Patience is a virtue!

My favorite lunch group!

     Hello friends and family!  We've had a lot of much-needed rain here and this next week it's really supposed to warm up. The trees are beginning to blossom and it's really nice. 
     This week the Lord has taught me many lessons, but mainly a lesson on patience. Things were a bit slower this week.  Elder Sanhueza and I had been working really hard to find more people to teach, as we worked with the members, talked with everyone, and knocked many doors but nothing. We had been so blessed the week before with a baptism and 4 investigators at church, and now nothing? We were a bit shocked. We had been working so hard, to the point of exhaustion. In my personal study on Wednesday morning I studied the story of the sons of Mosiah before they went and preached the gospel to the Lamanites. The Lord promised them if the had patience and long suffering in ALL things, the Lord would watch over them and make them a tool in his hands. I thought and pondered over that scripture for a while. I thought to myself, I wonder how patient God has to be with us, being imperfect as we make mistakes everyday. At times the Lord gives us promptings that we choose not to listen to. He gives us commandments and guidelines and at times we choose not to follow them. Though we make and will make many mistakes throughout our life, the Lord will always love us no matter what. I am sure He suffers when we make mistakes, yet He is still always there right by our side. I took this lesson to the fullest, that I need to be patient in all sufferings and the Lord will make me a tool in His hands. I promised the Lord that day I would follow all His promptings and where he needed us to be we would go.  As it says in 1 Nephi 3:15:  "But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us."  
     We took to the streets again, knocking doors and talking with everyone and visiting some of our potential investigators.  As it began to be late in the afternoon, we were about to knock this last door in an apartment complex. As we approached the door I heard someone walking behind me.  I turned around and about 30 feet behind me was a young lady carrying bags towards her home. I felt the spirit prompt me to go talk to her.  I told her who we were and asked if she could use a prayer from 2 representatives of Jesus Christ and she said, "yes"!  As we offered the words of the prayer and finished, we looked up to see tears streaming down her face.  She said, "thank you so much!  That's what I needed today"!  She told us her mother has cancer and just received news that there was no more that could be done for her.  She said because of that she had kind of fallen away from God, from praying and going to church.  We testified to her that we were sent there by God to give her a prayer.  We began to open the Book of Mormon and talked with her about how this book could bring her peace and happiness in her life.  We invited her to be baptized on the 9th of March and she said "yes"!  We'll be meeting with her again this week.  
     I know this truly is God's work!  I have learned the importance of patience and that the Lord will always follow through on His promises.  The Lord gives us weaknesses so that we are humble and as we are humble He will make weak things become strong.  This gospel is true!  Jesus is the Christ!  His Atonement is real!  It transforms us into the people that Our Heavenly Father wants us to become.  I hope you all have a great week!  

Love, Elder Tanner Aiken