Vision Precedes Our Victories

This week went very well.  Some of our time was spent with the 5 new missionaries that came in this transfer.

-Elder Greenman

P.S.   The Lord blesses us so much in our area!  To start off, Ronaldo and Iva are doing very well.  They will probably be able to get the rest of their marriage documents this week.  Their baptismal date is on the 29th of March.  Two of the Sister missionaries married and baptized a family this past weekend so we invited Ronald and Iva to come to the marriage and baptism.   They loved it and are excited for their turn.  They are also reading the Book of Mormon which is the most important  commitment for their conversion.  (They are doing well,  for some reason though, they didn't come to church yesterday.  Because of that we went by their house to see how they were doing.)   

After we left their house we saw a man sitting down just outside the gate to his house.  He was spending time with his little two year old.  We started talking with him and 5 minutes later we were inside the gate teaching his family.  Their names are Julião and Amparo.   They are such a wonderful family.  They understood very well, in fact they had contact with missionaries about a year ago but ended up moving to a different area... our area.  After that we went and taught another new family, Nelson and Nayomi.  They are already officially married, and they have a car.  The lesson started outside their house but when it started to rain we went inside.  That's when it poured.  We continued teaching, and they continued listening and asking questions.  The lesson was very powerful.  We gave them a book of mormon and invited them to read it to find out if God's church really is on earth or not.  They accepted the challenge.  After the closing prayer that Nelson gave we made our way out the door.  It had stopped raining hard, but their entire property was flooded with about 4-5 inches of water, and not only their property, but all the roads as well. He stood at the doorway and said something to us.   He said, "Élders, when I told you that I would read the Book of Mormon, I was lying.  But now, I will read it."

It was such a good lesson!  we'll be visiting these two new families again tomorrow.  Elder Williams and I are really excited for this next transfer that is starting today.  In fact we will both be getting a new companion, that is I'll be getting a new companion, and Elder Williams will be getting a companion that he'd already served with.  We'll be serving in a threesome with Elder Santos.  Elder Williams served in Matola as a Zone Leader with Elder Santos, and now Elder Santos will come serve with us.  Elder Williams and I will train him to become the next AP because Elder Williams and I will be leaving at the end of this transfer.  

I think it's safe to say that Elder Santos is the most Christlike missionary in this mission.  He's from Cape Verde, is 27 years old, has already finished college, and was a convert to the church 3 years ago.  What a sacrifice that he made to serve a mission.  I'm very glad that he'll be coming to serve with us.  He's very intelligent, before the mission he was a high school math teacher.  We'll be picking him up tonight after we work in our area.

Okay now back to my subject line: Vision Precedes our Victories.

This is something that I've learned on my mission and will continue to learn throughout the rest of my life.  What is Vision?  Vision is a perception of what one can accomplish.  A lack of vision will cause a lack of victories in the future (Victories, meaning growth and success).  Many people in the world have a lack of vision.  Some of those same people, however, do not lack because they don't care about their future, they just don't know yet what they want to do or what they want to accomplish.  What a blessing it is for me to have an understanding of my potential, my divine worth and destiny.  I've wondered about what a person can do when he or she doesn't have an idea of what their vision should be.  

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God."   Is there a better place to turn to when we have a lack of vision?  I believe not, especially because God can help us not only obtain a vision, but a divine vision, not a worldly vision.  

God created all things spiritually before they were physically created.   Their are two creations: there is the blueprint of the house, then there is the actual built house that come later with hard work and time.  On a mission there is a lot of vision time, that is planning time.  There is a daily planning session every night, there is also weekly planning every Thursday.  All of this gives us a vision of what we will accomplish.  

I've learned on the mission the importance of not letting life just happen, but to act and create oportunities for me to enjoy this life and the next one.

The mission is great, and it's quite the once in a lifetime experience.  There is only one time for a young man or woman to learn this much in such a little bit of time, and it's the mission.  I'll never regret it!

-Elder Greenman