Sunday, July 17, 2016

May 29th, 2016: Pebble in a River, Gospel Principles and Quentin L. Cook

Some of you might be wondering what "Pebble in a River" has to do with this week, I will tell you. To start off this week we got the air let out of our tires while we were teaching a lesson. We got back to the car and started driving away and something didn't feel right so we pulled over and the air was completely gone and we thought someone has slashed our tires. After we couldn't find any holes we drove really slow to a member’s house and parked for the night and then had to walk home from there. Luckily we were kind of close to our house. After filling the tires up with air we kept on doing our work. It's amazing how much people try to stop this work and try to do everything they can do to disrupt or stop it and all their efforts really are just a "pebble in a river" they don't really do much. The flood of the Gospel of Jesus Christ won't and cannot be stopped. It will roll forth to every corner of the earth and there is no power nor person that can stop it. This is the "work of all mighty God and it is to change the world" as Elder Holland puts it. Just like how people thought that killing Jesus would stop everything when in reality it only fulfilled the prophesies that had been prophesied. This work cannot be stopped because it is not the work of man, but the work of God on the Earth today.  

Another big thing that happened this week is my teaching style completely changed, no big deal but now it's a lot different. It wasn't anything I was doing wrong but now it is so much more personal and meaningful. In every lesson I teach now I've been really helping the investigators come to realize that we are here to change their lives for the better. We can give them the tools to change their life but they are the ones that have to pick it up and change their life. I have also been trying to help the investigators realize that they are sinning and that they need to change. A lot of the people here think that if they aren't breaking any of the Ten Commandments then they aren't sinning. Because they aren't married they can't commit adultery, because it doesn't say you can't drink Sakau, they really do have selective hearing to the max. The people we have met this week are really awesome and I hope that they will continue to progress and change their lives. Etwel is doing good and we had a great lesson with him and tried answering his questions. He has heard from a lot of churches and he knows that they all teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or rather their "understanding" of it. He noticed that we are the one church that claims authority from God to do this work and actually fulfil the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He asked us a question that I thought was really good. He asked why the first church after Jesus Christ, (Catholic) why God didn't give them authority to do baptism and things like that. We thought for a minute and the answer we gave was something along the lines of, what do you think people would have done if God tried giving them the Gospel in its fullness again. After they had just crucified that very Son of God, do you think the people would accept it at that time if they had just rejected Jesus Christ. He answered, well no that would be kind of stupid to just keep doing it and people keep rejecting it. We continued and talked about how God needed to prepare the world for the gospel so that when it would come back people would accept it. Etwel added in and told us how when White people first came to Pohnpei they rejected and even killed the first missionaries. Then after time people started to accept their message until today it's hard to find someone who doesn't believe in a church. As we were talking I could see the wheels turning in his head and how every answer we gave made sense. At the end I asked him from all that he has learned about this church is there is anything that is against what he believes. He told us that he has been thinking a lot about what we teach and has been reading and praying a lot and not once has he found anything that is in disagreement with the Bible, his beliefs and his feelings. He told us that he doesn't know for sure yet but from what he has learned this church really is the "fullness of the Gospel". Etwel really has come a long way and is working hard to find an answer. 
Defney is doing good, she comes to all the activities and comes to church every week. This area really is just getting better and better and the branch is getting better and better! Also we are getting a chapel! We got approved to build a chapel and now we are finalizing between two plots of land to start working! I'm so excited, even though I won't be in the area I think it really will help these people so much. I love you all and sorry for not emailing last week the internet cut out half way through but all good. Hope all is well back in the US of A. Love you all!
-Elder Hanson

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