7/22/2013
Dear Family,
I won't be able to tell you what went on in my week this
week because I am just about out of time but I can tell you when I get home and
write about it when I get home. This week was pretty uneventful and not
much happened with our investigators. Elva is hung up on having a modern
day prophet. She doesn't believe that the Church of Jesus Christ should
be the only church with a prophet. We keep telling her that he is the
prophet for the whole earth and that people just have to accept him but she is
having a hard time with that. We did have a good lesson with her on the
topic of prophets and she is working on trying to get an answer but she is not
reading or coming to church so that can make it hard to get an answer. We
will be working hard to get her to church this Sunday because it will be the
last Sunday that we are both here. Elder Stevens and I are being doubled
out. I am going home and Elder Stevens is going to another area to train
because they need Spanish speakers here. We did receive a disappointing
text from Salvador this week that told us that he has found a Spanish church
and will be going there but I believe he just said that because he is scared to
commit. We will be trying to visit him every night this week though
because I want to say goodbye to him and leave him with my testimony. Hopefully
other missionaries can work with him and he will one day be baptized.
This week we will be preparing the area to be doubled out.
I love you family!!
Elder Mouritsen
PS. I have included one
of my most spiritual experiences that President Topham asked me to write about
and send him a copy.
My spiritual experience took place in Hanover, Pennsylvania
when we were teaching our investigator named Paul. When Paul was first
contacted, he told us that he was an atheist and wasn't sure if there
could even be a God or a higher power. His wife was a less active
member but we didn't know that until after we started teaching Paul. Paul
told us that we could come back and visit him, but said that he didn't want to
be pushed and was not interested in becoming Mormon.
We had the opportunity to start teaching him and his wife
was present at each visit. He enjoyed hearing all the different things
that we had to share, but he still didn't believe in God. He did, however, say
that if there was a God this would be his church. He liked the Book of
Mormon more than the bible and he thought that Joseph Smith being a prophet was
pretty cool, but he still didn't believe that there was a higher power.
On one occasion, after dinner with some of the members of
the ward, we drove to Paul's house for a lesson. We arrived
at Paul's earlier than scheduled and found that his wife and kids were
gone for the night, so the house was void of any distractions. We
started the visit by asking him if he had any questions. He asked what our
feelings were towards our missions before we came out to serve. I told
him that I knew I needed to serve but I wasn't too excited to leave home. I
proceeded to tell him that I have learned to love it and through my mission I
had gained a more complete conversion. After talking a little longer and
saying an opening praying, we started into the lesson that we had planned.
We began the lesson with Adam in the garden which led into a discussion
about the Atonement and the need for us to repent. We did some role
playing to help teach these points. Paul was blown away by the fact
that the Book of Mormon teaches about Adam. As we talked more
about Adam and Eve, Paul began to have questions that moved us into a
discussion about the Spirit World. We told him that we lived with God
before this life and we made the decision to come down to Earth. The
wheels in his head were starting to turn and he was beginning to understand.
As we finished up the lesson and bore testimony we could
tell that Paul was deep in thought and was amazed at the knowledge that he was
receiving. We invited him to say the closing prayer and he agreed he
would. We then asked if he would pray to know the truth, specifically if
the things that we taught were true. He said he would, even though he was
hesitant. He began the prayer a little shaky but after a while he started
to express the desires of his heart. As he was praying and asking the
question, I was praying for him to get an answer, and as I did, I began to feel
a burning in my bosom. The prayer ended and we all kept our heads
bowed. After some time had passed, I raised my head to see Elder Spohn
with a huge smile staring at me. It was a smile just as big as he was and
we both could feel the Spirit and knew that it had touched Paul. Paul
raised his head and said "Wow! I have been feeling the goose bump feeling
all night but that was something unlike anything I have ever felt".
He kept trying to explain what he had felt, but he couldn't. He knew for
himself how he felt but couldn’t adequately express those feelings to us.
There was no doubt he had felt the Spirit! He said when he had
started his prayer he didn't know what to say, but pretty soon he was saying
things that he would not normally say, and everything sounded so
beautiful.
As we sat there taking it all in I felt impressed to invite
him to be baptized. I was shaking inside as I invited him, because I
could feel the Spirit working through me. He responded by saying baptism
is a huge step, but he could not deny that he had felt something not of this
world. He told us that he wanted some time to ponder on the whole
experience but in the meantime he wanted to start taking the things that we
taught into his life. I invited him to do that more seriously.
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