Elder Jaron Larson: Tender mercy

Hey! If I was being completely honest, it was a pretty long week! Still a good one though! We went on exchanges both Tuesday and Thursday. One of the 2 days I was with a missionary who doesn't get along well with other people. It was kinda rough but I'm sure we both learned something. I'm pretty sure he realized how prideful he was without me offending him too bad. I'm sure most missionaries could work on having a little more humility.

We had a pretty cool tender mercy happen on Wednesday. So there's a guy named Tony that we just go see and check up and see how he's doing. He's had a very difficult past and doesn't believe in God, he's not interested in the church. That being said, we still go visit him and see how he's doing. We've been going over a few times a week for about 2 months now. On Wednesday we went over and did our normal thing, said hi, joked around him for a bit, just the usual. Well his neighbor asks us to share a scripture with her and her daughter, so of course we do! They then tell us that every Wednesday night we should go over and share a scripture with them. Such an awesome blessing to see our visits with someone not interested lead to someone even being interested.

We had a dinner with both Ann and some members Thursday night and it went pretty well! Or so we thought... we had really good conversation about the gospel and a whole ton of other things. The next day we send her a message to set up a new appointment for the upcoming week. We get a reply saying she wants to "investigate" on her own. She's still gonna read and pray but she wants to put our visits on "pause." It's too bad but I'm sure if she looks into the gospel with an open heart and mind. She will know this church is for her.

I watched a talk/devotional the other day from David A Bednar titled That We Might "Not.... Shrink." He talks about how we align our will to God's. Like having the faith to "not be healed" in some circumstances. Not necessarily that everything you have faith towards will happen... but that it could happen if it's God's will. And also that you'd be okay with whatever the outcome is. You can find it if you (on gospel library) go to young adults-> worldwide devotionals-> 2013-> that we might "not... shrink." I highly recommend. May we all strive to align our will to God's. As we do, we will not only receive more blessings but we will be more like him. You guys can do it. "Pride is the stumbling block of zion." As we conquer that by being humble, we will all reach our eternal goal.

I love this church and this gospel. I know it's true. I'm so grateful for a loving savior who gave his life for me. I know we have a prophet here on the earth today. I know we can all feel God's love for us. We are children of god. I hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Love Elder Larson