Elder Bednar!!!

Okay, so this week was one for the ages! We had the chance to hear from one of God's special witnesses. Before I get totally into that, I will give a brief overview of the rest of the week- good things happened. On continues the open your mouth challenge for us as a zone here in Upland. We have been talking to a lot of great people this week, and we were super motivated after a great zone meeting. We had a super training from a member here talking about how great the message is we have to share. We then talked about how we need to share the message each time like we are giving it for the first time. It makes such a difference. While we share similar things each day, the people we are talking to have never heard it before. So, we owe it to them to give that message with a love and energy that will let them know we love the message we share. We, later in that day, met this super cute couple. They were married on Valentines Day and are both super little and struggle with medical issues, but are so happy and want to be baptized. We are not currently teaching them, they were just at their sisters, but we will be seeing them off and on these next couple of weeks. Wednesday, we set a record! We taught 4 lessons this day. Each was great, and each person really benefited from the message. Thursday came a great miracle lesson. This lady named Angie who we met on the street about 3 weeks ago let us in and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. The initial plan was to read the Book of Mormon, but the spirit directed me another way. She is legally blind, a type one diabetic, and receives dialysis twice a week for her failing kidneys. The message of forgiveness and foreverness given in the plan of salvation is so applicable to her in her situation, especially since it is her two children that keep her going from day to day. We will be seeing her later this week- pray that she continues in decent health.

So much more happened this week, but now I want to focus on what the Apostle of the Lord said to us this Saturday in a pretty much one on one setting. It was amazing. When Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles walked into the chapel where we were seated, the spirit of the whole room changed. A true spiritual giant had walked through the door. His wife addressed us first briefly. She is such a loving person, and she gave to us a great lesson on loving people and giving the names on my name tag the honor that they deserve. That is the names of the church, Jesus Christ, and my family. Each deserves the ultimate form of respect, and while wearing the name tag we should put in the hardest of work. Then Elder Bednar came to the center. He did not lecture us. In fact, the whole 2.5 hours was all interactive. He really hit on the point that he would not be teaching us, the Holy Ghost would be. If we let the spirit into our hearts, we would learn amazing things that day, and I did. I will just give you an overview of the notes I took. They may be a little scatterbrained, but bear with me. You are all smart- I know you can piece together how amazing his message was. He taught through the Spirit that faith is a principal of action and power. We need to invite all to build their faith in Christ in a declining world. Along with this we heard from him that we can do nothing without the Lord's help. He is the center of everything that we do. It we ask the Holy Ghost who we really are he will tell us, both the good and the bad. Be ready when you do this because there will be things for you to change. One of his more bold statements came in regard to the Book of Mormon. As missionaries we ask people to read the book and ask God in the name of Jesus Christ if the book is true. This is standard practice. Elder Bednar added we must tell people that if they feel the book is true they must be baptized. If the Book of Mormon is true then so is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

His manner of question asking was amazing. All of his questions had a totally unrestricted answer pool. That is asking inspired questions. Then also he talked about asking questions in regard to the place, person, and time. That will help me so much when asking investigators and other people questions. He says that listening is a spiritual gift that we must study out in our minds and the scriptures. This coming up was one of the more powerful points that he made. The Lord's pattern is one by one, meaning that when we talked to Elder Bednar it was us communicating with Heaven. As teachers and missionaries we need to present the information and then get out of the way so the spirit (heaven) can communicate with whoever it is we are talking to. He also told us that each of us are totally unable to do missionary work. But, with the help of the Lord, we can do it.

I will now tell a super powerful story that he told us. Elder Bednar is over Africa, and in one of his visits, he sat in on a lesson with the women in a congregation and the lesson was on fasting. Our belief and manner of fasting is 24 hours or two meals once a month, and then we donate the money we would have spent on food to help the needy. Well, in the Congo they might have one meal a day if they are lucky. So, the faithful sister giving the lesson said to her class, "Sisters, our fast is when we have food to eat, and choose not to eat it". How lucky are we here? How much do we have that we take for granted? He said so much more than this, but I could probably write a book, and I won't burden you all with that. The last cool thing he said was that we are missionaries for life, and the mission I am on now is a boot camp for the rest of my life. Then he left us with a special witness of the Savior Jesus Christ and an apostolic blessing that we would remember the messages he shared. It was amazing, and I will remember it for the rest of my life. All of his words are scripture, so I will leave that out today. I love you all so much. Have a great week.

Love, Elder Thelander

Photo- me, Elder Parry and the nice little couple's snake