Week 6- Gilbert

I'm doing well thank you! the weather has barely gotten cooler. still up in the 115s. well actually that's just what i assume. i don't have a phone to tell me otherwise haha. and no more backpacks as of a few days ago! so we're just going around with our scriptures beggin for water! haha we may get a satchel today though because they're permitted. yeah there are a ton of stakes here. i'm in the highland west stake. my stake president is awesome. super missionary minded. one of my bishops is too. A lot of the past few weeks has been getting the members excited about the changes, and about missionary work. Any invite is a success. We have a ton of prospects so it's exciting to see the future of this area. But yes you are correct about people not being in the area because it's summer and it's hot. it's kinda funny actually. At church we have like sixty people. out of like 400. In August it will be so much better though so we're excited. i use my bike every day. that is what we do. No walking, no driving. However, zone leaders live in my apartment so they give us a ride to things like this (emailing at the library). i wear short sleeves always. long sleeves would kill me. keep praying! and get to the plan when you get back! our family has incredible potential of being an awesome missionary family! Love you! and the fam!

sounds kinda like the mission. we probably won't get any ipads or anything for a few months. who knows though. "no man knoweth. Good news about talking to people about the gospel is that if you do so in love, we're promised (in the broadcast a couple weeks ago) that they will recognize that you are doing it out of love and won't/can't be offended.  it's good to agree with certain people on their beliefs to open up conversation. like we both belief that Jesus Christ is our savior, both believe families are great, etc. but our unique message is the restoration. so if there's something to study it's that! It's more our job as missionaries to share that message but it wouldn't hurt to brush up on it a little bit. the pamphlet and preach my gospel explain everything perfectly. they explain the "need" for a restoration. the pattern that god follows in reaching out out to his children on earth. He reaches out to a prophet to tell his children how to get back to him. They listen for a while, then distort truths and disbelieve them. When that happens, he takes the authority/priesthood off of the earth. and does it again. Moses, noah, abraham. then Jesus Christ. Also disbelieved, and distorted, and taken off the earth. And then............ RESTORATION!!!

It's explained so simply, and just makes perfect sense! the Lord delights in plainness. and nephi haha. But it's so true. There are so many things like processes and statistics, that can SOMETIMES distract you from your purpose "to invite others to come unto Christ." (spirit of the law). My companion, Elder Cook, and I noticed that the other day pretty vividly. We were street contacting in between some member visits and were really seeking to help everyone we saw. That was our motive. to invite someone to come unto Christ. And we had a few of the greatest OYM's ever! an oym is an "open your mouth." Anyway, we met a guy working named Kevin. He looked a little scary but ended up being the nicest guy. We talked about religion, and agreed upon a ton of things. Just talking about Jesus Christ as our savior, and accepting and living doctrine from the bible. We brought up james 1:5 and some other scriptures that explained the power of prayer, and how we can ask for anything really, including wisdom/questions. That lead into the book of mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ), and we bore our testimonies on the truth of it, where it came from, and how it can help us. but most importantly, that it was another book that is the word of God, and contained the fullness of the Gospel. We showed him moroni 10:4-5 and he not only agreed to do it, but was really excited. It was an awesome experience. Our most successful OYM. However, he was just working here. He lives in Mesa, so we'll see what happens. We had some other great ones that day as well. Anyway, the point i'm trying to get across is that when you seek your purpose "to invite others to come unto Christ" you end up doing so. When you seek for numbers, you don't. we figured that out the other night when we were trying to meet our goal of OYMs for the day, and were short about 15, and just tried to find 15 people to fulfill our goal. None would even talk to us. The Lord puts prepared people in the path of his prepared servants. Anyway, i thought that went along with what your spiritual thought was about. Anyway hope all goes well this week!

Love, Elder Bronson