Church is a blessing and so is service!

Hello World!

This week had its ups and downs, but overall it is always a blessing to do the Lord's will (or at least strive to)!

We taught a wonderful part-member family! It's amazing the example and influence one person can be. The 20 year old son was the one that helped the family come to church! We set a baptismal date with their 10 year old son and are going to see them again tonight! They all have made decisions they are not proud of, but I know that the power of the gospel and Christ's Atonement will be able to help them heal and get rid of the guilt that is wearing them down.

We have met several less active members this week and they each have different stories and reasons for not coming to church, but none of those reasons are significant when compared with the blessings of the Atonement and living the commandments. If we think of all our reasons for not coming to church (too early, busy, tired, we were offended, don't want a calling, etc) and then compare them to the blessings for coming; (the Holy Spirit being with us, a rest from the world, showing God we love him, peace, joy, learning the gospel, being supported by others with testimonies, etc) and then think of the ultimate blessing-- ETERNAL LIFE-- nothing else can be more important than having that!

Saturday night I was thinking of all the effort and hassle and work that goes into helping people come to church, and of course into my head popped the thought, "Is it really worth all this work?" Thankfully I didn't entertain that thought but dismissed it and prayed to Heavenly Father before going to sleep. The next day as I went to meetings before church and then church itself, that thought from the night before was answered. Yes it is worth it. It was answered in the peace I felt at church and the happiness for people that came. That day I saw the blessings of having my faith strengthened by coming to church. It was one of many experiences that have built my faith and testimony that we should honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy!

On Saturday we helped 3 people move. One was an active member, one a less active/ part member family and the third were some people moving into our apartment. We saw them moving in and it was just 2 adults and a child trying to move in lots of stuff so we stopped and helped them for about an hour and a half. They seem like good people. The child is 14 but has autism. After we were done helping, the mother told us that her son can tell when people are honest and good people and she said it was a big sign to her that we were true people because her son talked to us and liked us. They offered us money but we declined and instead they are going to have us over for pizza sometime. We thought this was a perfect compromise and plan on giving them or watching the Finding Faith in Christ video with them.

Overall a great week of serving many people!

Sister Lila Jenson