Leadership is Tricky

Wow!  That talk about Elder Hollings just gave me chills.  It's funny because I saw him in Heathrow before he went back into India and we had the opportunity to talk a little bit about how he was doing.  I am assuming he is home by now because he said he was hitting his year mark when I ran into him.  Thanks for the spiritually uplifting message.  I still haven't heard Conference yet, but now I can't wait!

This week was a doosie!  Marriage is coming up for our first couple this next week and Satan is working hard to stop it.  It's a little ridiculous, but nothing we can't handle with the help of our leaders.  It's something I want to tell you guys about after it's all done because it's a story.  Suffice it to say that they are getting married and baptized this week.  Super excited!  I am trying to think of highlights this week as far as things that have happened, but it has really been pretty normal.  The district is getting better and we are starting to put fires out and things are running smoother.  Leadership is tricky.  You have to get the right combination of everything and the most important thing is service.  It's like a trade off.  If you don't serve them, they won't listen to you and if you don't show a good example, you get burned.  The consequence for failure is very high.  It's like the district depends on if I am a good leader or not (which I guess makes sense, right?).  Something that I am learning as well... if you know what to do, do what you know.  You will become what the Lord needs of you or more simply put, if you know the Gospel is true, be true to the Gospel.  Like in section 121 of D&C when we undertake to cover our sins we don't have any priesthood power and the heavens withdraw themselves.  I just never realized how literal that was.

Also, on the topic of literal fulfillment of scriptures, I had an experience last night.  We were trying to help get one of our families back on board to get married because they experienced some trouble and some outside influence that wasn't helping.  Towards the end, I bore my testimony in a way I hadn't usually done so in the past.  Randomly, the thought came into my head that I needed to bear testimony about the Savior and his atoning sacrifice.  I didn't feel like it applied in that particular situation, but trusting that it was a prompting, I bore my testimony about the atonement, trying to pass some kind of understanding on about what exactly they were doing (getting married), get out of this sin that they were in.  To me, it just felt like any other testimony, but I later found out that night with my companion that something else had happened.  When he related what he felt in that particular moment... immediately after I finished my testimony, our investigator began to bear his small and simple testimony and the Spirit was strong.  It was simple and sweet but the feeling stayed long after he finished saying what was on his mind.  When we left and finally got back to the house, Elder Poyfair told asked me, "Did you feel that while you were testifying to them?"  I said, "Feel what?"  He said, "When you testified to them back there in that last lesson, did you feel the Spirit?  It was one of the strongest feelings of the Spirit I have felt on my whole mission!"  This made me stop because I thought about my patriarchal blessing that I had read a few days a go and a specific part that talks about my testimony of the Savior.  I wont put it on here, but you can read it.  I was impressed to read that part to my companion and he said, "Wow!  That is a literal fulfillment of your patriarchal blessing."  After that, I got a good feeling from the Spirit.  It was cool, it was like the Spirit was saying "Tadaaaaaaa!!!!" Something that I will remember for a while.  I learned a few things from that.  First, you can't will the spirit into a lesson or into your words to make people understand because I just felt like those were regular words that I was saying, but it was the Spirit that carried it into their hearts like it says in 2 Nephi 33:1  "And now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost, the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men."  So the meaning and the result only happens on the end sometimes and the Holy Ghost can openly testify through you when you are doing what you know or you are being true to the true church.   Like Nephi says... you don't have to be mighty in speaking or good at a language in order for the Spirit to testify to what you are saying.  You just have to be humble and invite it to do the speaking for you.  The Spirit will only speak through you if your intention is to give understanding and not gratify your own pride to appear as though you have skill in speaking.  Humility is a requirement.   What I am saying makes a lot more sense if you read the patriarchal blessing. 

With the package stuff, yes, I was referring to shampoo, not deodorant.   Also, pictures and everyone's pants sizes in centimeters because I wanted to get you guys all Kapulana pajama pants.  I will work on it later, but I need to get them now if that's going to happen.   Also, I want to know if you guys want anything in specific from here so I can plan now (I can't get any spears and shields, sorry Alex). 

That's about it though.   Oh, and also you can send the college info and if you need to set up an account, go ahead and do so. 

Well, I love y'all!

Elder Proksch