Week 17

Hey everyone!!!

This week was amazing. We had a pretty cool miracle happen. So we are teaching this guy named Jared here in Elko, he doesn't really believe in God but he is still interested in religion. His mom was visiting him as we taught the plan of Salvation and come to find out she is from O'Fallon Illinois!!! So I had the opportunity to send a referral back to my home ward. I think that's pretty amazing!

Also another cool thing occurred this week, we are teaching a less active family, and my companion and I thought it would be good to extend a baptismal invitation to the girls who were 10 and 14 years old. They accepted the invitation and are getting baptized this month!!! It is super awesome. So we now have 3 people on date for the month of November!

We also had a ward festival here in Elko and almost everyone we were teaching showed up! We had like 8 non-members there. And for sacrament the next day 6 of them attended it was pretty sweet!!! The work here in Elko is progressing every day and it is awesome to see so many people keep commitments.

My spiritual message this week is from a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland, titled "The ministry of Reconciliation" he states, "Brothers and Sisters, Jesus has asked that we “live together in love” with “no disputations among you.” “He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me,” He warned the Nephites. Indeed, to a great degree, our relationship to Christ will be determined—or at least affected—by our relationship to each other.

“If ye … desire to come unto me,” He said, “and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee—

“Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to [him], and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you.” I love this! We have to love thy neighbor as THY SELF. Not just a little love but love one another as you'd want to be loved. Charity is one of the most essential christlike attributes. I hope everyone is doing good love y'all!

Elder Patterson