June 16, 2014 - Beautiful and much needed insight!

Oh my Goodness this week was so good.

The work is going great, and I am able to see more and more each and every day the Lord's hand in my life and the blessings that come from aligning our lives with his.

So this week in my studies, I focused on alot of different things, I continued my study on Consecration, continued my studies on Book of Mormon and New testament and as a companionship we read Doctrine and Covenants everyday. I have come to know alot this week and grown alot.

Some of my insights that I have had include my focus on being consecrated. There is a great talk called Consecrated Missionary by Tad R. Callister at an MTC devotional that was done and in this talk he talks about consecrating all of your soul on the altar and laying it down, this week I have truly began to understand what that means. We are not here to socialize and to build friendships, we are out here to Focus on the Lord's work, We are called and chosen to be representatives of Christ to show forth LOVE for all and to teach all about the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. I really like that a lot. We are here to build relationships with others, to help them with their duties in their wards and to build up the Lord's kingdom in our designated areas. I love that so much that we are here to do the LORD's WORK among his children to go out after the one lost sheep and to gather his fold together that are out there in the world. To prepare them for when the shepherd comes again that we can help them realize that they already recognize his voice and know him.

One of my focuses was to understand more about the fact that we are called. As it says is the Lord calls us and chooses us but we are chosen based on our unique talents, abilities, strengths, and even our weaknesses. I was wondering for myself how I am to use my talents I have been given to help this work progress, and was studying my Patriarchal Blessing, and if those of you who have patriarchal blessings and don't read them, I would advise you to read them Weekly if not Bi Weekly, because it is personal scripture and the Lord will provide you with revelation on YOU, and I think that is absolutely amazing. One thing while studying it is to be pondering a question that you want to know and the Lord with his greatness and Love for each of us will help you understand what is being told.

He Loves all of You, He Loves Me, he loves all those who Love him , and even he Loves those that hate him. We must follow his example in our lives. Each day in the news and in the world things get worse, Satan's power is throughout the whole world and destroys families, destroys relationships, destroys respect and destroys LOVE. As we love everyone around us it means that we FORGIVE them when they hurt us, Show love for All, Are ACCEPTING of all and Respect one another. One thing I love so much is Charity, without charity we are nothing, if we have not charity we have not love for others we have not love for ourselves. As we learn and pray to the Lord for Charity he will bless us with it because Charity is a Christlike Attribute and with all Christlike attributes as we ask for charity it will be given to us from our father in heaven. He Loves us and wants us to ask him for things to help us, he knows our desires of our hearts but to get anything in righteousness all we need to do is ASK. "ask and ye shall recieve, knock and it shall be opened unto you." It is that easy, the Lord constantly has his hand extended with his mercy, and as we accept his mercy and live according to his commandments we then are able to gain access of his grace which comes only after we have done all that we can on our own. I testify that Christ's grace is sufficient to all, I know that through Christ all things are possible and it is absolutely magnificient.

The Lord Needs each and everyone of us to do our duties, to use the Talents that he has blessed us with to build up his Kingdom here on the earth, One Thing I love is that the Lord WILL NOT bless us with more until we first take care of those we have already, Brothers and Sisters do your home teaching, do your visiting teaching, Reach out and invite all that you know to partake of the glory and Eternal power and Cleansing power of the Saviors Atonement, there is nothing else in this world that could even compare to it and the happiness and love it brings to us.  And these things I earnestly testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This week was absolutely Amazing, We have done so much this week, it has been abit slow to get new people to teach but I can definately see the Lord's hand providing us with those people. as you know each week we do city finding activities as groups of missionaries, and we go out into the city centre and share this gospel with all, and from this approach it brings alot of Potentials.

So on Monday, We were able to relax and hang out with the other missionaries as well as see Gustavo and Eva, We had two family home evenings one with Gustavo who was recentally baptised a week ago before he went home to his country, and one for Eva, who entered into the waters of Baptism yesterday, I am so excited for both of them and greatful for the examples they have been to me.

On Tuesday, I learnt alot, we had all our lessons fall through, all of them but because this happened we had the opportunity to help out a new Member, he had been a member for a year and was from Brazil, and was having difficulties since he arrived the day previous, ~He knew noone and was alone and scared and the Lord directed us to him to help him out and we brought him to YSA and he Loved it, he absolutely loved it and is doing much better, I am just so greatful for Tuesday and for the lord to direct us and guide us to him to help him feel like he belongs and to be here with us, I am greatful that the Lord works through us to help others know of his love.

On Wednesday,
As we were visiting Less actives we ran into members from Utah, It is so cool when members see us and just stop us. It is one aspect of being a missionary I love, every once in a while we will be stopped on the street and uplifted by them. Today was a good day we were able to go through with the baptismal interview for Eva which went amazing and were able to see Gustavo for the Last time seeing as he went back to Mexico on Friday.

On Thursday, It was so uplifting and spiritual for our Zone Interview training, we talked about the importance of Rememberance and remembering our Purpose as missionaries and how remembering can help us on those days when we are constantly bombarded by rejection but just knowing that this message WILL bless the lives of those who accept it, fuel me to go out there and preach EVERYDAY. I love it so much, We also learnt about how our purpose is TO INVITE others to learn, One thing I love is that as long as we invite everyone we are successful it doesn't matter about how many baptisms we have or how many people we have, but it's measured by invitation, and this month is the month of invitation so EVERYONE invite your friends to church and if not then I invite all of you to check out the church to go to a sunday service and pay attention to the feelings you feel in your heart and to record them and if you don't know where to go go to Mormon.org, click on visit, and click on find a meeting house and that will set you up.

On Friday,
This was a good day,I saw the Lord's hand in our life we were running late and would've missed the train but the train was delayed 10 minutes which aloud us to make our appointment. It was great.

On Saturday, it was a great day. O my goodness, this day was busy and very Spiritual I grew alot on Saturday, we started off where one of the new members, her mother is not a member but is not doing the greatest and is in the hospital, so the member asked her mom if she'd be willing to recieve a blessing and none of us knew her, she agreed to receiving it and we gave her a blessing. I was asked o do it and afterwards I knew without a doubt that the priesthood I hold is the priesthood from God. I knew of the Love that God has for all of us even those who aren't of our faith and was so greatful I could be apart of it for her, she also was so greatful to her daughter for offering it for her and was greatful to us to be there to help her, This was the time I have felt the spirit the strongest, I almost couldn't stand, the words that i said were not my words they were the Lord's and everything is according to his will. Afterwards we were able to go to help with parking cars for Child Vision they had an open day and we all got to direct traffic which was a great experience. I love serving others so much, and it is true what is said in Mosiah 2:17 in the book of mormon, that when ye are in the service to your fellow men you are only in service to your God and i am so greatful for the example that Ammon had on me and for his example of serving King Lamoni and keeping his commandments and desiring to dwell with them. I am learning that more and more and love the people here so much.

On Sunday, it was another busy day, we were able to help Eva enter into baptism and take upon her the covenants and enter into these covenants with the Lord, She was so happy and just radiant all day and felt amazing afterwards, i love seeing that look and feeling the spirit of those who enter into the ordinance of Baptism, I was blessed that I was asked to do it for her as well and I am greatful for her. " Afterwards she told me that i mean alot to her and I am her teacher and have played a large role in her life and I am so greatful for that experience and know that the LORD has allowed us to have this happen. I know that everything I do is with the Lord and it is through him that we can touch the hearts of those we teach but " If ye are not one, you are not mine" I love that so much as we are one and as we follow the instruction in Doctrine and Covenants 50 :22 We are able to strengthen and edify all of us as ONE.

So that was my week this week, Full of spiritual excitement and some difficulties with several dropped lessons but I know the Lord directs his work and everything Happens because of some reason so I am excited to see what the future holds for us.

I love you all,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, might , mind and strength and if you do so you will be amazed with what the Lord blesses your life with, I love you so much

- Elder James Reece