Monday, April 17, 2017

Weekly Update~ "Prince of Peace"

Dear Family and Friends,


I am thankful for the Savior and the peace I feel in knowing him, his attributes, and his infinite atonement. We had a characteristically busy transfer week, no surprises about that, but the highlight of course was Easter. Elder Moyes has officially returned to Uganda from Ethiopia after a direct flight there from Rwanda. We enjoyed MLC on Friday and were anxious to apply the things we learned. One of my favorite talks from General Conference was President Nelson's on Drawing the Power of Jesus into our Lives. We began applying both of his challenges to read all 57 subtopics on the Savior in the Topical Guide and to study the Living Christ and personally, I have seen my testimony increase. I had a clear prompting Friday morning to share the Living Christ with as many individuals as possible over the weekend in preparation for Easter and on Easter Sunday. We acted upon that and had some neat experiences with members, recent converts, and even used it in our finding efforts. 

 In one particular experience, after street contacting out in front of the church waiting for someone to show up, we decided to leave and knock doors because we had been waiting for over 30 minutes. As we were driving down a road, we felt prompted to go into a particular compound we saw up one of the roads. I slammed on the brakes, reversed, and parked the truck, and went into the compound. After seeing that the gate was open, we went inside and looked for any signs for people at home. At the very last home, we saw a car parked outside and a door open and felt drawn to it. When we got there, a younger woman in her late 20's answered the door and we asked her if we could share a short Easter message. She invited us inside, but we were unable to go because we didn't have a member with us. Just then, as we were standing on the porch, the member we were supposed to meet at the church called us, and told us he was there. We told the lady we'd be back in 10 minutes, ran to the truck, hauled to the church, picked up the member, and drove back. We read the Living Christ word for word, and discussed briefly about it. The fact that we were Mormons came up and she told us she had Mormon friends from South Africa. She said, "My friends always tell me about your church and how there is just a natural feeling of belonging there. Why is that?" We testified simply of principles of truth from the Plan of Salvation and told her we are all brothers and sisters in God's family and that knowledge brings us closer. We brought up the Book of Mormon and read a few verses from Mosiah 3 and set a return appointment. Before we left, we felt prompted to testify of the Savior as being the Prince of Peace. She told us it was exactly what she needed to hear because she had a niece pass away the day before during child birth and both her and the baby didn't make it. She also had a brother in a bad car accident two days before that. 

I testify the Savior is the Prince of Peace and that his Atonement is the greatest thing that has ever happened in the world. I'm thankful each day for the opportunity I have to testify of him and his reality as the living Son of God.

I love you all,
Elder Hazen

No comments:

Post a Comment