Ty Detmer Fireside

Hey!

      This week was great! We focused on finding a lot this week which was awesome! We found some new investigators to teach and some of them are very receptive, so we're excited to see what happens in the coming weeks.

      On the weekend I met a missionary who served with my cousin, Ben Court in Alaska! A picture is attached below with him and I. His name is Chris Wolfgramm, and he's gonna start helping us with lessons. One of the greatest blessings that I have seen from serving here in Utah is the church connects people together here. I've met countless people that know one of my friends, acquaintances, family members, or something. I think the fact I'm from Mormonville, Canada helps too lol.

                                                  Chris Wolfgramm

 

       Part of our area was hosting a fireside with Ty Detmer, a former BYU and NFL quarterback yesterday! All of the missionaries that attended got a picture with him, it's also attached below. It was an amazing fireside. He spoke about his conversion story and experiences from football that related to the gospel. It was very similar to firesides I had with Chad Lewis and Vi Sikahema before in my mission. It was a neat experience!

                                     

                                                    Ty Detmer Fireside

 

        I've been on my mission around 18 months now.... wow. Time flies so fast. It's almost done and honestly it's a really bitter sweet feeling. I love the mission so much and I'm going to miss it once it's time to go home, but at the same time I'm excited to see family and friends again and to try and apply lessons I've learned on the mission into everyday life.          

         I had some amazing studies this week. I was reading about faith, and I came across one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament. It's the story of Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego. They were under the siege of King Nebuchadnezzar. The King had sent out a law restricting the worship of any God's that were not his God. His God was an idol, and these young men refused to worship this idol, because they knew of the true God. The King demanded that they be thrust into the fiery furnace, and be killed for their crime. But I love the example of their faith. Here are the following scriptures found in Daniel 3:16-18. At this point the King has asked them if they will bow down to the idol, I love their reply. 

     16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

      17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 

     18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.          I put the phrase, "But if not" in bold on purpose. They made it very clear that they knew God could deliver them from the fiery furnace in verse 17. But at the start of verse 18 they stated, but if not we will stay faithful to our God. I love that. True faith is having faith even if an expected miracle, blessing, or event doesn't occur. True faith is being able to accept God's will for you, because you know that he loves you and will do whatever is best for you. I firmly believe that if these men would have entered into the furnace and died like was expected, they would have accepted the result because they had that much faith. They knew God was in control, always. I think we can learn a valuable lesson from this. Our faith can be improved as we align our will with God's will. 

     I hope that insight helps you out this week! Be willing to allow the Lord to influence your life, and he will take care of you.

          Love Elder Strate