"Hello, those in Utah!" says Jed as he explains he is going to come up with as many different ways to say hello as he can over the time he is in London. If you are not in Utah you can still pretend he said hello :).
On Monday, Elder Toledo (Jed's missionary companion) had some hard news from home. Jed did not elaborate, but he did explain what he and his companion chose to do when faced with adversity. In Elder Murri's words, "...[that] takes the wind out of you. That was on Monday. We talked a little bit about it though, and we decided that all we need to do is invest ourselves all the way - 100 per cent in the work. From then on, we've tried to be exactly obedient...". Further, "Our first step was to set goals, so we humbly and prayerfully discussed what those goals should be, and that's when the miracles started happening."
He describes dedicating time to go find those that had been prepared to hear the Gospel the next day - again Jed, "We had tried to be exactly obedient that day, especially as we went out and talked to people, because the Lord can bless you when you're obedient". They did not find anyone, but spoke to everyone they could. They had good conversations with people, but towards the end of the day they received a text about a family of 6 that were all prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel. Elders Murri and Toledo set appointments to teach them.
It doesn't end on Tuesday. On Wednesday they were also spending time looking for those who were ready to hear and - in Jed's words, "...[we were] ... talking to everyone, but having no success. We were led by the spirit that day. We were getting nowhere, and when we were going to turn back to go somewhere else, we stopped one more person. We talked to him for a while, and then he noticed our name tags, and his countenance changed. He said that it was funny that we were talking to him, because it seems like whenever he would go off of the path, God would send someone or something to help him get on the right path again. He opened up to us, and told us everything that he had problems with. Every one of those problems, the Gospel could help him with. We bore our sincere testimonies to him that The Atonement of Jesus Christ could make him whole and clean again, and the Spirit was there! He felt it! We felt it! It was AMAZING. As we were talking, he turned around and took a beer out of his pocket and threw it away. He said that he needed to change...".
Elder Murri shared that he saw many more miracles this week. He said that, "...miracles happen every day. I know this is true."
I am thinking of a scripture about now ... it comes from the the first book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon chapter 7 verse 3 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/7.3?lang=eng#41) where Nehpi (who was leaving Jerusalem with his family around 600-592 B.C.) was asked to go back to Jerusalem. He had just done that, and now told to go back again. Nephi was exactly obedient and did again ... go forth into the wilderness to go up to Jerusalem. He too was blessed. I like to liken my son's - or specifically Jed in this case - to Nephi and hope for the same eternal blessings upon them.
He mentions that he genuinely loves us and that family is everything. Then sort of out of the blue (I haven't sent this to him - I don't think) says "Aside from that, I eat way too much chocolate, and I really need to stop, because I can feel myself becoming a balloon ...". I don't see that happening, I love Jed.
On Monday, Elder Toledo (Jed's missionary companion) had some hard news from home. Jed did not elaborate, but he did explain what he and his companion chose to do when faced with adversity. In Elder Murri's words, "...[that] takes the wind out of you. That was on Monday. We talked a little bit about it though, and we decided that all we need to do is invest ourselves all the way - 100 per cent in the work. From then on, we've tried to be exactly obedient...". Further, "Our first step was to set goals, so we humbly and prayerfully discussed what those goals should be, and that's when the miracles started happening."
He describes dedicating time to go find those that had been prepared to hear the Gospel the next day - again Jed, "We had tried to be exactly obedient that day, especially as we went out and talked to people, because the Lord can bless you when you're obedient". They did not find anyone, but spoke to everyone they could. They had good conversations with people, but towards the end of the day they received a text about a family of 6 that were all prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel. Elders Murri and Toledo set appointments to teach them.
It doesn't end on Tuesday. On Wednesday they were also spending time looking for those who were ready to hear and - in Jed's words, "...[we were] ... talking to everyone, but having no success. We were led by the spirit that day. We were getting nowhere, and when we were going to turn back to go somewhere else, we stopped one more person. We talked to him for a while, and then he noticed our name tags, and his countenance changed. He said that it was funny that we were talking to him, because it seems like whenever he would go off of the path, God would send someone or something to help him get on the right path again. He opened up to us, and told us everything that he had problems with. Every one of those problems, the Gospel could help him with. We bore our sincere testimonies to him that The Atonement of Jesus Christ could make him whole and clean again, and the Spirit was there! He felt it! We felt it! It was AMAZING. As we were talking, he turned around and took a beer out of his pocket and threw it away. He said that he needed to change...".
Elder Murri shared that he saw many more miracles this week. He said that, "...miracles happen every day. I know this is true."
I am thinking of a scripture about now ... it comes from the the first book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon chapter 7 verse 3 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/7.3?lang=eng#41) where Nehpi (who was leaving Jerusalem with his family around 600-592 B.C.) was asked to go back to Jerusalem. He had just done that, and now told to go back again. Nephi was exactly obedient and did again ... go forth into the wilderness to go up to Jerusalem. He too was blessed. I like to liken my son's - or specifically Jed in this case - to Nephi and hope for the same eternal blessings upon them.
He mentions that he genuinely loves us and that family is everything. Then sort of out of the blue (I haven't sent this to him - I don't think) says "Aside from that, I eat way too much chocolate, and I really need to stop, because I can feel myself becoming a balloon ...". I don't see that happening, I love Jed.