Hello,
This week was interesting. We were able to teach our two dated
investigators this past week. 1 is being baptised on saturday the 12th
and then the next is being baptised on the 19th. Barry is a referral
from a member who was recently baptised. I will definitely send you
pictures. I am excited for him. We were able to start teaching him
when he needed it the most and Andrew (the member) hadn't seen him in
20 years. Thank goodness he still lived in the same house! haha. It
just shows me that God knows all of his children...The work is moving
forward.
I got these from the josephsmith.net website. It is under the title "A
LEADER OF LOVE". check it out!
What set Joseph Smith apart from other dynamic leaders was the source
of his teachings: the God of Heaven. "The best way to obtain truth and
wisdom," he taught, "is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in
prayer, and obtain divine teaching."1
Joseph led with love. He recognized the worth of every soul as a child
of God. When asked why so many followed him, he replied: "It is
because I possess the principle of love. All I can offer the world is
a good heart and a good hand."2
The Prophet refused to place himself above others. Rather, as he
humbly said, "I love to wait upon the Saints, and be a servant to all,
hoping that I may be exalted in the due time of the Lord."3 Bereft of
pride, Joseph personified the Lord's counsel: "Whosoever will be great
among you, . . . shall be servant of all."4
In relation to the power over the minds of mankind which I hold, I
would say, it is in consequence of the power of truth in the doctrines
which I have been an instrument in the hands of God of presenting unto
them, and not because of any compulsion on my part.
History of the Church, 6:273; capitalization modernized.
A brother who works in the St. Louis Gazette office . . . wanted to
know by what principle I got so much power. . . . I told him I
obtained power on the principles of truth and virtue, which would last
when I was dead and gone.
History of the Church, 6:343.
I am at all times willing to give up everything that is wrong, for I
wish this people to have a virtuous leader.
History of the Church, 6:412.
In his journal for 1842, Joseph reflected: "Many were the
reverberations of my mind when I contemplated for a moment the many
scenes we had been called to pass through. The fatigues, and the
toils, the sorrows, and sufferings, and the joys and consolations from
time to time [which] had strewed our paths and crowned our board. Oh!
What a co-mingling of thought filled my mind for the moment, again she
is here . . . undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable,
affectionate Emma."
Journal Extract, Aug. 16, 23, 1842, in Personal Writings of Joseph
Smith, comp. Dean C. Jessee (2002), 560, spelling modernized.
The first 4 are the sunset that was so crazy colored for england and
then the souls of my Jos A. Bank shoes that I just took out and then a
picture of Oscar and Nyasha Matapo. Yvonne and Peter's little
siblings. Nyasha is a Less-Active member and Oscar is a lazy 10 year
old kid...haha we are working on him though.
love you!
Elder Blackburn
This week was interesting. We were able to teach our two dated
investigators this past week. 1 is being baptised on saturday the 12th
and then the next is being baptised on the 19th. Barry is a referral
from a member who was recently baptised. I will definitely send you
pictures. I am excited for him. We were able to start teaching him
when he needed it the most and Andrew (the member) hadn't seen him in
20 years. Thank goodness he still lived in the same house! haha. It
just shows me that God knows all of his children...The work is moving
forward.
I got these from the josephsmith.net website. It is under the title "A
LEADER OF LOVE". check it out!
What set Joseph Smith apart from other dynamic leaders was the source
of his teachings: the God of Heaven. "The best way to obtain truth and
wisdom," he taught, "is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in
prayer, and obtain divine teaching."1
Joseph led with love. He recognized the worth of every soul as a child
of God. When asked why so many followed him, he replied: "It is
because I possess the principle of love. All I can offer the world is
a good heart and a good hand."2
The Prophet refused to place himself above others. Rather, as he
humbly said, "I love to wait upon the Saints, and be a servant to all,
hoping that I may be exalted in the due time of the Lord."3 Bereft of
pride, Joseph personified the Lord's counsel: "Whosoever will be great
among you, . . . shall be servant of all."4
In relation to the power over the minds of mankind which I hold, I
would say, it is in consequence of the power of truth in the doctrines
which I have been an instrument in the hands of God of presenting unto
them, and not because of any compulsion on my part.
History of the Church, 6:273; capitalization modernized.
A brother who works in the St. Louis Gazette office . . . wanted to
know by what principle I got so much power. . . . I told him I
obtained power on the principles of truth and virtue, which would last
when I was dead and gone.
History of the Church, 6:343.
I am at all times willing to give up everything that is wrong, for I
wish this people to have a virtuous leader.
History of the Church, 6:412.
In his journal for 1842, Joseph reflected: "Many were the
reverberations of my mind when I contemplated for a moment the many
scenes we had been called to pass through. The fatigues, and the
toils, the sorrows, and sufferings, and the joys and consolations from
time to time [which] had strewed our paths and crowned our board. Oh!
What a co-mingling of thought filled my mind for the moment, again she
is here . . . undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable,
affectionate Emma."
Journal Extract, Aug. 16, 23, 1842, in Personal Writings of Joseph
Smith, comp. Dean C. Jessee (2002), 560, spelling modernized.
The first 4 are the sunset that was so crazy colored for england and
then the souls of my Jos A. Bank shoes that I just took out and then a
picture of Oscar and Nyasha Matapo. Yvonne and Peter's little
siblings. Nyasha is a Less-Active member and Oscar is a lazy 10 year
old kid...haha we are working on him though.
love you!
Elder Blackburn
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