I Am Trying To Be Like Jesus

In my studies of our Savior, Jesus Christ, one of his attributes that I have noticed is his ability to notice and discern the needs of others around  him.  This is especially evident during his visit to ancient America.  In 3 Nephi chapter 15 he says 

And it came to pass that when Jesus had said these words he perceived that there were some among them who marveled, and wondered what he would concerning the law of Moses; for they understood not the saying that old things had passed away, and that all things had become new.

And then again in chapter 17 he says 

I perceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot understand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.

In that same chapter he also said

And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them. 

And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion  towards you. 

This is an attribute that I would like to cultivate and one of my goals for this mission is to learn how to listen more closely with the spirit. 

On Fast Sunday as I listened to the testimonies that were bore that day, I tried to listen with the spirit and as I did so I was impressed to reach out to one particular sister after she shared her testimony.  I am happy to report that because I listened to discern needs, we were able to connect with this sister and minister in the way that she and her son needed and as a bonus we now have some new friends.  

I know that as we study the life of Jesus Christ and learn of his ways, if we are prayerful and humble he will help us to improve in our lives and become more like him especially as we strive to serve others.  

Missionaries attend many meetings, and this is true even of senior missionaries.  Every week we have a mission wide zoom on Sunday nights where a younger missionary shares a message and than we learn of baptisms that happened in the mission.   On Monday mornings, we have a zoom meeting of senior missionaries where one of us will share a message.  Then during the week we meet with our district, young and senior missionaries to have training and spiritual messages.  Every six weeks this district meeting is replaced by a zone conference which takes in half of the mission is and ran by the Mission president.  

This past week was our Zone Conference.  It was a mostly all day long event with lunch being served during the mid day break.  We ended up being late to the conference because we went to the wrong building!  We did finally end up at the correct spot.  I didn't take any pictures but it was a very full day with many events and learning opportunities.  I am so impressed by the young missionaries and their desire to serve and learn.  I know that they work so much harder than us and the experiences they have are much newer to them than to us.  We have been practicing for this mission so many more years than they have even lived.   I got to bring my own companion that I already know how to work with and like being around.  So for all of those reasons, I have great respect for these young people and would do anything to help them out. 

I am happy to report that my companion and I have finally won a game of pickleball this week!  Hopefully we will continue to get better.  We enjoy being able to play and exercise in this way. 

Our ward has a temple night at the San Diego Temple once a month.  We were able to go and take a couple of ward members with us.  We enjoyed getting to know them a bit better on the drive and then to share in the gift of being in the temple.  We still don't know many of the members of our ward so we really don't know how many showed up to the temple!  But we have been busy this week, visiting members and starting to get to know them. 

One day about a month ago, I distinctly remember driving down the freeway, looking over the valley and thinking to myself the random thought  "What if someone I knew growing up lived in our ward?"  Well a couple of weeks later I was looking over the ward list and sure enough there was a name that I recognized.  After three visits to that home, we were finally able to connect with the member and sure enough it was someone I grew up with.  I don't know why God put that thought into my head but I do love when the spirit speaks to me.  

On Friday we dropped a member of our ward off at the San Diego airport so we took the opportunity to have a p-day,  visit the Birch Aquarium and see the sea lions at  Children's Pool Beach.  Through the day was rainy we enjoyed our time there. 

On Saturday, we made some goodies and spent some more time visiting ward members. There are so many wonderful people here in San Marcos.  We were also able to attend Stake Conference. 

And we finally remembered to take our bags into the grocery store instead of leaving them out in the car. 

And finally- we found a strawberry stand with delicious California strawberries....yummy. 

 

It has been a good week, with many new friends, spiritual truths learned and taught, delicious food eaten, temple worship, family history work done and pickleball played,