This past week was a lot of fun. We had two Zone Conferences this past week—one in the north and one in the south. Both went well. President Bishop gave a great presentation on having faith to move mountains. He used an experience he had while helping to build highway 41 by strawberry reservoir. To build a highway it has to be designed and planned. Mountains and valleys have to be leveled using a ‘Cut and Fill’ method. And finally a road must be paved. He taught that the time invested in designing and planning a road is an example of faith. Faith is a principle of action. To have the faith to move mountains we have to ‘cut and fill’. We have to remove (or ‘cut’ down) mountains of sin and ‘fill’ our lives with meaningful pursuits and activities. After the mountains in our lives are removed and the valleys of fear and doubt are filled, God will help us pave the way to our ultimate desire—eternal life and exaltation. He gave us an invitation to select one mountain in our life that needs to be cut down and one valley in our life that needs to be filled and then to take action. I was impressed by his lesson, and I am committed to change.
Elder Cocke and I gave a training on listening (to the spirit and to what your investigators are really saying with their words and body language). It is a teaching skill listed in Preach My Gospel in Chapter 10. We had a fun skit that got a lot of laughs. We had an investigator named “Brother Lessons”. (We were trying to emphasize a point that we want to teach people not lessons.) We did everything wrong during the teaching process. We didn’t listen to him and we didn’t prepare for our meetings with him. It was a lot of fun.
One exciting thing is currently in our mission, there is a short-term missionary. The special thing about this is that a little over ½ a year ago, I ran into this person on the streets of Douliu and we started teaching him. He was baptized a few weeks after I left Douliu. Imagine my excitement when I ran into him dressed in a suit serving as a short-term missionary.
We are seeing a lot of miracles. I enjoy having many chances each week to learn from a lot from the missionaries in our mission on exchanges. I love this missionary life. I’m grateful for our savior; I love him. I am grateful for his promise that if we come unto him he will show unto us our weakness and help us make weak things become strong. (Ether 12:27)
I love you all. Have another good week. Elder Spencer Harris
