Monday May 26, 2014 - New companion, learning to slow down and having faith!

Hello Everyone:

This week has been interesting.

For this week in my study, I have begun to dive more into The Book Of Mormon and New testament. I am diving deep into all that I read to dissect what I can from it, and I have gotten so much more out of the verses then I have in the past. I learnt alot about the purpose of the Book of mormon and found out more about how it was to come forth. I also studied abit on Faith and what it is. So some insights I have recieved on what faith is, is that Faith is a Governing Principle. It is Power, it is action. One thing that hurt me abit was finding out that Faith is trust in someone or something. I have never been good at trusting others so with Faith it is Trusting in Christ and having faith in ~Christ is also Believing and trusting in  all that he asks us to do. ALL OF IT. I was reading through Preach My Gospel on the subject of Faith and it said that Faith is trusting and following Christ's commandments even when we don't understand them. There are lots of things in the gospel in which we don't understand or we don't see why it happens but everything has a purpose for us. Faith is a governing principle in that Faith is needed for all ordinances, all blessings, all healings,for all that is from God's power. In the new testament repeatedly Christ tells those he heals that " your faith has made thee whole". Faith is power, with faith anything is possible. But faith isn't just believing that something could happen, it's believing it will. " For example if we have sincere and true faith we know that the things we hope for will come to fruition. On my mission we have met people who have struggled with things and Satan has been trying to knock them down, however we have faith that they will get through these things and we have faith that we can help others come unto Christ.

Throughout this next week i will be studying Enduring and what it means to Endure Chastening, but also How can we obtain more Faith, how can our faith influence us to do things? Those are the questions. If anyone has questions on things about Faith or other topics let me know and I will try to find an answer for you.

I Love You all.

So this week was pretty crazy Exchanges, New Companion, Travelling lots, teaching people, Working with one of our investigators to help her be ready for her baptism. It is exciting time.

On Monday, my trainer had finished his mission, it was a little sad, I am going to miss him and am excited to see what he does in his life and the accomplishments he has when he is home. I may have had a lot of conflicts with him but I love and respect him so much. I learnt so many things from him. I learnt how to be organized, how to build friendships, how to determine needs, how to ask more questions..etc It has been a good 12 weeks with him and will miss him so. I just hope I can make him proud thoughout this next two years as part of the McCarthy Kin. So he left Monday at 7Am and then I was with Finglas in a trio for several days.

On Tuesday I was with Finglas we did alot of things had some good days and traveled up to visit people and do some tracting. Later in the day I went on splits with my friend Terry he is so awesome we were able to have two lessons and he was able to be there with me, it was hard and nerve racking to be there and lead out the area and lessons. I definately got to see what I need to work on and as many of you would probably guess that thing is SLOWING DOWN. I register things very quick and react quickly and even in lessons I need to slow down to help people recognize the Spirit and give them time to think. I am learning that quiet time is good when being a missionary and teaching in a lesson to check for understand and concerns.

On Wednesday it was fun, we all hung out and at 2pm us and the other missionaries in our zone because of moves all went out to a place called Eddie Rockets. It was nice then I recieved my new companion, his name is Elder Cziesla. He is in the same boat as Elder McCarthy was because he also has two moves left in his mission. I am excited to learn from him and to listen alot. (hopefully)

On thursday and  Friday the work went well we did the usual it was nice to see his teaching style though and start to relate with him. I am still figuring out my own teaching style.

On saturday we did a thing called City Finding in city centre we  went to city centre and talked to EVERYBODY it was nice however this whole weekend there was a ONE Direction concert on so the streets were so busy. and they wouldn't even let us walk through our street we had to walk around.

On Sunday we had a good day one of our investigators was able to attend the baptism in our ward and she felt amazing and excited for her own baptism this work is definately going forward.

Today we are going to see a castle I am so excited and can not wait. We are going at 2:15 and travelling with the Zone Leaders, the Finglas elders and the two sets of sisters. It is going to be awesome.

I also need people's addresses I am going to send some postcards but need some addresses and can't recall the church addresses to send to. Send me addresses.

I Love you all <3 Miss you all and pray for you all each and every day.

So my companion is Elder Armin Cziesla, He is from Switzerland and has been out for 21 months. He just came from serving in the Shetlands, and has German, French and Swiss relatives. He is about 22 years old and has served in 5 areas. He is very blunt and direct in his teaching and very good. However it can be hard, our two cultures are alot different so him and Elder Zander are both German and they kind of have a different sense of humour. I am working on being more Tolerant and loving this transfer and to understand how to endure I love you all.

- Elder James Reece