Elder Chad Peterson: The Gospel Principles of Action

Hello Everyone, Wow this week was so amazing. We continue to have and see so many miracles in our area and throughout the mission. This week we continued our really busy schedule of doing splits with the missionaries who are struggling. It was actually a week that pushed me to be a lot more that the Lord needs right now. This week we went on splits with a lot of younger Elders here in the mission but they were all so humble and they were literally taking in everything that they could. I was able to see what these Elders expected of themselves and they just kept asking me what the best way to do these things were. It really humbled me to see the willingness that they had to learn even though they have been in hard circumstances. It makes me grateful that we have those circumstances to help us to learn and grow and be who the Lord would have us be. On Monday after we finished all of our weekly reports we got a call from the Nochixtlan zone leaders that we needed to go up and help two Elders in a small town called Tenango. One of them happened to be Elder Martinez, the one that I trained in Juchitan. Anyways so we cancelled everything that we had and left right away to get up there before 9. On Tuesday I had the chance to work with them and it really taught me the importance of obedience so that we can obtain that light that we need. We talked about with them that they really are a light to this small town, and that many people were depending on them to be disciples of Christ. It was a fun experience because Tenango is a small town of about 500 people, and outside of that there are smaller towns of about 200 people. We went to a town called Correo and we were able to find and teach a mom and her son. The son is battling with cancer and the mom said that she wanted to know why it was happening. I dont know why some people go through greater trials than others, but we were able to teach that it was a sign that God was still watching out for her and her family, and that he was aware of her needs. We taught that through this trial she could experience the blessing of Heavenly Joy that only comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a powerful lesson. On Wednesday we were able to head back to our area and continue on with our work there. We are seeing so many miracles there and are working as hard as we can wherever we are. I know that Heavenly Father truly blessed us for our sacrifice to go and help these missionaries out, because when we got back we went and visited Maria and her family again. We taught them once again about the Restauration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith. Her whole family accepted it and they all testified of the truthfulness of it that they had felt in their hearts. On Friday we were able to go back and teach them about the Word of Wisdom. We were worried that they were going to have a problem with it with the coffee part. While we were teaching it we taught about how the Word of Wisdom was a principle of action to change our habits to be able to repent and be baptized. Maria said that she was willing to follow it even before we started teaching what we could and could not partake of. So we taught the commandment and when we finished she said that she was willing to live it because she needed the blessings that come from it. Her faith is so big and is a testimony to me that God continues to work miracles on this earth. We have hardly done anything with her, simply taught her the restored truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she has gained a testimony along with her family to know that this is true. We are so excited because this Saturday her and her 2 kids have made the decision to be baptized and are literally counting down the days until they can be baptized. I am so thankful for this experience that we have had to see the changes that they have made in their lives. Yesterday I had the chance to do splits with Elder Perez from Chihuahua Mexico. After asking me how much time we get to work in our area and seeing Maria and her family he asked me how we did it. Something that I still remember from the transmission that we had about a month ago is that Elder Bednar taught us that the Gospel is a principle of action. He taught that faith is action, and doubt is inaction. Faith is the principle that leads us to repent and follow the commandments of God to be able to return to his presence, doubt is when we do nothing. Elder Caballero and I have really applied this to our lessons. We have learned that these lessons are not simply us teaching someone to gain more understanding, but it is teaching them and inviting these people to act! We have taught the basic principles and Heavenly Father has helped these people to repent and act so that they could see the divine potential that they truly have in this plan. I am so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that invites all of us to continually repent so that we may have the strengthening power of Christ and his atonement in our lives. Something that I learned this week is something that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, that we have been called to teach repentance and invite all to repent. I am thankful that we were able to learn this principle this week.