Week 69!

All gone!

     Well.. To start off..  BYU won! BYU won! BYU won! That time of year has come baby!!  I literally looooooove BYU football, but seeing a miracle performed by the Lord is still much better than watching a touchdown by Taysom Hill.

My new P-day shirt!   

     Our investigator, Maki, who we are meeting on Thursday, called a member on Sunday after church who fellowshipped her very well and said she wanted to talk about her life with her. Like a heart to heart. The member said why don't we meet with the Elders first and then we can talk after as well. They want to meet you. She said that would be awesome. We met with her and we just asked her how she felt about the last lesson. She said she loved the message but... She did not know if it was all true. She said she has a strong desire but she does not know it yet. We told her of course she will not know it right at first and that it takes time. Don't be worried. The spirit just prompted to share Alma 32:26-27 and I said I think there is a scripture that is perfect for you and what you are feeling. We read it and she was so caught off guard. She said that is exactly how I feel!! How did you know?? Did you prepare it beforehand? How do the scriptures always contain exactly what I need? It was such an awesome lesson! The spirit was so powerful and we went on and finished the lesson and we are meeting again on Thursday. 

     Lastly, my favorite. So the area I am in had not seen a baptism in almost 2 years. I came in about a month ago and Elder Rhea and I have been working really hard and we have been praying to have 24 hours of faith each day and when that day is up... Pray for it again. Then show it. We were able to have an amazing baptism a few weeks ago and then this week we saw an amazing miracle. We have an investigator whose name I will not reveal who is of a different faith. He lived in a different country but has since moved Japan. He met the missionaries almost on the day he arrived in Japan and has been taking lessons ever since. He has kind of been on and off for a year and we thought he would never get baptized.  We have been working with him and it was kind of stalling. It went for a few weeks and we could not meet him after trying a few times but finally he just called us and said I want to meet...today!  We said absolutely and we met him at the church. He came, sat down, and told us that there was something he wanted to talk about. He said, "I want to be baptized. I know it is what I need to do. I have come to know Jesus Christ and everything in my heart, every feeling I have tells me I need to get baptized. But I know how dangerous and how hard it would be so I do not know what to do."  I leaned forward and I said, I think the spirit is telling you you should be baptized. I promise this is what God wants for you. I told him what we can do is have you meet with President Nagano and he can interview you and see if you are safe to be baptized and he can meet with you next week. Will you do it? He was so caught off guard with how straight forward I was and with how I had set a time frame for the following week. He said... Let's do it. President Nagano was so kind and came the following Saturday. Interviewed him. Actually also went through all of the baptismal questions as well and he passed both! President Nagano called the area president and sent an email to Church Headquarters and they cleared him to be baptized!! We are going to teach him the rest of the lessons and he will be baptized here in the next 3 or 4 weeks!! Yes!! So amazing!! Such an amazing miracle!! 

     Which leads into my spiritual thought. This week I wanted to share a quick thought on patience in the Lord's timing but also His will. You might have already heard part of this but I just wanted to testify of it. Of patience in and through trials.  President Thomas S. Monson has said, "God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation." God does not give us finished things. He never will. He gives us the raw materials and agency to grow and face adversity in this life to grow and become like him. And the beauty of his creations is he always creates things that can keep on creating. 

      I also want to talk about trials.  The word that does not taste good when it leaves the tip of your tongue. Trials are God-given chances to open our eyes to, and highlight the characteristics of Christ that need the most work. And almost always, patience is involved. Patience in others, and more often than not, patience with our own weaknesses. God knows what we need. He will not give us patience, but he will give us chances to be patient. He will not give us faith, but he will give us chances to exercise and grow it. 

      Patience is not bearing something or gritting your teeth and just getting by. When Elder Neal A. Maxwell was undergoing the trial of Leukemia, he told Elder Bednar that, "I have learned that not shrinking is more important than surviving."  We cannot lower our faith or expectations in the Lord just because something is unbearable, or so it seems, and something does not go our way. No matter how hard. I know coming from a 20 year old kid this does not seem like much because I have not faced terrible trials. At least that is the image everyone sees when they see me always smiling and laughing and loving this gospel. Which I do. But we all have our crosses. Another 20 year old woman had a very hard cross to bear. That was three weeks after she got married to the love of her life for time and all eternity, a 23 years old named John. John found out he had very serious terminal cancer and it was not looking great. Elder Bednar went and visited John and they talked for a while and then John asked for a blessing. Elder Bednar was more than happy to do so, but he said first I need to ask you some questions. Then the spirit took Elder Bednar a very different direction than he thought, but he asked, "John, do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?  Have we not all had numerous times where we asked Heavenly Father like the Savior did as well to "take this from me." Have we not all cried out begging him to take away some pain we are feeling. I have spent years sending that prayer and plea to Heaven's height in my life with different things. But how many times have we asked the Lord, "Lord... Help me to accept thy will for me whatever it be, and to help me carry this cross." Rather than "Lord make me whole." We all have crosses to bear. I wanted to leave this thought with you and I ask you to please ask yourself if you have the faith not to be healed. To have the faith that the Lord definitely COULD heal us, but not always that He would. Believe in Him. Trust Him. He knows our needs. He knows the bigger picture. Do we have the faith to not be healed even when it makes no sense not to be? In our eyes, and often the eyes of many around us. Let us have faith. Let us look upon Christ with a steadfastness to walk on water and never falter I pray! 

     Have the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Trevor Aiken