Scotland Again

Elder Mickelsen, Elder Blosil, Elder Beckstrand, Elder Penman, Elder Stanley
at the Titanic Museum in Belfast

What a week. We only spent 2 1/2 days in our area this week. Tuesday to Friday Morning. 

    We had a meeting in Edinburgh Called Mission Leadership council. so we flew over there on Tuesday night. We presented how everything went with having all of the missionaries in Northern Ireland in Belfast. We talked a lot about prayer and how prayer, like it did in the Old Testament, requires a sacrifice. It doesn't require a blood sacrifice but it requires us to put our will on the altar of sacrifice. When you do that you will truly start praying by the true order of prayer, to our Father in Heaven... in the name of Jesus Christ... by the Holy Spirit. You can not be praying by the Holy Spirit if you are praying for things that you want that are not the mind and will of God. This is why you need to put aside all of your selfish desires and pray by the Spirit. Something I often struggle with is praying by the Spirit. How do we pray by the Spirit?Well one thing to do is to prepare and really take time to invite the Spirit before we pray, another thing to do is to pray when we have moments when God speaks to us. You will not feel the Spirit or pray by the Spirit if you are not willing to act on the things you pray for or receive. We learned about how important it is to have quality prayers, then to spread it to the other missionaries. I can't wait to use these techniques when raising my children or working in the church. If you have good prayers, everything else will be easier. We learned about a serious study of PMG. Iit will make our missions the most effective time of our life.  Preach My Gospel has everything. Its AWESOME! I'M STUDYING THROUGH IT RIGHT NOW. I love it!

    We went on exchanges with the AP's Elder Haller and Elder Neideck. Elder Haller and I taught a man who had called Elder Haller earlier that week. This man is Golden!! We walked in and he said, "You two have a glow about you." Later, before we even started the lesson, he said, "I feel an amazing feeling that I only felt 3 years ago when the missionaries last came." I quickly discerned that he, in actual fact, was feeling the Holy Spirit. I told him the reason why he could see a glow about us was because we were messengers from God and what he was feeling was the Holy Ghost. He committed to baptism for the 10th of October. Too bad it's not my area. Elder Haller and I were GQ'ing the University of Edinburgh and there was no one to talk to so I waved down a lorry. We had a three minute conversation about the Gospel, but he wasn't interested. 

   On Saturday we went down to Omagh and we got to go to the Cathers and to work on their farm. We worked a lot with Ian and shoveled out 15 years worth of dust from his attic. It was awesome. Elder Fassold and I were covered with dust. It was so awesome to get to spend a day in Omagh.

   Well I love you, have a great week!  You should all study Jacob 4 with the question how can I gain faith? and how can I strengthen my faith so it is unshaken?

The one and only,

Elder Penman