Obedience Brings Blessings, Exact Obedience Brings Miracles

We celebrated July 4th.  We did a small celebration with a cheese cake and Hamburgers with sauteed onions, an egg, then bbq sauce, with a side of fries.  REALLy good...  but did not sit well AT ALL.

I like this saying.  It's one that is used in the mission often,"Obedience brings blessings, Exact obedience brings miracles."  God doesn't hide anything!!!  There's no secret to getting blessed.  I actually bore my testimony on this exact thing yesterday.  Taking it one by one is exactly what you need to do.  No one can ever eat a whole pie all at once, you have to take it piece by piece.  Like Gods commandments, its difficult to take ALL the commandments and be EXACTLY obedient at once.  We too, need to take it little by little.  Take one commandment like loving your neighbors as yourself, and become PERFECT in that commandment.  Then move to the next one.  After awhile you'll see the whole pie is gone if you stick to it. or in other words, you're EXACT in obedience.  Its something we should all try to do.  It's sad to see people willfully doing things they KNOW they shouldn't.  Even when there's times you're tired of following the rules, you should never allow yourself to WILLFULLY disobey.  At that exact moment, that's when the Spirit will leave you.  It's better to do whats right then to do what YOU WANT to do.  James 4:17 I believe is a VERY good scripture.

The MTC deal... we don't know anything about it. (We told him some Elder's leaving the U.S. in August are going to the Provo MTC instead of the Ghana MTC.) At least they don't tell us that kind of information. We hardly ever hear about whats going on with the MTC.  We were told that 29 missionaries are coming in September!  No small thing!  But until then, a few areas are going to close down.  One of them is Harbel 1... Elder Haas and I are in Harbel 2.  In my interview with President Kirkham, he told me about this and gave small transfer news to me about where Elder Skouson will be going and that I'll need to be taking interest in their area this next week so I know their Recent Converts, progressing investigators, and Less Actives.  Elder Haas wasn't told anything, so I know at least I'll be staying in Harbel until September!  I'm totally fine with that!  

I'm trying to remember where I read this, but It said something about a man who had got in many arguments with his wife and had a bad temper.  When they met with their bishop, the man said,"Bishop, this is just who I am.  I have a temper."  The Apostle then said that this was a horrible statement to hear.  The man had immediately put a stop to his progression.  He had put up blinders and couldn't see how he could change.  You never are who you are.  You can always change and improve yourself!  Something President Kirkham told us at mission council was,"Never Rely on your own knowledge and experience.  You limit your progression."  If you're always humble and willing to learn, there's no stopping you in becoming better.  ALWAYS look for ways to improve. 

Not much really happened this week besides mission council, but I want to tell you about an investigator we have.  Previous missionaries had taught him before and said that he was a drunk who whenever they'd go there he'd want to talk and ask awesome questions while he was drinking.  He'd never agree to anything though.   My first time ever meeting this guy though, was a similar experience to what these missionaries had.  It was while we were teaching L., who is now a Recent Convert, and B. about the Law of Chastity.  The whole lesson he kept interrupting and wouldn't be quiet.  So, when Elder Haas took me to see this guy, and I saw his face, I went ahhh... this man.   But! Now, he's awesome! We haven't seen him drunk the whole time we've been visiting him, and even as we're passing each day.  What I love so much, is that he is one who WANTS to know where he needs to be.  He takes things step by step and doesn't rush.  Which is good!  You can't rush spiritual things, so we're on board with it.  He always has read the material before the lesson, and fires us with questions.  Always learning!  And he always goes away from the lessons telling us he'll pray about it.  We don't even invite him to do that!!!!  He does it himself. The guy's sweet!  He'll take his Book of Mormon to work and read it, but since the rain beat him the other day, he said he'll be keeping it to the house while he goes to work.  This man is one that Knows what he needs to do, and is slowly coming along.  We keep him in our prayers.

Another lesson we had this week was with J.   He was baptized last week.  We had finished teaching his friend, and he goes,"I have a question for you two."  Okay.  Then he proceeds to pull out the Old Testament study manual, and flips through it.  oooohhh.....  I look at him,"We may not have the answer...." Elder Haas and I laughed small to ourselves...  Elder Haas prayed for assistance the we'd be guided into knowing how to help him.  When he showed us the page, it said,"The difference between a prophet and a seer."  He looks at us,"So what's the difference."  Umm...  So J., Have you read this?  "Yeah."  then he starts quoting scriptures off his memory from the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament......  You sure this is a question? He always does this to us.  He'll ask a question and we'll start helping him, then he quotes a scripture he found and its the answer. I love it.
Love you all,

Love Elder Zaugg

"Write African"