Tuesday, July 16, 2013

One week more.... SICK


Okay errybody where do i start?
 
well first this has been the quickest and craziest week so far.. i cant believe im outta here next tuesday. I am so ready and i also am SO scared. i know the Lord will bless me though.
Okay first off... i made two sisters in me distrito cry this week... not my fault though! haha first was i quoted Kenzie when she got here wisdom teeth out and the Asian mowing the lawn thing, and one sister got really offended.. the next was we were all telling each other what animal we think they look like and i told a sister she looks like a snake.. not my best words. I apologized to both of them and i learned my lesson. i also learned that sisters are a lot more emotional than the elders and that it doesnt take much to put them over edge.
 
I feel like i am growing emotionally spiritually and physically stronger everyday. i also fell the adversary over my shoulder, whispering into my ear every second i get a chance to breathe. but my faith is strong and im pushing on despite the fact this is the hardest thing ever!
 
Last pday we went out into the city again and hit up Walmart and the food court at the mall. a lot of us, including me, forgot to ask for no ice because it is city water and not pure, and a lot of people were sick this week. including half my distrito, and we were dubbed Distrito enfermo (district sick). We elders had the opportunity to use our priesthood authority and give some blessing and the spirit is so strong, i love it.
 
Here is my spiritual experience this week.
We do this thing here called (misionero a misionero) and we act as investigators and teach another missionary one on one. The elder i teach everday is Elder Overy and he is playing his older cousin who chose to be excommunicated. It is so great because it is SO REAL. when i feel the spirit during general conference or an amazing talk, i get the goosebumps. it is usually when Elder Holland speaks or something like that, and it doesnt happen often. I was teaching elder overy about the atonement, and he asked (how can i be forgiven of my sisns if i dont feel bad about them?) The Spirit took over and i bore my testimony and testified of the gospel. i gave myself the goosebumps, and i have never done that. it was surreal and the the Holy Ghost is more real than i ever thought. I found these couple scriptures that talk about the spirit with missionaries.
Alma 17:3, D&C 84:85, and D&C 100:5-8.  I honestly cant put into words how strong the spirit was, and how real my experience was.
 
Yesterday we went street contacting. like real people.... i was a little nervous to do it, but i was confident. i probably shouldnt have been so confident... haha the first guy me and Elder Tingey talked to was hardcore Catolico and vented on us for 5 minutes about how the catholic church is the more true because it has been around the longest. it was a good experience and he was super nice to us, but not interested at all. BTW i didnt understand all he said, im assuming a lot of things. The second guy we talked to at the bus station was a Jehovahs Witness.. need i say more? He kept asking us, (what is the name of God?) uhhhhhhhhhhh we didnt really know what he meant, but after i asked my teacher and he said that the JW was trying to get us to say Jehovah. The last guy we talked to was a member, and showed us his garmets... haha. My spanish is not near as good as i thought it was, but i still am ready for the field. i know that God wont let my inadequecy keep the spirit for touching someone and a quote from Elder Richard Scott (Our Father in Heaven did not put us on this earth to fail.) I wholeheartedly believe that.
 
If someone could email me and experience about tithing that would be nice, i dont have much to share when i talk about the subject. Also mom and dad you all should read and discuss D&C 88:119 together as a family.
 
This is my last email for TWO WEEKS... we dont get to email next week because we will be on a bus to our mission field. thank you for all you emails and support throughout the ccm... it hasnt been easy but i have learned so much and grown so much and i am so excited to go and serve the people of Guatemala. Those who emailed me this week probably wont get one back, because i dont have much time, but thank you and i love you all.
 
I want to bear my testimonio in español because this is my last chance while in the CCM;
 
Tengo un testimonio de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias. Yo se que esta iglesia es verdadera con mi toda corazon. yo se que jose smith fue un profeta de Dios, y que por medio jose smith tenemos el libro de mormon, y el sacerdocio de Dios. soy un misionero y representante de Jesucristo y porque de que, tengo el espiritu santo conmingo siempre. testifico que Dios bendice me, ustedes, y todas personas en el mundo. en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.
 
It was really short, and i know a lot more spanish than that. Love you all, and thank you for everything you do. Stay close to the Gospel, and my favorite line lately, (God will send us to heaven if we send Satan straight to hell.)
 
Love Elder Walton

3 comments:

  1. Hello Elder Walton!

    I'll probably have to send you this in a separate email, just to make sure you receive it, but I thought I would post a comment on here as well. You asked about experiences with paying tithing. I have a fairly lengthy set of experiences that I can share, and although I don't know how useful you will find it, I definitely have gained a testimony of the law of tithing.

    During my first marriage, finances became rather tight. There was a lot of stuff going on that I don't want to get into, but suffice it to say that we stopped paying tithing. A couple years later, we ended up filing for bankruptcy when I lost my job. Life was very difficult for me back then, and I won't say that paying tithing would have helped fix all of those problems, but it definitely know that not paying tithing meant I was no longer entitled to certain blessings.

    Flash forward to today, and not only am I have full tithe payer, but despite having more people to support on a single income, we still manage to make ends meet every month. About five years ago, when Oma was living with me, we had just moved into a new ward and I got up to bear my testimony on fast Sunday. At the time, I was going through a divorce, and I think I had just written a tithing check for several hundred dollars – not knowing how I was going to manage to pay the attorney fees, rent, utilities, etc. After the meeting, a sister that I later came to be really good friends with came up to me and gave me an envelope with $300 in cash. She said, "I don't usually do stuff like this, but the Spirit prompted me that I needed to get this money to you." I almost felt like I couldn't accept it, but she insisted, and right then and there I knew that the Lord was watching over me.

    While Becky and I have been married, there have been numerous occasions where we would look at our finances and wonder how we would pay all of our bills in a month. (If you think your life is expensive right now, just wait until you have to pay for the medical bills associated with your wife giving birth!) We always try to pay tithing first, and something always seems to come up where I get some extra work on the side, or Becky gets something she can do to earn a bit of extra money, or I'm able to sell a laptop to someone…. Suddenly we have more than enough money to get by. That doesn't mean we can go out and spend money frivolously, but as long as we are trying her hardest to be fiscally responsible, I feel we are entitled to the Lords blessings for paying tithing.

    We were also talking about this in church just a week or two ago, and there have been studies that show that people who pay tithing almost without exception are better able to live within a budget. Something about taking 10% of your earnings and giving them to the Lord helps people get their priorities straight. It's a little scary sometimes to think about how much 10% is for someone who might earn $1 million a year, but in fact everything we have comes from the Lord.

    If you ever need to teach a kid about tithing, buy a bag of M&Ms. Make sure it's a decent sized bag, give him the whole thing, and then ask him to give you a handful back. Most young children inherently understand how to share in a situation like this, at least of their parents have done a good job, but this is basically what the Lord has done for us. He has given us everything, and he doesn’t ask for something back because he needs it; rather, he asks us to give something back to him so that we can recognize what it means to share, to do something for someone else, and to practice humility.

    We love you, Nate! It sounds like you're having a great mission so far, and I'm excited to hear how things go when you get to Guatemala.

    Love,
    Jarred and Family

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  2. It was wonderful reading your letter Elder Walton :) I especially loved it when you bore your testimony in Spanish. My Spanish is a little rusty but I completely understood your testimony. We are proud of you and love you. Love, Aunt Pam

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