Obedience

Hey,


I am trying to think of what happened this week.  But the more I think the less I remember.  I have been sick all week.  It started as a cold then went into my chest and head.  So I have been drugged up
all week. So everything is sort of a blur.

We started off the week with some service.  There is a man that has been investigating the Church for 18 years and has gotten really sick recently, so we, Elder Paton and I, have been going over once a week to just keep his yard in shape.  This is the same man who we cut down the back garden for.  But it was fun this time because we got to clean up what we had cut down and put it into bags.  He has one garbage can full of weeds and about thirty garbage bags full of more weeds and other stuff.  We cut down a ton but we also found out that we still have about another ten feet to go.  We will get to it one day.

I had a really cool experience this week though.  One of my old Companions was recently transferred to my District.  I got to go on exchange with Elder Doty, one of my favorite Companions from Worcester.  It was so crazy. We where talking and I said," Doty this is trippy.  We were together 9 months ago and now we are back."  It was so much fun to catch up and work with him again.  It was just like old times.

I have also started to Book of Mormon again this week.  I was reading in 1 Nephi Chapter 2  this week and what really hit me this time was this:

1 For behold, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream, and said unto him: Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, they seek to take away thy life.

2 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded my father, even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness.

3 And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him.

4 And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness.

The reason this impressed me was that 1) Lehi was ALREADY faithful.  The lord knew he would respond to this and leave.  2) is that Lehi listened and left and 3) Lehi took only his family, provisions and tents.  He left ALL.  He left everything that the world says is important.  I have been thinking about it and talking about it with Elder Paton.  I have learned a ton from these five verses.  When times get hard if we are already faithful we will be blessed.  And the best time to be obedient is before these blessings are needed.  What I mean by that is to be living in a way that the Holy Ghost can prompt us before we get into trouble not after.  Even when it is hard, being obedient is going to be the best thing for us.

I hope that we can all do our best in following Lehi's example.  I love this work and the Lord.

Have a great week.

Love Elder Nielsen