Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The "Why" of Church Attendance

From Ethan June 29, 2015

Holy Comoly, I can't believe it is almost July!  I've been in Hagerman for nearly 5 weeks already?? My goodness it is going way too fast!


Hagerman is a good area, a little different than all my other areas.  There was already work here when I arrived, but that's where the struggles have been.  The Elders before us were great and made a ton of relationships here.  Now that we are here in their place, the people they were teaching have kind of dropped off the face of the earth.  Some have been out of town every week this summer.  Some won't return our calls.  Some even asked us to stop coming by. =/  That is heart breaking right there!


On the brighter side, there is one family we are working with that has shown a lot of progress.  The Bieroth family's dad grew up in the church over in Mountain Home.  The Elders before us baptized two of the children, but one child and the wife haven't been baptized yet.  They've all been coming to church for a few weeks.  This week we gave a lesson about the sacrament.  The sacrament is the "why" in church attendance.  In all the covenants or promises we make with God, we promise to keep His commandments yet all of us are imperfect and make mistakes every day.  When we are baptized, all our prior mistakes are washed away.  Every time we take the sacrament and apply the Savior's atonement, the same thing happens! It's like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down, but this roller coaster, if we give repentance our all, ends in the Celestial Kingdom with our Father in Heaven. =)


William and Ken Percival aren't progressing.  William isn't reading the Book of Mormon or staying for Sunday School and Priesthood meeting at church.  He and his dad look too far into things especially scriptures picking them apart, bringing doubt into their minds.  Really the gospel is incredibly simple as taught by the Savior Himself in 3 Nephi 11:31-38.  It is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.  That's all folks.  Our mind and stubbornness or pride that makes the gospel complicated.


Well, the time is flying by and I'm just trying to hold on by my fingertips until the end.


Love Elder Howard

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