July 14 2014

This week has been simple and productive. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on a multi-day trade-off with our district leader (He stays in the same flat as us, so it's not much of a change :P). I went with his companion, a missionary that was trained by my former companion (the one who finished his mission last transfer). It was a good experience! He is a good finder and helped push myself harder. Later in the week, after I returned to my own companion, we have had an improved relationship, too! It's amazing what trade-offs can do. For that preparation day, I made dumplings with the other missionaries and some recent converts -- mmm, mmm

There was nothing particularly eventful the missionary side of things -- the excitement of the week, I feel, was that we reset a baptismal date with the investigator who missed church previously, and we set two more baptismal dates as well! One was especially miraculous: After teaching an investigator who has been at church weekly for several weeks, we called her again later that evening to follow up and see how she was. The day prior, we had received a training from the Assistants to the President (they visited our Zone Meeting on Tuesday) about receiving revelation through prayer.

During that training, I learned something powerful about prayer, which I shared with this investigator the day afterwards. When we pray, we cannot give God the terms and conditions; we must always, in every case, accept his terms and conditions.

For example, a man, in his teens, suffered the death of his father, and wanted to find out if God was really there. So he prayed every day. But, his prayers were like this: I need an answer, this is why I need an answer, I need this kind of answer, and I need the answer now. He was giving God terms and conditions as to how he wanted to receive an answer. Over time, because he felt he hadn't received an answer, he gave up on God, deciding that God must not be there.

Fast forward several years. Without knowing exactly why, when missionaries came and knocked on this man's door one day, he allowed them to make an appointment for a lesson. During this lesson, they invited him to pray with a sincere heart and real intent: I want an answer, because I would like to know if I can see my dad again, but I know that Thou will answer in Thy own way, and Thy own time. I am willing to pray until I receive an answer. When this man prayed in this way, he felt the Spirit testify to him that God lives.

We shared this with our investigator: she wants to know if she should be baptized and when, but she was setting certain terms and conditions: even if she felt a prompting that she should be baptized immediately, she wouldn't be baptized if it was too soon, etc. When we shared this with our investigator and invited her to pray this way, when we followed up that night, we set a baptismal date with her!!!

The other notable occurrence of the week was that I was invited to give a talk this past Sunday. The theme of the sacrament meeting was Missionary Work. One of the recent converts shared his conversion story. Another, a convert from a few years prior and now a returned missionary, shared how member-missionary work was vital in her conversion. I then spoke on how members can help the missionaries, and how missionaries can help the members. Finally, the Ward Mission Leader, a convert and a returned missionary himself, spoke. I was nervous, but I felt it went well.

That's about it for the week. The push continues! Wish me luck!

With love, Elder J. Colton Ladd