Treasures In Heaven

Well lots has happened over these past couple weeks so I think I'll go with a list to cover the highlights:



-Kotor trip (see pictures) to meet some Turkish carpet makers to put us in connection with all their friends who want to learn the gospel. Learned more than I ever thought I would about expensive silk carpets haha. Met with our friend there and had a great discussion as we walked along the walls of the city, he invited us to come back and share our thoughts at his 7th day Adventist congregation! Should be interesting



-Had some great lessons with our returning members. They are striving to come back to church and loved reading the scriptures together with us and learning from the words of Christ. The members here are true pioneers and I have such a great respect for each of them.



-Went up to a city called Berane in the mountains to deliver some Bibles and Book of Mormons but God had other plans.. We ended up finding another 2 people at a bus stop and then another guy that approached us and then took us to the monestary there. We had a great talk about the Book of Mormon and he asked us to come back soon to meet again!



-Zone Conference in Belgrade was awesome! We flew over for a couple days and had an amazing experience there with most of the missionaries in our zone (who didn't have covid). I especially loved learning more about focusing on helping people have experiences with the Spirit that will allow them to become converted.



Spiritual thought: 

I've been reading in 3 Nefi this week, and verses 20 and 21 of chapter 13 really stood out to me. They read, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." I want to tie in one other scriptural piece to this. This Sunday, Elder Jones gave a great talk about the rich young man in the New Testament. The young man asks this Savior what he needs to do to have eternal life. And the Savior sees him and says to leave his possessions behind and follow Him. Now, I don't think Christ was as concerned about this man's money as He was about his heart. To truly follow Christ, our heart has to be given fully to Him. This supercedes all other worldy cares, conflicts, or circumstances. But I have learned that giving our heart to Christ is not just an event, it is a day-by-day process of repentance. Each time we repent, change, and give a little more of heart to the Savior, we are laying up a treasure in heaven. One that will be eternal and ever-lasting. I love this principle and hope you get something from it as well!



Elder Neil



Pictures:

-ZC in Belgrade

-Some pictures from the temple in Beograd

-Montenegro protestors let their cows loosed in the streets to stop traffic :)

-the famous silk carpets

-Some of our great members in Montenegro and Belgrade







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simple Truths

Image
Bit of a crazy week, we got COVID and are on the up but we saw lots of miracles even from inside our century-old apartment! We got tons of Facebook referalls the past few days and nearly all of them were so open and honest about wanting to learn about their Heavenly Father and what His plan is for them. Just such genuine, prepared people. As a missionary, you can go for a while looking just about everywhere for those kind of people but to no avail. So to have THEM look for US is such a miracle in and of itself!  As we taught these people, I gained a new appreciation for the simple truths of the gospel. I love how simple and pure it all is. Just the truth that God lives and loves you is life-changing! When someone really believes that and chooses to reach out to God, miracles happen! They find the peace they are searching for and strength to overcome anything they are faced with. "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribul...
Read more

Worshipping God

Image
We talked this Sunday at church about worshipping God and the first question that came to my mind was, "What does my worship look like?"  When I think of the word "worship", the first thing I picture is kneeling, singing, or praying. Yes, those are all parts of worship! But as I studied the Book of Mormon this week, I found a verse that broadened my perspective, Mosiah 4:19 reads, "For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have?"  Thinking about these words led me to two important gospel truths: 1.)We are all children of our Heavenly Father. 2.) We show God we love Him as we serve one another. (In other words, we worship God through serving His children) So this week as I went about my missionary work, it wasn't just teaching a lesson or calling through phone numbers or trying to start conversations on the street. In each of my everyday activities, I saw opportunities to worsh...
Read more

Weakness

Image
To be perfectly honest, these past few weeks have been a lot; our mission-wide conference with Elder and Sister Kopischke, planning transfers, meetings, conducting trainings, helping the group of new missionaries arrive and get settled, and of course finding and teaching! But I love it all! Sure, there were a lot of stressful, sleepless nights and last-second change of plans but God came through as He always does and everything worked out. And we are praying for, expecting, and seeing MIRACLES in our companionship and as a mission. There is a real new momentum in the work and in each missionary here and we all feel it! It's so exciting! There's been a few distinct times on my mission where I've seen God's hand the clearest. Each of those periods was marked with being placed in an uncomfortable situation and a feeling of hopelessness in my ability to succeed. I love how this verse in Ether identifies and describes these moments. "And if men come unto me, I will show...
Read more