Nearer My God To Thee

Hello!!!!!!!!

   This week was really great! Really tiring, but really great. We had a good first lesson with a new investigator named Dee! She was the one who came to church a couple weeks ago and is dating a member in the Westlake family ward. She is so prepared! She goes to church in the family ward every week! She has a lot of knowledge about the church. In the lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon, and asked if she had prayed about it at all, and she replied with,"well... I don't really need to, it's true!" She also had an experience a while ago where she prayed for a week straight if she should be baptized or not, and she went to church on Sunday and during Sunday school, there was a scripture read that said, (how she described it), "if you want this, then be baptized. If you want that, then be baptized," so she knows she needs to be baptized! She just needs to take that step. She didn't mention that it is hard for her to commit, but we feel as if it will be just a matter of helping her see that she has already committed, she just needs to step down into the font! So we just spent the whole lesson getting a feel for where she's at, and helping her understand our purpose as missionaries. We have a return appointment with her this Thursday after zone conference and it should be really great! 

   We also met with Ryan a few times this week. We taught him about Adam & Eve and how they lived in a perfect garden. It's so fun teaching him, I feel like it is preparing me to be a father in helping me learn to teach the gospel to children. I'm definitely going to continue loving Ryan beyond my missions end! 

   Elder Moser is doing really good. We are really getting along well, since we already had that foundation of a friendship before we became companions. I feel this week we did a really good job at teaching in unity, especially in zone meeting. We had so little time to prepare, yet it turned out good because I feel like we were on the same page, regardless of how scattered our notes were! I really love Elder Moser and we have fun together. We sang in sacrament meeting yesterday along with an Elder named Elder Law, and a member accompanied us as we sang " I know that my Redeemer Lives" It was really cool! That was the first time I had sang in sacrament meeting! So I was nervous but nobody said we sounded terrible so that's good (: We were singing to a member of the bishopric and his family after dinner this past Wednesday and asked if we'd be willing to sing in sacrament meeting the next Sunday and we did it! 

   I realized more than ever this week that the sacrifices we make as missionaries is soooooooo much less than what we receive from our "sacrifice" to come on a mission. I don't feel like it should even be called a sacrifice. Christ suffered so much for us! He made the ultimate sacrifice. I feel I am just expressing a small portion of my appreciation for His and Heavenly Father's real sacrifice by giving two years to the Lord, when in reality is truly a blessing. Relating that to obedience, it just gives me more reason to be obedient. His sacrifice enabled all of us to learn to be obedient, so why not take advantage of that blessing and learn to be obedient sooner? I love my Savior, and I love my Heavenly Father. I heard a cool scripture this week, it's 3 Nephi 5:20. We can truly use our agency to "bless [our] God and [our] Savior Jesus Christ" by choosing His will. 

   For service this week, Raquel, a member in our ward called us up just at the right time as we were in their area, and asked if we could help them put together a couple chairs that they received in the mail from Target, or somewhere like that. We had a good time strengthening our relationship with the members as we helped them with these chairs. It was cool talking with them and doing our best to build their faith in anyway possible. I love serving others! It's always a good experience. Always.

   We have zone conference this week, and we are doing a musical number for that too! I am playing and a companionship of Hermana's and Elder Moser will be singing! It's a medley we came up with of Nearer My God to Thee, and I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go. It is soooooo good! I wish you could hear it! But I guess it'll wait til after my mission. I'm going to record it in one of our practices this week! I also have hilarious videos of Ryan that you'll need to see. 

Thanks for all your love and support and all the prayers! They are definitely felt each and every day! Have a fantastic week (: 

Love,

Elder Teeples!