Called to Serve

Monday, April 7, 2014

Visions, Goals, Planning, Accountability

Hows it going fam? 

This week has been full of prayers, promptings, and prophets! Its been sweet!  So.....have you ever heard of VGPA? Well its an awesome tool the President Petersen taught me. It stands for Visions, Goals, Planning, and Accountability. 

So basically, you have a vision of something you want to accomplish, you set goals to accomplish the visions, you make plans for how you accomplish the goals, and you hold yourself accountable daily for everything. So I did this and the vision I had was to find, teach, and baptize a family. I wrote everything down on how I was going to accomplish this vision. I was praying really hard for that. We finally were able to find them though! It is a mom and her 2 kids and they are awesome.

Its hard to exlain it but on your mission sometimes you just feel an instant connection and love for people. Elder Boyer and I taught this family monday night about the restoration. It was a sweet lesson and the 2 kids, Dimetri (16), and Deanna (14) loved and understood it. It was one of my favorite lessons on my mission! I wish I could accurately describe how awesome it feels to teach families the gospel!! Nothing I have ever done matches up to the feelings you get when you just taught and prayed with a family. Experiences like that is what make these 2 years so awesome. Mosiah 28:3 is probably my favorite mission scripture of all time. You meet some people on your mission where you have such an extreme anxiety and desire for them to accept this gospel that it just takes over everything you do. It makes you want to be better and pray more sincerely, work harder, and study with real intent, doing everything you can to help them know these truths. 

Did I ever tell you about the guy from guatemala? So we were walking down the street one day and at this point we really had no idea why we were there or where we were going. But all the sudden this hispanic guy runs up to us and yelled "Elders!" in broken english. He told us that he was from guatemala and he had got baptized there 2 months ago and he just moved to the U.S. 2 days ago and didn't know where the church was. What are the odds of that? He gets baptized and moves to this country and just 2 days later he runs into some missionaries!! Heavenly Father was looking out for him. He goes to our ward now and he is awesome. 

So General Conference was the coolest thing ever. The spirit layed it on thick to me that President Monson is a Prophet of God. I know he is independent of anyone else's testimony. I know that God speaks to people in this day and age. I know and love the restored Gospel. It is the way to be saved, the way to be clean, and the way to be truly happy. I am so grateful for families. Especially mine. 

I can only imagine how happy it makes Heavenly Father to be able to send his spirit children to families like the Robinsons! I can't wait to meet Hunter! Congratulations to aunt Jamie and uncle Jared!

Well if Kylie is on a sugar fast you can send her Easter candy my way. Also, there is some talks/discourses that I would love to have on cd if you ever find them.   The Atonement- Truman G. Madsen or The Great Apostasy- Cleon Skousen  or something cool like that.
 
Macy sounds like she is doing awesome! Is kendall really going on her mission? I am so proud of her!  She will be an amazing missionary!!!
 
Thank you for getting me out here mom and dad. I love you. Thank you for your prayers! I know you pray for me by name and I am really grateful for it. I love being out here and serving this mission. I couldn't have asked for better parents than you and dad! Thanks for all you do fam!