Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Sept 3, 2013 I love storms!


Sept 3 2013

Want to tell you about this giant storm that hit us on Monday night. It was crazy with how the dust came in a huge cloud. It was like want you see from the movie “Mummy”. Followed by intense rain for 1-2 hrs. We were so happy to have rain that we stayed out all night working in it trying to talk to people as rain was running down our faces. Then we heard that a tree not to far from where we live, mile or 2 away was struck with lightening and went up in flames. I love storms!

We had a really cool zone conference last Tuesday. We discussed Faith, Principles vs Rules and on line missionary work. As I have been thinking more and more about principles I have been noticing that they carry over to many other things in life such as talking with people and asking open ended questions that create better conversations. There are many other examples out there but I thought it was cool to see that and to think about how those principles are truth and how they will carry over to life after death.

Had a conversation with a lady who is a member but hasn't come to church for a long time for many reasons. She shared a few with us. Many of the questions dealt with deep doctrine things that in the end don't really have anything to do with strengthening ones faith. I have learned that if the conversation on gospel isn't strengthening ones faith, why have it, what's the importance, why does it matter if its not going to do anything for you, and how can that be applied to your life. Focus on the basics. Getting lost in deep questions can be some of the hardest things to get out of. It is always better remembering that we are here to strengthen our faith upon the Lord.

Oh yeah and while we were out on splits with a young man from the ward we were driving down a side road and we saw a hand running down the street. Yes a hand. Like from the Adams Family! Who would have known.

We stopped to visit a man that is a member but hasn't gone for a while. We stopped by to see how things were going and if he was interested in coming back to church. He yelled at us and told us to never come back again, We had one of the priest age young men was with us. (16-18) We told the man that to prevent anyone from coming back again he would have to remove his name from the church records by writing a letter to the church. He then got threatening and told us to go away because we were harassing them. Mid sentence he changed and said to his wife, "No. no, you know what, wife go get the phone I'm going to call the cops. You're going to jail for harassing us!" No cops came.

OK my companion and I had a very weird and startling experience.

It was Sunday night and we were asked to go by a Do Not Contact person that is a member and for some reason in the past has been a little violent to elders. He has asked to have his name removed so the bishop sent us there. As we pulled up to the house I noticed something was missing. I turned to my companion and asked him how he felt and he said fine. I wanted to say a prayer before going in. After the prayer we both knew that for some reason the spirit was not there and we shouldn't be there. We got on our bikes and rode away. A couple blocks away was someone we could stop to visit. As we got off the bikes again the feeling wasn't gone and decided to keep biking. We said another prayer asking for the Lord to guide us where we should go to get away from this feeling of danger. We both thought of home, where we live home, and started to ride there. It was weird because the night wasn't over and we needed to keep working. Once we were near our home we decided to see an investigator. The feeling was still there and we both felt as though something was following us with something not nice about it. When we got to the house of the investigator and started to talk with her the feeling left and we started to feel good again. She also gave us coconut pop cycles, which were good. Anyways that was our interesting experience of being guided by the Spirit.

Love you all

Love Elder Leonhardt

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