Dear Wonderful Family and Friends,
Week 9 in Lugansk Sept. 10, 2012
Another great week has come and gone here in the Ukraine and I am still alive and being blessed by the Lord. We bought a volley ball and a net so we can get a little more exercise other than all the walking we do. We helped a guy in our ward named Lance, he is originally from Canada. We were helping him dig out a water pipe and it was great to help him out. We went to a members house and we made them Mexican food as our American meal. Ha Ha. I’m still sleeping on three couch cushions for my bed, but that’s ok. I truly love this work and there is nothing else in the world that can bring this kind of joy to my life and the lives of others. Sometimes there are times when we feel we are not progressing or things aren’t going how WE want them to go, I seem to remind myself of why I am here and who I am serving. Never forget that the Lords work has nothing to do with you and if you are living your life and doing the things he has commanded us He will bless you more than you can imagine. I know this is true because when I feel our week was not very successful, I remember that no matter what, as long as I am keeping the commandments the rest doesn’t matter and the Lord will bless me in his own due time.
So with that said, this week has been in simple terms a little bit of a slow week. Unfortunately a lot of our contacts did not want to meet up or were unable to meet or simply didn’t show up to our appointment we set up. We have talked to so many people this last week and I know that even though they were not interested right then, it’s okay because as it says in preach my gospel, there is no wasted effort. No matter what we say or do the people are either prepared or not and the spirit is always the one who converts people not us. The thing that I have been working on though is having the spirit with me more. I read a little article this week about purifying yourself. Basically it was talking about how there are a lot of things that will poke at our spirit and we need to find those things and get rid of them. So yesterday I started my 40 day fast from a list of things that I felt have been poking at my spirit and I immediately felt the spirit stronger as I made that covenant to strive to stay away from such things that drive away the spirit. Especially while out on a mission there are a lot of things that poke at the spirit, mainly it is distractions. One of the things I had to put on the list was motorcycles and driving a stick because I think about those a little too much and they are not important. For all of you missionaries out there I would suggest doing this 40 day fast. I only started but I can feel the spirit stronger already.
This week we were able to have a few meetings with our investigator Roman. He is still slowly progressing and our last meeting we gave him the commitments to pray about a baptismal date that we can set for him. So I hope that the next time we meet with him he will be able to tell us when he feels is an appropriate date for him to be baptized. He is a great guy, he does everything he is supposed I mean everything. He reads, he prays, he comes to church, he comes to the activities. He really wants to know but the thing is that he is looking for this great big answer and so it may take him a little longer to finally realize that the gospel is true. But he is coming along and I am blessed to be able to teach him (and it’s a bonus because it is in English ha ha)
Our mission is doing wonderful. In our little area in Lugansk we had a baptism last Saturday and it was wonderful. We had a good turn out and a good service. We had the baptism at a lake/river again and this river kind of looked like the river where Christ was baptized………… it was kind of cool. Elder Mika is the one who had to privilege of baptizing her and on Sunday he also confirm her as a member of the church. As a mission we have 10 more people set on date for baptism this month already, so the work is moving along and it’s a blessing to be able to see it all happening.
I know that the Lord blesses people in his own due time and he prepares people and we don’t know who or when they will come into our lives but we must continually be worthy so that we can teach with the spirit and be able to help them come unto Christ and enter the waters of baptism. I know that this work is true and that we are here for a definite purpose to build up the Kingdom of God and as long as that is our main goal, He will bless us how he sees fit. I know that our Father in Heaven loves each of us and wants us all to return to him and I know we all can if we do what he has asked and follow his commandments. I love you all and I wish you all a happy week and a moment of silence for the victims of September 11th.
Take care and keep your spirits high!!!Another great week has come and gone here in the Ukraine and I am still alive and being blessed by the Lord. We bought a volley ball and a net so we can get a little more exercise other than all the walking we do. We helped a guy in our ward named Lance, he is originally from Canada. We were helping him dig out a water pipe and it was great to help him out. We went to a members house and we made them Mexican food as our American meal. Ha Ha. I’m still sleeping on three couch cushions for my bed, but that’s ok. I truly love this work and there is nothing else in the world that can bring this kind of joy to my life and the lives of others. Sometimes there are times when we feel we are not progressing or things aren’t going how WE want them to go, I seem to remind myself of why I am here and who I am serving. Never forget that the Lords work has nothing to do with you and if you are living your life and doing the things he has commanded us He will bless you more than you can imagine. I know this is true because when I feel our week was not very successful, I remember that no matter what, as long as I am keeping the commandments the rest doesn’t matter and the Lord will bless me in his own due time.
So with that said, this week has been in simple terms a little bit of a slow week. Unfortunately a lot of our contacts did not want to meet up or were unable to meet or simply didn’t show up to our appointment we set up. We have talked to so many people this last week and I know that even though they were not interested right then, it’s okay because as it says in preach my gospel, there is no wasted effort. No matter what we say or do the people are either prepared or not and the spirit is always the one who converts people not us. The thing that I have been working on though is having the spirit with me more. I read a little article this week about purifying yourself. Basically it was talking about how there are a lot of things that will poke at our spirit and we need to find those things and get rid of them. So yesterday I started my 40 day fast from a list of things that I felt have been poking at my spirit and I immediately felt the spirit stronger as I made that covenant to strive to stay away from such things that drive away the spirit. Especially while out on a mission there are a lot of things that poke at the spirit, mainly it is distractions. One of the things I had to put on the list was motorcycles and driving a stick because I think about those a little too much and they are not important. For all of you missionaries out there I would suggest doing this 40 day fast. I only started but I can feel the spirit stronger already.
This week we were able to have a few meetings with our investigator Roman. He is still slowly progressing and our last meeting we gave him the commitments to pray about a baptismal date that we can set for him. So I hope that the next time we meet with him he will be able to tell us when he feels is an appropriate date for him to be baptized. He is a great guy, he does everything he is supposed I mean everything. He reads, he prays, he comes to church, he comes to the activities. He really wants to know but the thing is that he is looking for this great big answer and so it may take him a little longer to finally realize that the gospel is true. But he is coming along and I am blessed to be able to teach him (and it’s a bonus because it is in English ha ha)
Our mission is doing wonderful. In our little area in Lugansk we had a baptism last Saturday and it was wonderful. We had a good turn out and a good service. We had the baptism at a lake/river again and this river kind of looked like the river where Christ was baptized………… it was kind of cool. Elder Mika is the one who had to privilege of baptizing her and on Sunday he also confirm her as a member of the church. As a mission we have 10 more people set on date for baptism this month already, so the work is moving along and it’s a blessing to be able to see it all happening.
I know that the Lord blesses people in his own due time and he prepares people and we don’t know who or when they will come into our lives but we must continually be worthy so that we can teach with the spirit and be able to help them come unto Christ and enter the waters of baptism. I know that this work is true and that we are here for a definite purpose to build up the Kingdom of God and as long as that is our main goal, He will bless us how he sees fit. I know that our Father in Heaven loves each of us and wants us all to return to him and I know we all can if we do what he has asked and follow his commandments. I love you all and I wish you all a happy week and a moment of silence for the victims of September 11th.
Love Elder Litchfield
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