Hello all! It's been a long week, but things are really starting to go well. We've met with a couple of more less-actives who have great potential of returning to the Church, we got a new investigator in a small community in the middle of nowhere on the very edge of our area, the weather has been cooling down and is perfect right now, we had a really great exchange with our zone leaders, and on Thursday, I had surgery!
...okay, so not really surgery. It was just a small procedure to remove a cyst on my neck. Everything's fine. The only reason I bring this up is because I had a great experience chatting with the nurse who prepped me for the procedure. She noticed my name tag and asked me all sorts of questions about who I was, what kinds of things I do, and why I chose to serve. She was very interested and was excited to hear of someone my age doing something so good. She believes in God and wanted to hear more about the Church. I told her the short version of my personal conversion and gave her a mormon.org card with my profile address on the back (http://mormon.org/me/5st7) - it was really great to chat with her about the gospel and about being a missionary!
This past weekend was stake conference for the New Haven stake, and it was a privilege to hear such inspiring messages from the leadership here. Everyone's pumped up about the Hartford temple, and it's exciting to be part of the effort to prepare this area for a House of God! We got to hear 4 conversion stories from recent converts who also spoke, as well as the story of a woman who recently returned from years of inactivity. There was a beautiful musical number from 3 women in the YSA branch - a gorgeous vocal trio of "I Need Thee Ev'ry Hour." They each have music degrees and sang very, very well. One of the things that one of the members of the stake presidency spoke about was reverence in sacrament meeting. In his talk, he mentioned the need to disconnect from the world, from electronics, and to commune with our Father in Heaven. He said that we need to develop the talent of pondering, and admitted to not being so good at it himself. It really got me thinking about my own relationship with my Heavenly Father and about what I need to do to improve it. I've been working on making my personal prayers more meaningful and on seeking revelation and asking Him questions while praying. It truly is a difficult thing to do with all of the distractions of life, even as a missionary. However, I know that the effort is worth it as we strive to discover His will for us and listen for the promptings of the Spirit. We can receive guidance from Him and may even be inspired to serve another or open our mouths to share the gospel. I invite each of you to "develop the talent of pondering" as I work on doing so as well! May the Lord bless each of you and strengthen you as we serve together in this great work!
With love,
Elder DeLong
...okay, so not really surgery. It was just a small procedure to remove a cyst on my neck. Everything's fine. The only reason I bring this up is because I had a great experience chatting with the nurse who prepped me for the procedure. She noticed my name tag and asked me all sorts of questions about who I was, what kinds of things I do, and why I chose to serve. She was very interested and was excited to hear of someone my age doing something so good. She believes in God and wanted to hear more about the Church. I told her the short version of my personal conversion and gave her a mormon.org card with my profile address on the back (http://mormon.org/me/5st7) - it was really great to chat with her about the gospel and about being a missionary!
This past weekend was stake conference for the New Haven stake, and it was a privilege to hear such inspiring messages from the leadership here. Everyone's pumped up about the Hartford temple, and it's exciting to be part of the effort to prepare this area for a House of God! We got to hear 4 conversion stories from recent converts who also spoke, as well as the story of a woman who recently returned from years of inactivity. There was a beautiful musical number from 3 women in the YSA branch - a gorgeous vocal trio of "I Need Thee Ev'ry Hour." They each have music degrees and sang very, very well. One of the things that one of the members of the stake presidency spoke about was reverence in sacrament meeting. In his talk, he mentioned the need to disconnect from the world, from electronics, and to commune with our Father in Heaven. He said that we need to develop the talent of pondering, and admitted to not being so good at it himself. It really got me thinking about my own relationship with my Heavenly Father and about what I need to do to improve it. I've been working on making my personal prayers more meaningful and on seeking revelation and asking Him questions while praying. It truly is a difficult thing to do with all of the distractions of life, even as a missionary. However, I know that the effort is worth it as we strive to discover His will for us and listen for the promptings of the Spirit. We can receive guidance from Him and may even be inspired to serve another or open our mouths to share the gospel. I invite each of you to "develop the talent of pondering" as I work on doing so as well! May the Lord bless each of you and strengthen you as we serve together in this great work!
With love,
Elder DeLong
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