Monday August 4, 2014 - Sharing the gospel, his apt, a wedding, investigators, kilt wearing and Scone Palace visit!

Hello Everybody,

This past week has been a good week. We had alot of cool and alot of strong studies this week.

As always we will begin with my studies of the week, so what was studied this week, well everything. There was some general conference talks, some preach my gospel, some Book Of Mormon, doctrine and covenants,  church movies and quotes (Spiritual Thoughts)

So this week in Preach My Gospel I have continued to go through highlighting all the important things I find through studying the lessons, and I have made it up to laws and ordinances now. I have been able to study more in the commandments this week specifically and been doing it for about 10-15 minutes per day and writing down thoughts about them.

So this week in topics, I focused alot on Christlike attributes, I studied I think obedience, and then after that spent several days( and still studying it)  on love and charity and diving deeper into why tat is important and what it means. As I thought of it, pondered it and studied it I came across a scripture that said basically if you have faith and others but no charity then you are nothing. And I thought of that for a bit because without charity we are nothing, We may follow the rules but we don't do it for the benefit of others, As we serve the Lord with all our heart might mind and strength, we must show love, because as we serve we are only in service to our God,  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ judge us based on our desires, so when we don't have charity our desires are either for self gain or other unrighteous purposes. Heavenly father and Jesus Christ love all of us or else this plan wouldn't have been given unto us and with charity the Savior would not have suffered and died for us.

Charity is important in all things and as stated by Thomas S. Monson, It is the very essence of the Gospel. All that Christ did was to serve and strengthen other people, he never ridiculed, degraded, or torn down anyone, he was perfect and loved internally. Even when christ was on the cross he cried out to his father for him to forgive those who did this to him, for they knew not what they have done.
I don't know about you, but for me I would not be able to, I don't think forgive someone for torturing me against my will. He Loved all of us and will continue to love all of us, He has a perfect Love, a complete Love for us and I love that Jesus Christ would have died just for one of us as he did for all of us.

I also studied a few talks on Love, One the essence of the Gospel, By Thomas S. Monson and as well, The first Great Commandment- Jeffrey R. Holland and labour in the vineyard and they all underlined Love.

In the first real commandment, peter is asked three times if he loves the savior and repeatedly replies saying "yay lord thou knowest that I love thee", and then Elder Holland shares his idea on what the exchange happened. I love how he talks about how once we come unto our new lives we can never look back, just like in the scriptures talking about Lot's wife she looked back and desired to go back and was turned to stone, as disciples of Christ we can never go back to the old way, those bridges have been burned and if we try to return then we are taking away progression, The Lord helps us progress and make changes to become better everyday he Loves us and we love him.

LOVE TRULY IS THE ESSENCE OF THIS GOSPEL IT IS THE REASON WE DO HOME AND VISITING TEACHING IT IS THE REASON WE DO SERVICE AND IT IS THE REASON WE ARE ALL UNITED, We come from all different paths of life some of us more then others but we unite to pay respects to the most high God.

So that is what I found in my studies this week.
This week has been filled with exciting things and cool experiences.

On Monday, We had a family home evening on by small and simple things are great things come to pass. And it was a really good lesson. On p-day we watched the animated stories of the Book of Mormon and I had the privilege of making shephards pie and early morning to make cookies for my district. They really enjoyed them on Tuesday

Tuesday I was then here in Perth with elder shubin, and him and I are alot alike. We both had the same companion, Elder Cziesla and when last transfer I was serving with elder cziesla, he always told me I was like Elder Shubin and I couldn't comprehend it but then afterwards I noticed we are alot alike. It was a great exchange did some good contacting and got to do BOM class which is good, I do wish we had more to teach but we are working on that Alot

On Wednesday we had a good time at the British Heart Foundation steaming clothes, which is nice, however Sara is moving in two weeks so we will miss her dearly but know she will do great in Birmingham. We then switched back and had the opportunity to see several people unfortunately we hadn't scheduled joint teaches so it didn't work out that bad. But Had a good time, really good lessons where the spirits touched their hearts strongly.

On Thursday was a day of planning, weekly planning and we got to do some Family History and learn more how to use it I am working on it, I need one more thing and I think I can jump back much farther once I get a few more things. It was a really good day and we will be doing hometeaching planning this week which will be well. Oh on Thursday as well we got to help out some friends by taking photographs at their wedding for them, unfortunately it wasn't a temple marriage but it was great nonetheless and my first wedding to be at. The love in their eyes for each other was apparent and amazing.

I am so greatful that this gospel allows us to be sealed to our families wives and children for eternity, and I am so greatful to be able to share that truth with the world.

On Friday we did alot of organizational stuff and had a nice day out on Faeries Road and organizing the area much more, Elder Patterson was doing Eye Of Faiths and while he was I was setting up an area specified document for all less actives, and even though it feels weird to be sittin around we organized our area for Less Actives and alot of formers where as now we can know what to do specifically for our time.

On Saturday, We had received a referral from head quarters and headed to contact them and they weren't home but on the way down the road a man and either his sister or girlfriend stopped us in a big van and asked us a bunch of doctrinal questions he enjoyed talking with us and him and his whatever were named Bethany and Isaiah and they both knew the Bible very well and asked us lot of questions about it all and I was lucky because elder Patterson knew a great deal of the Bible so he was able to help them understand, lot better. We tried setting up a returned appointment but they are in Glasgow and not from here but hopefully they will look them up there and talk they were very nice people but the girl kept smiling flirtily at Elder Pattersona and I so that was a little weird but overall was a good day.

We had a great day unfortunately we didn't have the turn out at church that we have had the past few weeks but Aimee was at church along with a less active We have been trying to meet so that was good. Testimony meeting was very powerful, alot of people spoke on the Atonement and the love the Lord had and all aspects of the atonement and the spirit was definately in attendance and because we only had like 25 people, almost everyone got up which was nice and the less active bore testimony as well.

As we left our flat in the morning we said hi to a man and he recognized us right away as the Lord's representatives and he was partially blind, we had a really good conversation and he talked about how his accident caused him to trust in the Lord. And made me think of a scripture in Alma, where it talks about they who are compelled to be humble are blessed but we are more blessed if we choose to be, but whether it is caused by choice or circumstance being humble allows the light to flow freely to the world
Last night as well while we were at a member's house he allowed us to try on a kilt and I was the same size as him so it fit me perfectly.
Today is  a beautiful name and we are going to go to Scone Palace which is a coronation site for Scottish royalty so that will be awesome pictures to come next week.

Love you all and know that I KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE AND that Heavenly Father LOVES ALL of you and is aware of you and if you are ever sad, depressed, or need a friend get down on your knees and pray to him and he will be there and hug you with a large embrace and you will feel joy and happiness in your life.


Live Long and Prosper

P. S I LOVE YOU
P. S.S. Photos will be attached in next one

- Elder James Reece