Hi Family and Friends,
In my OT study I'm currently in Psalms and I noticed how often he talks about the temple and having to be righteous to go there. One of my favorite verses was Psalms 27:4 "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple." I love this verse. Being able to be in the temple all my life is a goal I have as well. I always want to be temple worthy. Reading these verses has also helped me in thinking how I can and will explain about why people have to be worthy and have a temple recomend before they enter the temple. I have been amazed at how much doctrine actually is sprinkled throughout the old Testament. For example the counsel to not buy things on the Sabbeth Nehemiah 10:31,13:15-22. That's in the OT whereas it's not in the NT or the Book of Mormon or even in the D&C.
I first heard about the earthquake on Friday and because a lady asked where we were from and when she heard I was from WA she said that a tsunami was going to hit there. I was like "what?" and she explained about the earthquake in Japan, but I heard from several other people that it didn't hit the west coast very badly and I was happy to hear that.
We had a great Sunday. A less active member that we invited came to church!!!!!! And everybody was so happy to see her. She said she's going to start coming every week! And the first counselor in the Stake presidency was there and gave an excellent talk about inviting people who are less active to come to church and he promised that if we did they would start coming. The high priest that was speaking with him talked about the dedication and consistency that was needed in Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching and shared his experiences with helping people come back to church. President Baclawsky said that the stake presidency wanted Woodward to become a ward and wanted to expand the building here, it's like 1/4 - 1/8 of a normal building-- it's REALLY small. But that in order to do that average Sacrament Meeting attendance needed to be 80-100 people, we average 50 right now.
It gave me a lot of hope for this area and I am really excited to try and help this branch to grow. I love this branch and I know that they really need the people who are less-active. We need them also, because when people join the church they need a large support group and the branch just isn't big enough to help any recent converts right now. And because of that many recent converts, like 90% of them in the last 5 years have quickly left the church. In between the two speakers Pres. Baclawsky asked me to come up and bear my testimony and I did and it was a great oppurtunity because missionaries don't usually go up and bear their testimonies in fast and testinmony meeting, so it was nice to be able to do that.
Our mission president wants us to "Focus on Christ 2011" and I know that is so important. As a missionary I have noticed how often people will say "I know that the Chruch is true. I know that Pres. Monson is a true prophet, etc" but they won't bear their testimony of Jesus Christ being our Savior and Redeemer. Really, everything else is an appendage to that. I know that bearing witness of Jesus Christ is so important and it will bring the Holy Spirit faster then a testimony of anything else.
Love,
Sister Lila Jenson
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