Elder Bednar (Week 17)

This is a long email but it's a good one, haha!!

This week was so eventful and awesome! Highlight was having Elder Bednar speak to us! 

Me and my companion have just been working our butts off, just doing the work. It has been awesome! Since my companion is Marshallese speaking we've been finding a lot of Marshallese friends to teach, and we've been talking with a lot of them and I love it. They are all so humble and kind and so they talk to us and are very respectful and if you can speak their language (like my comp can) then there's a pretty good chance that they'll want to learn more. The only problem is that a lot of them are pastors for their own churches but also that's a good thing because they might be converted then they can introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to their congregations and then the whole congregation can be converted. So bottom line, good things are happening with all of the Marshallese people!

On Wednesday, we were helping our new convert Jocinto and his sister (who is on date for Dec. 4th!) get in touch with some members that were going to take him to a youth activity and his sisters friend wanted to go with them. I told her that she would have to ask her mom so she did and her mom wanted to talk to me. At first she was skeptical about letting her go because she didn't know anybody but then I just started talking with her and she said that her family needs to start going back to church. So I told her about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how we can teach her all about it and that they can go to church there.

 And it was the coolest thing because after I told her about that she completely changed her mind and said that her daughter could go to the activity and that she would like to meet with us and learn. The spirit just worked on her; it was amazing! We taught her the next day and she said that she would like to go to church but she wouldn't have a ride so we set up a ride for them. We went to check Saturday night if they were still going to go and she said she might not but after talking again with her the spirit worked on her and she said she would. The next day her and 4 kids went to church! So many miracles with this family and the spirt being poured out on them! It proves that there really are no coincidences in this life!

On Sunday we flew to Honolulu, then drove up to Laie and we got there a little early so we went to the Laie Temple grounds and it's soooo beautiful! 

We took a little tour of the Visitors Center and we watched a little clip on the Restoration and it was so spiritual! At that moment I felt the Love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so much, and I got teary eyed and was feeling all of the feels. Then I looked at the Temple replica and I saw the Sealing room and it reminded me of my brother Jackson getting sealed to his beautiful wife Karen just the day before on Saturday, and the Spirit was just so strong and I was little homesick because I wanted to be with them. Just a lot of the feels haha, and I about just let my tears flow out but I held them in. 

We then got to hear from an Apostle of Jesus Christ, Elder Bednar, and it was not what I was expecting at all. He got up and said "Stop taking notes on the things that are being said. Write down the things that aren't being said that the Holy Ghost is telling you. He talked with us about the talks that we were assigned to read before the meeting and it was interactive between him and all 423ish missionaries minus the senior missionaries, so still a lot, about 370, I don't know, haha. At the end he told us to come up with 5 words or less from what we learned and these are mine, "Personal revelation is everything!" The Holy Ghost is the teacher, comforter, and communicator and our Faith in Jesus Christ is essential to hearing the Holy Ghost and being humble enough to accept God's will for us. At the end he bore a short testimony that Christ lives and the tomb is empty. The spirt was so insanely powerful at that moment as a literal witness of the resurrected Savior, a man who has seen Jesus in the flesh, told us that. Jesus Christ LIVES! 

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

-Elder Alec Shockley