Prayer and Our Connection With The Father (Week 52)

This week I've learned a lot about prayer. We started the week out with a mission tour (where half of the mission gathers for a training from a General Authority). Elder Foster from the Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission and gave us a training on prayer and our connection/relationship with God. It was very inspiring and powerful. He read the scripture from Moses where God appears to him and tells him that he is a son of God, then later Satan appears and tries to deceive him by calling him the son of man. We watched a couple of videos that went into the science of the Earth, existence and how perfect living conditions are for us to live on it. The whole training made me ponder God's infinite love for us. We also talked about member missionary work, of course. We talked about the need of having a vision of ward missionary work before we set goals. Kind of a no-brainer, but surprisingly it's something wards struggle with establishing. Members don't always see the true reason for missionary work.

Later we even had our training in district meeting on prayer. In district meeting, each companionship accounts for their week and addresses a concern they are having with a family or individual they are teaching. Then the missionaries in the district offer inspired advice and insights, they have learned from similar experiences. This week we discussed P~, the super solid lady we have recently been teaching. Her big stumbling block is prayer, she prays on her own but when we invite her at the end of the lesson to say the closing prayer she shuts down and gets really shy and won't pray. Our goal is to to help her be able to say the closing prayer by the end of the week. We role-played and studied it out. Then on Wednesday, we taught her a whole lesson on prayer. You could tell she knew it was coming. We invited her to pray and.... no go. BUT she promised to say it next time (Saturday), we still had time to help her pray. Okay so on Saturday! SHE DID IT! It was awesome too! She even accepted our offer to give her a blessing for her foot to recover (a reason she can't come to church). It was so powerful, she loved it! All we have left to teach her is some commandments and we will have taught her everything. She has been listening to the Book of Mormon on CD.

This whole week has been about prayer. It's nuts.

Last night after I poured out my heart in prayer I laid in bed and stared at the ceiling and thought about how it was all possible for our Father to love the infinite sand of souls He created. Of course something none of us can comprehend as mortals, but a thought occured to me. He is living eternal life, time is infinite for Him. He has no limitations, He is our personal and loving Heavenly Father, we mean everything to him. It was a peaceful thought and I knew it came from my Heavenly Father.

UGH! I'm running out of time, can't type fast enough. This week has been good we have two new solid investigators that I'll have to tell you about next week! I love you all! Keep me posted!

Sincerely, Elder Watkins

 Our Vietnamese friend learning anatomy. lol

Geometry