3/12/13

Elder Garner and I were able to go to the temple this morning, (Hence the lateness of my writing this e-mail.) It was a beautiful time, as it always is. Although I had no overwhelming experience, this occasion did strike me differently than most others. As I walked down the hall to begin a session, I noticed two random chairs against the wall. There was nothing particularly important that they were facing. No ordinance worker would have any real need to sit there. Yet there the chairs were. It seemed that the chairs were there for an opportunity to take time to sit and ponder. The reality of the temple being the Lord's house became a little more, well, real, for me. I imagined in my mind, the Lord, saying, "Elder, sit, and partake of my Spirit." I would have taken it if I had the time. There were many more wonderful events to attend to in the house of the Lord and it is always a blessing to go through a session with my brothers and sisters, the reality of that principle, also becomes a little more palpable when the spirit testifies of the reality of the temple being the house of the Lord. I hope that it will be a goal of mine to freqeuntly, weekly, EVEN DAILY, if possible, attend the temple.

 

President Larkin is concerned with the slow-paced progress of the mission. Once again, the key-holder has issued a spirit-pressed cry to not be "at ease in Zion." Unfortunately, it is easy to go through the motions and to be satisfied with being "an obedient missionary." For me, at least, it is easy to get in just a rut of thinking, "What else is there to do? I think I am obedient." Fortunately, life is not bland. Fortunately, there is always something to improve on. Lately for me, it has been prayer. My prayers have been awful! I wake up in the morning and fall asleep at my bedside. I plan in exhaust at night, and again fall asleep at my bed side. I tried to get out of it by praying at my desk side with the lamp in shining in my face. Some days though, my motivation is not enough to allow me to kneel in that position at the side of my desk. Suggestions on how to improve prayer would be much appreciated!

 

Dash Point Ward continues to press on! Yesterday, Elder Garner and I were running about after our district meeting ran over. (By the way, President Larkin had all the district leaders give blessings to the missionaries in their district! Scary! The assistants to the president are in my district! I was so nervous.) Anyway, on Sunday, we invited several people to church, of which only two came. But, out of the ones we invited was a lady named Deborah! She is such a nice person! We showed up back to her house on Monday to follow up on why she didn't come to church on Sunday. She said there were just many things that happened and she couldn't make it. So we spoke with her for a while and landed on the subject of baptism. She said "I am willing to be baptized again." (I had to emphasize that this next baptism would be the only time she was baptized by the right authority.) She then mentioned her daughter, of 8 years old and said "I really need her to be baptized." We told her we could take care of that. Then her cousin of 12 years old came to the door way. Apparently, this cousin's Grandmother, has been working on him to come to Christ. We spoke to him about Christ and invited him to be baptized. He accepted. All three of them will be baptized on March 30th. Deborah says that her mom will be more than excited to hear that, even though she is Baptist! My district has a total goal of 23 baptisms for the month of March! We currently have 1. Please pray that that will change!

 

DAD: I am not currently Dashing my head into a Point. I was grateful to hear about your talent show. I hope the ward likes you a lot more than what you say. I love you so much. You are such a great example to me.

MOM: Thanks for all those great pictures! Thanks for letting me know about Jeremy. I love you and the insights you share with me. I love you so much!

RACHEL AND RYAN: I love you both so much! Hope all is well!

JEREMY AND HEIDI: I heard that Jeremy had a horrible fever. I hope all is well! Chloe is still super cute!

ELIZABETH AND JAMES: Olivia and Kreed are always cute. I loved the picture of her on a weird position on the chair.

ERIK: I love you and hope all is well! Let me know how you are!

-- 

Elder William Lloyd Lovell
Washington, Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, Washington 98004