Chapter 53: Fishers of Men

P-day Fly Fishing Activity!

6/30/2021

Today we got to have another lesson with Ashtian. We went over a baptismal plan with her and were able to show her how much she had learned with us, which she seemed to really like. We got to teach about a lot of the commandments and explained the importance of prayer and scripture study, showing that these were tools God had given us to communicate with Him. On top of that, Ashtian said the closing prayer, and it was one of the most humble things I had ever heard; In her prayer she thanked God for sending the missionaries to teach her. Most people don’t like seeing us, a few 19-20 year old missionaries as teachers, but she was grateful for us.

7/1/2021

Today was a busy day. The only lessons that went through were with nonmembers, but those are the most important ones so I suppose everything worked out okay. Our Ward Mission Leader was absolutely amazing, we needed someone to come to one of our lessons with us and he told us, “give me an hour and I’ll be there”. He showed up true to his word and we were able to have our lesson right when we hoped we would be able to. 

7/2/2021

Today was a great day for lessons, but also for a lot of unusual events that showed us how much God is watching over us as missionaries. We passed by a yard sale today and I saw that there were a lot of fishing supplies laid out. These fishing supplies interested me because we’ve made plans to go fishing with our District on Pday, but I still didn’t have a rod, a reel, or any of the other numerous pieces of equipment that the professionals had. I asked the man running the yard sale about the rods and he took my companions and I to his shed where he loaded us up on supplies free of charge, everything that we could need alongside a handshake and a desire that we would keep helping others too. That was pretty heart-warming.

7/3/2021

Because Elder Rindlisbacher and I are approaching the end of our missions we had to work on a project called “My Plan” today, which is about our life after the Mission: Our goals, our hopes, dreams, desires, and plans to get us there. Well, because there isn’t a public computer in Cedaredge, we had to go to Brother Call to ask if he would be willing to let us use his computer. Fortunately he was quite willing, so we stopped by and got to talk to him for a bit. Brother Call is an incredible student of the scriptures, and shared a lot of powerful stuff with me. While Elder Rindlisbacher was working on his plan, I got to talk to Brother Call about some of what I had been learning on my mission and some of the questions that I still had, and having someone I could council with was awesome.

7/4/2021

Today was our fast and testimony meeting, and I got to share my testimony today. We had an investigator there, and while everyone is always incredibly kind to those who bear their testimonies, our investigator’s compliment stood out the most to me, she told me, “this is the worst day ever”, and when I quizzically asked her, “why?” she said, “because your testimony made me cry.” That response was over dramatic and characteristic of her, but a valued compliment nonetheless that she felt The Spirit so strongly while I was bearing my testimony.

Today for a spiritual thought I want to share a verse that comes from 2nd Nephi 25 verse 13: Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name. 

This verse is such a profound one to me because this last week I learned a lot more about Jesus Christ's crucifixion. A lot of what I learned about was how horrible crucifixion was as a form of death, and how wrong it is that we often picture Christ hanging gracefully on the cross when in reality the cross caused a constant writhing motion from its victim. Despite all of this, I love this verse so much because it points out that Jesus Christ bore the most painful of all deaths which made his Resurrection all the more glorious--and victorious.

Christ lives, and I know that to be true with all my heart.