This week has been great. The area has really picked up! This last week as a mission we taught the most people in one week in Mission history! President Tew, our mission President, has now set a goal that every missionary in the entire mission over the next 7 days teach Every NIGHT! That's 100% as a mission we all teach. I have truly seen how goal setting will change your life. When you set goals it changes you and raises you to a higher ground. As you complete your goals and continue to do them, it will become who you are.
I have a deep and profound love for Heavenly Father! Each day we write in a journal and have an opportunity to study the scriptures for an hour among other books given to us as resources for teaching, One such book is Preach My Gospel. I find it an amazing opportunity to study because it is like you have the help from the best friend you can have, Heavenly Father as you study. Each time we begin with a prayer to start to invite His help in our studies. Heavenly Father is just like us. He has feelings and is a real person! He respects our agency and will allow us to make our own decisions. The wonderful part is that if we ask for His help he will ! I truly found this to be true!
We had an opportunity to do service for the lady ,Dawn, last week that asked for "2 mormon boys" and while there she had a friend that was visiting with her while we finished up for the day. We went inside to have some snacks she prepared for us and had the opportunity to talk with both of them for a minute. Without telling the friend who we were, she began slowly to ask us questions of what we believed after saying we were on missions for two years for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. Pointing at my tag as we shared this with her, she had a moment of complete shock! Through this discussion we were able to help her understand that we were really a christian church. ! Even in a service opportunity the Lord gave us and opportunity to teach someone!
We had the opportunity to find an new person to teach this Week Louise Wheeler. Each morning we do what we call "practice teach" where my companion and I teach each other, or an object that we talk to, switching back and forth between each other. We had a lesson scheduled with someone in the morning and had practiced for that person but fell through. In the End what we had practiced taught for the person in the morning was perfect for teaching Louise that afternoon! She is an older lady and struggles to hear well, and talks A LOT! As we continued to talk with her, we saw it was going to be difficult to teach her, but by the end we helped her say a prayer, which the first 2-3 times of inviting her she was hesitant to do and would change the subject talking so much. However, with a little diligence testifying of what prayer is and preparing her sharing the purpose of prayer SHE DID IT :)! She expressed that it really made her feel better! We did not expect to teach her that afternoon, but because we had tried our best to prepare, Heavenly Father used that to prepare us to teach his daughter LOUISE WHEELER!
All in all NO EFFORT IS WAISTED! We have the agency to choose to MAKE A DIFFERENCE! God will use what knowledge we have and efforts to prepare for the day to give us success!
LOVE YOU ALL AND I KNOW THAT WHEN WE PUT EFFORTS TO SERVE OTHERS WE GROW AND THAT THIS IS WHAT DEVELOPS - CHARITY!
LOVE ELDER VAN KAMMEN!
PS KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK IN SCHOOL TO THOSE IN IT! IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!
MAIL ADDRESS:
Christopher Van Kammen
6500 E. Atherton St
Long Beach, CA 90815
:)
I have a deep and profound love for Heavenly Father! Each day we write in a journal and have an opportunity to study the scriptures for an hour among other books given to us as resources for teaching, One such book is Preach My Gospel. I find it an amazing opportunity to study because it is like you have the help from the best friend you can have, Heavenly Father as you study. Each time we begin with a prayer to start to invite His help in our studies. Heavenly Father is just like us. He has feelings and is a real person! He respects our agency and will allow us to make our own decisions. The wonderful part is that if we ask for His help he will ! I truly found this to be true!
We had an opportunity to do service for the lady ,Dawn, last week that asked for "2 mormon boys" and while there she had a friend that was visiting with her while we finished up for the day. We went inside to have some snacks she prepared for us and had the opportunity to talk with both of them for a minute. Without telling the friend who we were, she began slowly to ask us questions of what we believed after saying we were on missions for two years for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints. Pointing at my tag as we shared this with her, she had a moment of complete shock! Through this discussion we were able to help her understand that we were really a christian church. ! Even in a service opportunity the Lord gave us and opportunity to teach someone!
We had the opportunity to find an new person to teach this Week Louise Wheeler. Each morning we do what we call "practice teach" where my companion and I teach each other, or an object that we talk to, switching back and forth between each other. We had a lesson scheduled with someone in the morning and had practiced for that person but fell through. In the End what we had practiced taught for the person in the morning was perfect for teaching Louise that afternoon! She is an older lady and struggles to hear well, and talks A LOT! As we continued to talk with her, we saw it was going to be difficult to teach her, but by the end we helped her say a prayer, which the first 2-3 times of inviting her she was hesitant to do and would change the subject talking so much. However, with a little diligence testifying of what prayer is and preparing her sharing the purpose of prayer SHE DID IT :)! She expressed that it really made her feel better! We did not expect to teach her that afternoon, but because we had tried our best to prepare, Heavenly Father used that to prepare us to teach his daughter LOUISE WHEELER!
All in all NO EFFORT IS WAISTED! We have the agency to choose to MAKE A DIFFERENCE! God will use what knowledge we have and efforts to prepare for the day to give us success!
LOVE YOU ALL AND I KNOW THAT WHEN WE PUT EFFORTS TO SERVE OTHERS WE GROW AND THAT THIS IS WHAT DEVELOPS - CHARITY!
LOVE ELDER VAN KAMMEN!
PS KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK IN SCHOOL TO THOSE IN IT! IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!
MAIL ADDRESS:
Christopher Van Kammen
6500 E. Atherton St
Long Beach, CA 90815
:)