Just Get Them to Church...

Just before I came to emails, I got to do a little fishing, and as a result, me and my companion both caught little fishies. We are eating good this week!

E has been a little stressed about coming to Sacrament Meeting, so we decided to do a building tour. She and her son were picked up by a member of the ward, and E had a wonderful time. She kept commenting on the paintings of Jesus. The member who brought her offered to give her a ride to church every week, and she is also a Family History Consultant, which is awesome, because E is interested in doing family history work.

Then G showed up to church randomly. He had told us he isn't ready to make that step yet, but there he was. Elder P and I had been asked to speak, so we jumped off the pulpit right before church started and talked to him. He just wanted to stay in the foyer, but he ended up coming to all 3 hours of church! He absolutely loved Gospel Principles, and he and our ward mission leader had a blast talking to each other. He didn't want to come to Priesthood, but we convinced him, and he had an awesome time there as well! Our ward had a linger-longer afterwards (which I thought was weird for a regular family ward, but we are pretty transient, so I guess it makes sense), and he talked to a recently moved-in member for most of the time. Everything just clicked together so perfectly for him at church! I am so glad he decided to come! He has also been immersing himself in the scriptures since we invited him to start reading them again. I am so happy for him! He is addicted to the scriptures now!

We live in an incredible time of the world, where technology and science are improving rapidly. This is part of the dispensation of the fullness of times. The Lord is inspiring people to create inventions that are revolutionizing our world and making it easier to share the Gospel. We should, however, be careful that we do not waste time on things that have no eternal significance as part of this great revolution. Now not to say that anything besides the Book of Mormon, Gospel Library, and LDS Tools apps should be shunned and treated as a work of the devil, but we should always be seeking to improve. Some technologies and apps give us the opportunity to connect with others around us and possibly share the Gospel. Others give us the opportunity to make exercise fun. But when we spend too much time catching Pokemon and not enough time connecting with the people around us that are doing the same, such technologies become a detriment instead of a help, Instead of improvement, misuse or overuse of certain technologies can lead to atrophy.

I love technology. As a missionary, though, with such a limit to it, I've learned that it has a lot more use in the Lord's work than I ever thought possible before. I am grateful that the Lord of the Vineyard has brought forth such things for us to progress and grow, and I know that He is the Lord of the Harvest, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Until next week, gotta catch 'em all! (Or as one member adapted it, "Gotta dunk 'em all!")

--

The Lord's Soldier,

          Elder Jacob C. Tibbitts

St. Mary's Fall

I caught a fishy!