CAMBREA KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! AND MAKE THE COMMITMENT AND THE DECISION NOW TO WRITE IN YOUR JOURNAL EVERYDAY. TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, MIX THINGS UP AND DON'T LET ANOTHER COMPANION PULL YOU DOWN WHERE YOU ARE NOT WORKING. ALSO KEEP THE greeny fire as it's called. ALSO I HAVE LEARNED DON'T ALLOW YOURSELF TO GET COMFORTABLE IN AN AREA. ALWAYS MIX THINGS UP. ALLOW YOURSELF TO CONSTANTLY "EVALUATE YOUR PROGRESS" AS IN THE 12 WEEK PROGRAM.(YES THE ALL CAPS IS ON PURPOSE) . THERE ARE OTHER THINGS I WILL SAY BUT ONE IS LOOK FOR THE STRUCTURE OF THINGS NOT THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING THAT LOOKS ALL NICE. Once YOU LEARN THE STRUCTURE OF SOMETHING YOU CAN LEARN OTHER THINGS THAT MAY NOT BE RELATED TO IT BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN OUTLINE OF HOW TO DO THAT. Also, Keep a study journal. Just write your thoughts down. They don't even have to make sense and as weird as this sounds start now to keep the Lord in your mind always. Pray always in your heart as President Hinckley said" I begin my day with Dear Heavenly Father and end it with IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST ". Oh and there is something I have found that there is a pattern of "2" to so many things... Example - Ponder in your heart and mind. Your heart can not talk but it testifies through feelings and of truth. This truth is pictures as well. When you ponder in your mind, you are preparing yourself to go to your heart and find the truth. Think about this topic and ask Heavenly Father to help you understand it better. And prayer is a two way communication as the cd dad may have sent you. It talks about "one ups" and downs and 1 across. Many times we always give the Lord one ups. Mix it up have questions and just listen. Have your study journal there next to you. Take 20 mins to pray. It does not have to be short. This is rambling but it is worth it. It took me 6 months to learn this. ALWAYS HAVE A PURPOSE TO WHAT YOU DO. Each door you go to know okay I'm going to leave them with such and such. This principle is the same as picking up girls (or for you men (a member told this to me)) you go in, do your purpose. You go tell a girl they're beautiful. and then "leave" it can only go down hill after 20 seconds. Then since you left them with something to wonder about, you can come back and get their number and have them come to you( this is a gist of what the member actually had happen) . AND from my DL and a member, they said if it was not for the atonement we could not do this work - remember this. Every drop of blood that the Lord lost was a sin - a pain we have done. The Lord suffered for us so that we could choose to FOLLOW Heavenly Father. The Lord works from the head down the inside out. The adversary works from the ground up outside in through lust, desires, etc. These words I am saying the last couple sentences are not from me but I would like you to do as Craig Halker Jr. (the member) said to me that "all the things I say even if you feel the spirit as I tell you them, go to the Lord and ask specifically for each one if it is right".
Study the atonement faith, spirit, and atonement. These are the things I am finding to be most powerful. Also, we received a training from our President for simple teaching. IT is Teaching Simple Truths. The way we practiced this was we took 1 chapter then a heading and then out of that for example God is our loving Heavenly Father...."WE HAVE A FATHER IN HEAVEN" (well this is the one I did) then you do the statement. Then ask a question/inspired question that will help them. Mine was something along the lines of trying to relate our earthly father to our Heavenly Father.
.....Oh this is another thing that goes with what I mentioned in the beginning of the letter. Everything on earth is a likeness of heaven. So we have a father here we have a father in heaven, etc. This principle can also be related to figurative and literal context of the scriptures like Lehi's dream can be related to real life in the literal story or taking figurative meanings of the words. This gave me an idea of something I read that gave me an idea about things like the words of Isaiah. He spoke in terms of poems and describing pictures. There could be 2 things to this one is that people could relate to them but also when we see the things of God we have feelings (and you can relate to this with feelings you get that you can not always put into words because our language does not have the ability to (this could also be why a few things could not be written in the scriptures and of course commandment to not right them but that's another topic)). These feelings may not have been able to be described accept through pictures. The heart testifies and teaches through feelings, pictures, etc..... Teach the gospel super simple - tiny bites. The best lessons are like those lessons that you have that you think in church that you have only 3 questions for the lesson planned and somehow it takes up the whole hour. You can always come back to teach more, but leave them with and open end. Before you go to a lesson have a plan with a purpose= what you want them to know by the end and then goals (usually 3)= this is how you will help them know your purpose or reach it - and then of course a commitment.
THIS IS ALL FOR NOW BUT ONE THING IS ALWAYS PRAY even when you are just biking. Stop and say a prayer with your companion. Don't leave the house without having one first. When you are not sure what to do, ask for help through a prayer. When you are having a great day have a prayer. Just pray to know what you can do to serve your companion (I learned this one more recently when you serve sometimes this is the way the Lord will answer your questions.)
LOVE ELDER VANKAMMEN
ps I GUESS THIS WILL BE MY WEEKLY LETTER FOR Everyone :P I didn't expect to write so much!
Study the atonement faith, spirit, and atonement. These are the things I am finding to be most powerful. Also, we received a training from our President for simple teaching. IT is Teaching Simple Truths. The way we practiced this was we took 1 chapter then a heading and then out of that for example God is our loving Heavenly Father...."WE HAVE A FATHER IN HEAVEN" (well this is the one I did) then you do the statement. Then ask a question/inspired question that will help them. Mine was something along the lines of trying to relate our earthly father to our Heavenly Father.
.....Oh this is another thing that goes with what I mentioned in the beginning of the letter. Everything on earth is a likeness of heaven. So we have a father here we have a father in heaven, etc. This principle can also be related to figurative and literal context of the scriptures like Lehi's dream can be related to real life in the literal story or taking figurative meanings of the words. This gave me an idea of something I read that gave me an idea about things like the words of Isaiah. He spoke in terms of poems and describing pictures. There could be 2 things to this one is that people could relate to them but also when we see the things of God we have feelings (and you can relate to this with feelings you get that you can not always put into words because our language does not have the ability to (this could also be why a few things could not be written in the scriptures and of course commandment to not right them but that's another topic)). These feelings may not have been able to be described accept through pictures. The heart testifies and teaches through feelings, pictures, etc..... Teach the gospel super simple - tiny bites. The best lessons are like those lessons that you have that you think in church that you have only 3 questions for the lesson planned and somehow it takes up the whole hour. You can always come back to teach more, but leave them with and open end. Before you go to a lesson have a plan with a purpose= what you want them to know by the end and then goals (usually 3)= this is how you will help them know your purpose or reach it - and then of course a commitment.
THIS IS ALL FOR NOW BUT ONE THING IS ALWAYS PRAY even when you are just biking. Stop and say a prayer with your companion. Don't leave the house without having one first. When you are not sure what to do, ask for help through a prayer. When you are having a great day have a prayer. Just pray to know what you can do to serve your companion (I learned this one more recently when you serve sometimes this is the way the Lord will answer your questions.)
LOVE ELDER VANKAMMEN
ps I GUESS THIS WILL BE MY WEEKLY LETTER FOR Everyone :P I didn't expect to write so much!