We went to a zone meeting and talked about how our invitations don't have to be so rote, but rather that so long as they are direct and specific they can come out in any comfortable way.
We went to the temple wednesday morning because elder Bertelsen hasn't been during his whole mission (that's 20 months of not going to the temple) and it was a very spiritual experience. I felt like I received many answers to questions I'd had. The celestial room was beautiful in the morning. San Antonio temple has stained glass that makes it one of the most expensive temples of its size. What a blessing!
I served in mission creek and we were lead to find a family who has been inactive in the church since the 80's. Their son just died in a military tour in Iran. Their daughter is also weeks from having a child. The bishop was also assigned to be their casualty officer. They are ready to come back and learn the plan of salvation of God for their family.
A highlight for me was friday. I served in Yorktown Texas. They live in a portable trailer on a small property in the middle of cow fields and oil fields. There closest neighbor..you can't see. I don't know why they live there, but It was so fun! We planned for our day sitting on top of the trailer with the stars above us. We drove their truck 300 miles which was a LOT, and we found a few families to teach. They are great Elders, and I just loved being out in the open country, I felt like a real man. Haha.
Oh! On tuesday Brother Meuller called us and said, he wanted to meet us during mutual so he could talk to us. It wasn't the first time, so we went planning to teach another commandment that would help him feel even more confident in his eventual decision to join the church. He sat down with us and his home teacher Brother Torres. We'd previously invited him to be baptized on the 26th of this month, and he said, i'll be baptized and i'd like to be on the 19th of this month. Soo, perfect! While I was gone on exchanges Elder Bartier and Elder Bertelsen taught him all of the commandments and then scheduled his interview which I was just in time for when I got back.
So what i'm working on right now, is showing love to others the way that they recognize it. My go to is to work really hard, let them know when they're doing a good job, and to really listen to them when they want to talk. However, I live with people that communicate love a lot more through service, and compliments, and other things that are gushy. So i'm trying to cook more for everyone, and the like. It's been gratifying just to see, that although it's not my natural way to let others know I care, they feel it more.
Our week is already pretty well planned out for us, and I can't wait to go get after it.
The Atonement has the power to change us. If we let it, it will bring us back to God. I learned this week that it was never in God's plan that we would sin. Although he provided a savior for us in the instance that we did sin.
It is God's plan that we go through tribulation and experience temptation. Experiencing the opposite of joy, health, oneness, and the light of Christ, gives us the opportunity to make choices that use our agency. Without opposite choices, our agency would be as if dead. Adam and Eve could pick which vegetable they wanted to eat that day, that's agency, but that's not the purpose for which God gave us agency. When they were tempted they could then choose between good and evil, they could choose to be obedient to a law instead of being compelled to be obedient by their circumstances of having only good to choose from. When we really make the choice to be obedient, knowing full well what and why we're choosing, that expression of agency rewards us with a greater amount of God's light. Light causes us to want to continue to do good, and cycle starts where light attracts us to do what is right, and adversity entices us to do the opposite, so that every decision to obey the laws of God bring us ever closer to his presence. The light grows brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
I love you!
Stay Salty!
Elder Tyler Meidell
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