Hey hey wha's happenin'?

Greetings loved ones. (Snoop Dogg voice)

 

I am pleased to announce that the weekly email boycott of 2014 has come to a close. Last week, soon after beginning the boycott my beloved siblings emailed me. Unfortunately, this past week was a bit of a dud compared to other weeks so there's not too much to share.

 

We spent this week focusing a lot on teaching members about missionary work and helping them begin sharing the gospel with their friends and family. There are only one or two full member families so it's really important that we get the member's sharing with their relatives. The very first thing that is taught to new investigators is that the gospel blesses families. Our families are a gift from our Heavenly Father to strengthen and support us, and a gospel centered family is a happier family! We have many strong members, now we just need to get their families learning about the gospel too!

 

One of our lessons was with a member named Co Thuy. She is a single, older woman who owns a small hair salon in her house. We tried setting up appointments with her for a couple weeks, but she's always busy with customers. We got lucky one evening though and were able to stop by and teach a short lesson about missionary work. She, like most other members, was a little doubtful about her ability to share thinking that the people she knows would be unaccepting. We gave her three pamphlets though, The Restoration, Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed her to try and give them to someone she knows. She accepted our commitment, but probably thought that she wouldn't have the chance to give them away. We've got faith that everyone will have opportunities to do missionary work though! Following the lesson Co Thuy said she was going to go out on the street and buy us some soup (pig intestine's to be exact) for me to try. While Chi Van and I were waiting for her to come back a customer came by wanting a hair cut so we invited her to wait with us until Co Thuy came back with the food. We talked to this customer a little bit but didn't say very much other than we taught English classes and went to the same church as Co Thuy. Once Co Thuy came back we went to the back room of her house to eat and encouraged her to use that hair appointment as a missionary opportunity! BOOM! It worked. She came back and asked us if she should give away the pamphlets! Well, of course! It's as easy as that. In just five minutes someone was invited to learn about the gospel.

 

I don't know if that woman will want to learn about the church, but I also don't know if God has been preparing her to learn about the restored gospel. The most important thing for everyone to realize is that missionary work is easy. We're not asking members to prepare lessons and go to their friends homes and share full lessons like us full-time missionaries do. All we're asking is for them to invite.

 

Our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

 

Notice that the first word is "invite". That's all you have to do! Give someone a pamphlet, invite them to church, introduce them to missionaries. All that YOU have to do is invite! And I'm not saying this as a suggestion, missionary work is the responsibility of every single member of the church.

 

President George Albert Smith once said,

"This is your mission, my brethren and sisters of the church, that is your responsibility. Freely you have received and our Heavenly Father will expect you freely to share with his other sons and daughters these glorious truths. . . We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom only on the condition that we share with our Father's other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter."

 

Thaaaat's right. Things just got real. You gotta share if you want to go to the Celestial Kingdom. Seriously though, I hope you will all listen to the prophets call that we are all missionaries and begin fulfilling your responsibilities!

 

That's all for this week.

Do what I tell you to do. Do what your parents tell you to do. Do what the prophet tells you to do. Do what Jesus tells you to do. Okay? Okay.

 

Love,

Sister Egelund

 

And shout out to my brother Eric who turns 17 this week! I remember on my 17th birthday right at midnight I listened to 17 Forever by Metro Station and it was sweet...but now I'm 19 and getting old.

 

Also here's a scripture I really like,

 

v16 . . . yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

v17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

v18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4: 16-18