Power of the Priesthood

So transfers were this week and my companion is leaving.  I feel like I didn't have that much time to get to know him or say hi and I guess that teaches a lesson.  Time is short and if you hold back, you may never get another chance.  So do your best and strive in every opportunity you have.

That is really cool about what happened in Sacrament.  Miracles are the reward for faithfulness and demonstrations of faith.  I feel bad for her and hope that she is OK.  That reminded me of a Mormon message, the one with Elder Holland and the football team and how one of the players was struck by lightning.  My favorite part of that message is when Elder Holland says to sanctify your self and to be clean... those of us who bear the vessels of the Lord.  I can tell you right now, had those men not felt worthy, they would not have gotten up and helped.  A reaction like the one they gave only comes from living purely and according to the standards that God has set on his holy priesthood.  There is no substitute for it, not even medical science can match the power and the knowledge that is in the priesthood.  This power created worlds and likely created you and I.  Little wonder that it is the means often times of sustaining life.  I am so happy that there are men in my ward who are worthy to answer that call when it comes.  I am extremely proud that my Dad is counted among them.  The Lord prepares His servants.

I love your little missionary experiences, they are awesome.  I would give away all my left shoes just to have someone willing to go to lessons with me and that has a strong testimony.  Someone they can look up to or see as an example of the believers.  I think that is so cool that you bore your testimony on faith.  It is the first principle of the gospel and generally the thing that makes the difference in our lives before anything else.  Please just call the missionaries and tell them you have time.  You will continue to make a big impact on them and they will defiantly call on you for the next few times.  Even if you feel like your testimony is not up to standards; which I know is not the case.  The only way it becomes vibrant is if you bear it and show others what you know.  It becomes more of your life as well.  Just like the sign you have had posted on the inside of our front door as we leave the house, "Thoughts become words, words become actions, actions make character, character is everything."  Use it or loose it.  I just love hearing from you guys because of the cool church stuff you guys do.  I literally get excited to see what new church experience you guys have next because it happens so often (count your many blessings).  I like your idea about carrying around a bell all day in remembrance of Jesus Christ.  I think I will try something similar here because you can always think more about the Savior.  To Grandma Proksch:  thank you for the idea about studying the scriptures by subject.  I felt I have been hitting a rut and that's what I needed.  I feel I will get a lot more out of the scriptures now.  Cover to cover is nice, but it is also good to switch it up a bit.

On to our area now.  I am getting a new companion and his name is Elder Oryang.  His name is really close to another elder that I have had as a companion.  He is like 6 ft 5 and he looks like a Mozambican, only he doesn't speak Portuguese because he is from Virginia. I have talked and met with him before and I know a little bit about him.  He is extremely nice and I am just excited for what ever reason to talk to this guy.  It's so cool he speaks almost no Portuguese and I will be finishing out his training and that's kinda funny because everyone here is like, "Why don't you speak Portuguese" and he is like, "I am not Mozambique, I am American."  He has already said that people have already tried to speak dialects to him before, but he just sits there with a blank face and waits for them to stop.  So funny.  Our area is going good.  I went on a split with one of my MTC friends who was in my district.  It was crazy.  I have never felt the Spirit so strong as when I was with him.  When the night ended, I asked him what had changed.  He told me that he had had a few experiences with actual situations where he saw Spirits, evil spirits and has had several experiences with possessed people.  He said that has changed how he has seen life as a whole.  He said, "To me, it's real Elder Proksch.  These things are a reality and they are here.  God exists like you and I, but so does everything else and I have been trying to realize it and understand it every day."   Now, I am not saying that I didn't know this ,because I do, but sometimes it's just not a reality, like how sometimes we can reject a reality and substitute our own.  But I felt it in his testimony, I know that he actually believes this stuff whole heartedly and it was an interesting experience to see the difference. It's hard to describe what that thing is and I know it's the Spirit, but sometimes it seems that these things are little more than just concepts and that's what the adversary would have you think, to try to get you to forget that relationship that you have with your Father in Heaven.  That's not good.  So I told him how I could realize the reality of these things of the reality of every time I teach a soul hangs in the balance, and that these things are real.  He said pray to Heavenly Father, pray to Him to gain an understanding and He will give it to you in a way that makes sense to you.  Because he said, "I can not, no matter how hard I try, give you that understanding unless it is given by the power of the Holy Ghost, only then do you really understand it."  I was just kinda like, whoa!!!!!  I feel like it takes the idea of being in the world, but not of it to a whole new level.  In Alma 26:22 it says that he who repents and is worthy and obedient, will be given to know the mystery of God and be the means where by thousands of souls are brought to repentance. I want to do that and this is something that I think is going to help me. I saw the power of Elder Peckham's testimony and it was a humbling experience. I know that people grow in different ways but that is one thing that I want in my life, so that I can always be mindful of my purpose here on earth and so that I can help others come unto Christ always and not just for my mission. I think that's part of what made Christ great was his awareness of his situation. The last thing I I want is this... like it says in 2nd Nephi

27: But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!  I love the scriptures because they give such clarity to the things in this life and hopefully in the life to come.  Alma 12:14: For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.  Also, Moses, the investigator, came to church, but Gina didn't come so we have to find out what is going on there.  I think these two scriptures have great importance and they can help us be better people here on this earth while we still have time.

As for the whole Skype thing, it's going to be on the 25th for us, so I will call beforehand and I will be Skyping.  So we will see how that goes.

Other than that, I think that is it for this week. 

So, lots of love,

Elder Proksch