pray and he said he wanted to memorize the prayer first. So we explained how to pray to him and then send a small prayer as an example. Afterwards he PRAYED. The Lord has been blessing us with all of these little miracles. 

Prayer is something that I have been studying recently because we have a few people we are teaching who:

1) Have never prayed before

2) Never prayed out loud

3) Never prayed from their heart

4) Never prayed outside of church  

It seems like that is all our investigators are talking about and so that is what I have been studying and I thought I would share a few things that I learned. First, prayer is a commandments, we can pray anytime and in any setting and as individuals or as families. We also need to pray daily so that we can receive guidance and blessings and as we pray daily we can learn to recognize the HOLY GHOST in our lives and his influence. One of the things that I learned as I studied prayer and tried to deepen my personal prayers is that we only learn how to gain answers through our experiences with prayer. 

In 1 Nephi 15:11, it says, " Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."  

So we really have to have Faith, Ask, and KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS so that we can receive an answer. 

I also realized as I read the 1st vision, which is when Joseph Smith prayed for an answer of what church he should join that it was the FIRST TIME HE HAD PRAYED that way! It says in Joseph Smith History 1:14, " So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for a midst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally." 

Joseph Smith who was later the first prophet of this time, had to overcome anxieties to pray out loud! I had never realized that. He was determined and had the FAITH to pray to his loving Heavenly Father. I shared that with one of our investigators and she said that she would continue to try to pray out loud. She is working on it. One of our other investigators is now praying each time we leave on her knees. 

Prayer is our way to communicate with our loving Heavenly Father, so when was the last time you inquired of the Lord? (1 Nephi 15:8) I plead with each and every one of you, use your faith and pray tonight to your Heavenly Father. He wants to hear you. 

I love you all so much, I hope you have a great day today and are prepared for school in just a few days. Love you to the moon and back!

Hermana Weller