An Amazing Sunday!

Hey Everyone,

What an amazing Sunday I had yesterday! Even with the Daylight Savings Time Change I went about the day looking for good. During Sacrament meeting I felt the Spirit touch my heart many times and I took that and built upon it throughout the day. An older member of our ward spoke during Sacrament Meeting on why it is so important to keep the Sabbath Day holy. He brought in the Old Testament, and even a little politics at the pulpit, but I was filled with the spirit and once home I went and prayed and then read my Patriarchal Blessing. Those things continued to lift me and carry me as we searched for people to teach. 

We had a great lesson with JEANNIE last night. As we were planning, Elder Barney and I were ready to give her the next lesson when I felt a prompting to pause and take a moment to think about what the Spirit was telling me. The spirit told me that we needed to focus on JEANNIE's needs for this lesson. I shared my thoughts with Elder Barney and we agreed that we should move forward with teaching her about Keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We taught her why the Sabbath Day is so important and why we shouldn't work all day, and how we are blessed when we pause and give our Day and Time to the Lord. The lesson was amazing and the spirit was present and taught the commandment. The prophet Isaiah taught us some of the blessings of keeping the Sabbath day holy so I shared Isaiah 58:13-14 which says: 

13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

14. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

I focused on the word "DELIGHT" as I actually truly delight in reading Isaiah. But, DELIGHT is a thing that brings joy and gratitude. President Nelson has said that "Faith in God engenders a love for the Sabbath; faith in the Sabbath engenders a love for God. A sacred Sabbath truly is a delight." We know JEANNIE listened and learned and hopefully we will see her come to love and appreciate the Sabbath day and how it can be a blessing to keep it holy. We also reviewed 3Nephi 18:1-25 with Jeannie She has been reading the Book of Mormon and it is so refreshing to teach someone who is committed to reading the BofM. I am grateful for the pause the spirit nudged me with before we met with Jeannie. As missionaries our focus is helping those come to love and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful the Spirit prompted me how to best serve her. 

We are still teaching MAGDELENA and CHEYENNE. They are progressing and learning and we will teach a lesson to them with Brother Rickey this week. They continue to ask great questions. 

We had to drop JORDAN and JOHN and SHAUNTEA. We could not make contact with Jordan, and John needs friends so we are going to be his friend right now. We will continue to see Shauntea and answer any questions she has. We will always be around to share a message with her. Her husband is becoming more active and perhaps one day she will have the desire to be baptized. 

We found ALEXUS on Facebook this week. We will continue to talk with her. And we found JOYCE while tracting in Grant City a few days ago. We talked with her for a while on her doorstep and found out that she is Orthodox Christian but has read the Book of Mormon before. She believes many things already and we look forward to getting to know her more in the coming weeks. 

The Bed & Breakfast has its Grand Opening tomorrow which means TACO TUESDAY is back on for us missionaries. We hope that as we eat there each week and bring investigators there to teach them that we can see and talk to SHAUNTEA and let her know we are thinking about her and will always be available to answer her questions.  

We were fed very well this week by several members in our ward. We ate a Russian dish called Borscht at the Rickey's, and liver with mushrooms at the Zundles'. New foods that I would have never expected to try here in the field and it's been fun and interesting to eat.

There is a member of the stake named, Brother Asher, who sends Zoom links out to all of the missionaries for workouts. Tuesday and Thursdays we work out with him and it has been a lot of fun and a great workout. 

The Spirit can direct our daily lives if we allow it to. We know that we must first follow the commandment and then the blessings come. I thought of this concept as I read and studied this week, as I prayed, as I taught lessons and shared messages, and I saw it play out in my day. Heavenly Father isn't going to tell us everything we should do every single day, it's up to us to live close to the spirit and be in tune to know how and what we should be doing.  

Elder Mortensen

Pictures this week: 

Dinner at the Rickey's 

District Council

Dinner at the Zundle's

Picture for our "eternal life" FB Post 

Me and Elder Barney out working