Spirit is Guiding

Hello Everyone!

I want to take this email to testify that the Lord is truly guiding this work. Really. I promise. We have had more experiences this week that have shown that we need to rely on the Spirit than I can remember, including failures and successes.

One such experience occured last Tuesday. We attmepted to go to a lesson with this sweet lady, who just happened not to be home that morning. Elder Schaffer and I had obtained a ride from a young man who is preparing to serve his mission, and we knew we needed to help him have a wonderful opportunity to keep him exctied. That was in the Lord's plan as well, and we all felt inspired to go knocking on a door two homes down. We ended up running into a fellow named Lt. Parson. He let us in, heard out the first lesson, and committed to baptism. It was not the first time we had knocked on his door, but it was the right time. Although we went out planning to teach someone specific, and had a lesson prepared just for her, the Lord used the opportunity to bring us into the life of someone who needed to hear what we have.

Another experience we had this week was very humbling. We have been asked by our ward to teach a Sunday School class on how to do member missionary work. We have been planning our lesson for a while, but we didn't role play very much, and we went in with false confidence. This time, the Lord allowed us to flop. It wasn't awful, but both of us felt terrible after the lesson, and very discouraged. We had to go home after church and plead for forgiveness for teaching what we wanted to teach, not what the Lord needed us to teach and what our friends in the ward needed to hear. We then proceeded to be taught exactly what it was we are supposed to do next time, guided by the Spirit in an incredible planning experience.

I promise that each of you can be guided by the Spirit in all aspects of your life as well. Remember that every thing that persuades us to do good comes from Christ (see Ether 4:12 and Moroni 7:13). Use the Spirit of the Lord to guide your daily actions and you cannot fail. Trust in the workings of the Lord and you will always be able to fell joy.  Love the Lord thy god with all your heart and it will grow, so that you will be able to love all of thy neighbors, and so that you will have a desire to only do that which is the will of God.

I love you all!

Elder Beckstead