Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sept 17, 2012

The roller coaster ride is going back up! Haha. So on Saturday we had a Stake mission meeting. With all the missionaries of the stake and all the WML, bishops, and ward missionaries that could make it. It was pretty awesome. We even had Elder Munns from the Seventy come and speak. His brother is a lawyer here in St. Cloud, FL and is on a ton of billboards haha. The name Munns was sounded familiar when it was announced. He really gave a great talk. It was actually amazing. He talked about is a PRIVILEGE and BLESSING to share his testimony of Jesus Christ with others. He said missionary work is like a sleeping giant right now and is ready to be awakened. He talked about how with every thing that is going on, how this time is unlike non other to share our beliefs and testimonies. He talked about how the Wall Street Journal had had like 10 headlines with word Mormon in the title in the past week or something along those lines. He told of an experience he had where he was on a plane and he started talking about the church with the guy next to him on the plane. He said that is easy for him to talk about the church with anyone. The invitation is the hard part for him. He said as he was sitting there, the plane started its descent (sp?). And the scripture "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ" came to his mind. He looked at the guy and said,"if you will give me your address, I will send two young men to your house to share more with you." (so of course we are all expecting to hear how this guy got baptized 3 weeks later) And he went on to tell us that the guy stared at him for about 3 seconds turned his head, looked out the airplane window and never talked to him again for the rest of the flight. He said it was awkward, it was embarrassing, but he shared also how it doesn't matter what the guy thinks about him, for he will not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And then the Stake President later shared a story about how he was busy running to a surgery or something for him to do in a hospital that he rarely ever visits. And a lady came behind him and got his attention and he was trying to get away to get to his next appointment. He had sincerely been praying for missionary opportunities he said. The lady then said, "Do you remember me?", she said "You gave me a Book of Mormon 5 years ago, I am now ready to learn more." Miracle. A hospital he is hardly ever at, right time, right place, the seed was planted and took 5 years to be ready. He shared with us how he has a reminder on his phone to do missionary work. I invite you all to put up a picture, something on the fridge, your phone, whatever that reminds you of this work. It is important. The more we have missionary work on our mind, the more we will have opportunities to do it.
We also taught an old couple last night. He use to be a pastor in Cuba, almost got killed for his belief in God. They originally just wanted to "make prayer" with us in their house. The impression came to us to share a little more than a prayer. We taught the Restoration to them. The wife has been battling cancer for 9 years. She said she loved the way we taught. The peace that was there. The message of the restoration is TRUE. Peace is of God. It wasn't adrenaline or excitement we felt last night, it was the peace of the eternities that filled the room last night.
 
Love you all and miss you. Your prayers brings us miracles.
Elder Christiansen

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