Week 19: Listening to the Spirit

Hello everyone!! Nothing too crazy happened this week. I went on two exchanges, both with native Khmer elders, and one with the AP. Both were really fun and I learned a lot. Especially with the AP, Elder Lim. He made me think about a lot of stuff I haven't thought about before and showed me how important it is to seek and follow guidance from the Spirit. There were a couple of times during our exchange we didn't know what to do or where to go and he would pull over on the side of the road and we would pray to know where to go. I don't know why I haven't done that before, but it was really cool to see where the Spirit led us. Recently I have been trying to do better about following spiritual promptings and receiving revelation. Obviously not an easy task and it will take time, but it is hard sometimes. 

I had an experience a couple of weeks ago where I felt prompted by the Spirit to go to an inactive member's house that we hadn't been to in a while, so we put it on our schedule to visit them the next week. When we went to go visit them, we found out that the mom hurt her shoulder and had to go to the doctor for the pain she was having. We offered to give her a blessing after we shared a spiritual thought with her, but during our lesson she got up and went somewhere else. Then her son said that they would go to church the next day so she could receive a blessing. I was super excited to hear that because not only would we have been able to give her a blessing, but they would have come to church for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, they did not show up to church the next day and I was a little disappointed. Elder Schofield tried to go visit them again during our exchange, but they weren't home. 

Yesterday Brother Jones, one of the counselors in our bishopric, invited us over for dinner and every time we go over, I feel like he just knows what I'm thinking about. He was talking to us about receiving revelation and the importance of following spiritual promptings. He said sometimes we don't always see immediate results from following spiritual promptings and it can be discouraging. But he encouraged us to always follow promptings we get no matter what the outcome is. I won't lie, I was a little discouraged and confused when those inactive members didn't come to church and we weren't able to give them a blessing, but I know that as long as I keep following the spirit, I will be able to help bless others' lives.

Recently I read a talk that my fellow Texan, Sister Malouf, shared with me called, "You Can Do It Now" by President Uchtdorf. It was a great talk, and he talked a lot about how we must have the strength to get up every time we fall. When we're discouraged we must keep pushing. If we don't, we can never reach our full potential. President Uchtdorf said, "I have watched men filled with potential and grace disengage from the challenging work of building the kingdom of God because they had failed a time or two. These were men of promise who could have been exceptional priesthood holders and servants of God. But because they stumbled and became discouraged, they withdrew from their priesthood commitments and pursued other but less worthy endeavors." He goes on to say that these people go on to live a shadow of the life they could have lived and don't reach their full potential. I don't know about y'all, but not reaching your full potential seems kind of scary. I encourage all of you to think about who you can be and who you want to be. Live your life to your full potential and have no regrets. I promise if you follow the Spirit and spiritual promptings you will be able to reach that full potential. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Mendenhall 

📸 All the photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Bgcnr25uJdQ1sYcY9

A sampling: