Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ 5/12/14

Well, Mother's Day rocked :) It was way good to see my family and to talk to them. (We actually got to skype visually with Elder Lehr late last night. It was great! He looks awesome and happy. Five months on the mission as of yesterday. He was able to see Josh Steele, his parents and cousin who are from our ward. They are there visiting some of the areas where Josh served these last few years as a missionary. Elder Lehr loved seeing them. It was a real treat. They were able to deliver a package for us as well.)

This transfer is coming to an end really quickly. Time is speeding by at an incredible rate. Things are going, and we are still working, but it doesn't even feel that an entire month has passed by since last transfer. It will be great to see what this new week holds for us.

One thing that I have been very touched by this week is the restoration of the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ. If you allow that testimony to burn bright in your soul, you can feel such a light and fire within your soul. Many things happen in our lives that become very hard to bear, but I know that as I have been on a mission, the message of the restoration has penetrated the darkness that comes into peoples lives. And I know that can help us in all of our lives.

What is this wonderful message? The answer? 

Simply stated; The restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what it is. A restoration of what was once lost and gone. What things were restored? One of the most important truths that were restored was the fact that God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, are 2 separate people, and that we can have a personal relationship with God through prayer.

2nd; The authority to act in God's name has again been restored to the earth. And as such when we make covenants with God they can be a binding and everlasting covenant, never to be removed, and that will last throughout eternity. This gives me such hope as I think about this covenant when we are baptized. "We take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ. And covenant to keep His commandments and remember Him. If we do these things, then we can ALWAYS have His spirit to be with us." What an amazing promise that has been given to the children of men. And yet if there was no authority to do this covenant...Then it would be void and would take no effect.

I love this Gospel. And I know that it is true. I pray that each of us will strive to keep the covenants that we have made, and I know that as we do, we will be able to see the hand of God more fully in our lives.

Till next time,

Elder Lehr

The ward is hastening the work of salvation - 5/5/14

Good morning!

This week has been pretty awesome. Time is just flying by, and I can't believe that it's almost time for Mother's Day. That is going to be SO AWESOME!

So this week we were able to meet with a couple named George and Madame Francois. They are the grandparents of Nirine who is Faniry's cousin. They were sick so we gave them a blessing and it was really cool to be able to feel the spirit as we served them.

One of the highlights this week was 1. Our ward council, and 2 Trying to find some families in an unknown area. So with our ward council, the 1st counselor in our bishopric opened the meeting by reading in Manual 2 of the church and talked about the purpose of ward council. With that purpose in mind, he then talked about each of our investigators individually and asked us how we as a ward council could help them. It was amazing as the Relief Society presidency, Elders quorum and others gave ideas about how they would come with us to help us teach and to help further the work. I was in absolute shock. I saw the work of salvation being hastened right before my eyes. It was amazing, and it makes everything so exciting! I can't wait to really work with the members to help further the work of the Lord.

2nd: Yesterday we tried to find a family in an area that we haven't been to and were completely unsuccessful. BUT we found a guy that had shot a parrot out of the sky with a sling shot. And so we got to take some pictures of the parrot. They are some way sick birds :)

On a more spiritual note: This week has been great. As we have been able to listen to conference more and more, we get taught from on high, and are strengthened and recommitted to the work of the Lord.

Yesterday we taught Emmanuel and Vero.  Even though Emmanuel was drunk again, he told us how much he wanted to change and that even though his family was protestant he would come to church because he wanted to become clean. As we taught them about the Book of Mormon, I could feel the love that Heavenly Father has for him. Families are harder to teach, but OH THEY ARE WORTH IT! I love teaching families. There is definitely a special spirit when you teach something that was made to help the family come closer to God and eventually help them return to Him. I love this work.

Anywhos, so I think I will keep this short, but I love you all.

am-pitiavana

Elder Lehr

P.S. The zone leaders are pretty sure that I am getting transferred this transfer.  I will be way sad to leave this area. I love it SO MUCH! But I think it will be good for me and that I will be able to grow more. :)

So Yesterday we celebrated our Fast Sunday with legit Mexican food. Only then did we realize that the next day (today) would be Cinco de Maio. Or whatever that Spanish holiday is. So I woke up this morning with some pretty bad bowel movements from the Mexican food, but it was SO WORTH IT! 

I am so blessed being here. Every day is beautiful and great. Teaching the gospel is the best. And slowly I am becoming what the Lord wants me to be. That's what President Adams always talks about. He tells us "It's not what you do on the mission that counts, but what you BECOME. Then as you become what Heavenly Father wants you to be, you will return to Him and be comfortable in His presence."

I love the gospel, and I love teaching people about the Restoration. Here in Madagscar everyone believes in Jesus, but everything about our message is different. It's not just believe but becoming.*

This isn't the Easter we have at home - 4/28/14

First of all, just to let you all know, Easter Sunday was absolutely great. But the day after Easter was absolutely crazy! To begin with I have to tell you that for at least 2 times in the year it becomes somewhat.....Interesting in Madagascar.....especially Tana area... So usually on Easter people go to church and then party with everyone. And then the day after they are all makafka (Or they have hangovers). In Talatamy through Ivato it was especially interesting because there was a huge party in Antinetbe that was kind of like Woodstock but smaller. And it was mostly just beer instead of drugs that they were doing. So when we were going out to go teach we literally saw a GIGANTIC WAVE of people that were all drunk. Accidents were happening in front of our eyes, and it was crazy! So what did we do? We still tried to teach. When we got to Sylvie’s house they were like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GO HOME! ITS WAY TOO DANGEROUS RIGHT NOW!" So we talked to the zone leaders about what was happening and we got out of there. As we were going home though we saw accidents happening left and right, and people doing crazy things! It was definitely not a good spirit that we felt but we arrived safe and sound. The only thing that happened to us was that our phone got stolen, but at least we were safe. :) So we celebrated and made crepes. :)

I love this area. We have been tracting and trying to find new people. And we have been able to get about 8 more potential families to teach. It's an exciting time in this area. I love being with my companion. It's been a great blessing to have him with me.

Saturday and Sunday were absolutely amazing though. We finally got to watch conference and holy cow it was awesome! I love Elder Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude. It really touched me and I think will help me to improve. Also it was amazing to watch Elder Oaks speak in the priesthood session. As I watched I could feel that this man had priesthood keys. I am so grateful that my testimony was strengthened as I watched conference.

Mom and Dad I am sending a letter to you. Hopefully it will get to you....sometime within the next couple of months......Hopefully :)

I am way excited for this week. We are having a soire with our stake president today. So that will be fun.

O MY!! I am so happy for Ashley! I am so glad that she is planning on getting her endowments! That is SO SWAG!

OH! Yes to answer your question, Dad, yes I am the district leader right now. And so basically I just need to gather the stats of those that are in my district.....which is me and my companion and the zone leaders....So I just give them our stats every week. Then if there is a baptism I would need to interview them. But I don't think that will happen while I am in this area....Yep that's all my responsibilities for now.. :)

Well I think that's about it for now but I love you all and will talk to you all next week!

Love, Elder Lehr

Happy Easter - 4/21/14

HAPPY EASTER!

This week has been pretty awesome. Elder Trujillo is such a swag guy, but is super quiet. Hopefully I will be able to get him more out of his shell :) He is definitely awesome though. During our first companionship study he was sharing some things that I needed to hear. He is way in tune with the spirit and he has been an inspiration to me.

So our workouts have been going well. It's always fun to go and pump some iron and steel, and hang out with some other Malagasies.

On Monday when it was just me and the zone leaders, we cleaned the AP's apartment and the Office elder's. And it was a kind of... interesting set of occurrences that happened when we were done. So we finished cleaning at 5:00 and tried to go to the office to give the keys back to the AP's. We gave it to them at around 6:00 and then went up the hill to try to get a taxibe home. The problem that we found was that if we went by taxibe home...Well...Shopright would be closed and we would not be able to get any food. THUS! We came up with a plan. We would go to the Shopright that was down the hill and then try to get a taxi back to Talatamaty. ONLY PROBLEM. When you are white and you are not dressed like a missionary EVERYONE tries to take advantage of you. Usually a taxi costs about 15,000-20,000 ariary. But here they were trying to charge us about 40 thou-50thou. It was absolutely disgusting. After about another hour we finally found a taxi that would take us for 20 thou, and got some food and then went home. SO RIDICULOUS!

It was really cool yesterday for Easter. We had Stake Conference and the bishop in our ward got called to be the new Stake President! His name is Haja Pascal. He is so awesome. I am way excited to see what he does.

Also Jean Claude is such a stud! Oh my giddy aunt, I love that man. He is on such a special road to being able to make covenants with God. As he has been reading more and more about the temples and about what they do and how he can prepare for going there, his excitement just increases and his love for the message that we have increases as well. That is a wonderful miracle that we have been able to experience.

Oh, one more thing. Yesterday I was able to listen to Elder Holland's talk again from the 2009 April General Conference. For those of you who don't know, he talks about "The loneliest path ever walked...and how because of that path we do not have to do the same" It was given on Easter morning so I thought that it was perfect to do that. It was pretty awesome as Elder Gaul and I were listening to the talk. We both felt the spirit really strong.

OH! So I got made district leader. That's going to be interesting.

Anyway I love you all. Keep up the work. Misoatra Ryka!

Elder Lehr

Transfers - 4/14/14

Ok, so I do need to let you know that Elder Rasolofonirina got transfererd to..........................................................................................................................................

Toliary!!!! I was so happy for him. The sad thing is that we got informed Thursday, and then he had to leave Sunday morning at 7:00. It kind of sucked. I do miss my dear friend, but its always fun to talk to him on the phone. :)

So Yesterday I found out that my new companion is.......Elder Trujillo!

He is an awesome guy for sabotsy amena. Usually he would be coming on Thursday, but because his companion has to fly out on Tuesday, at 8:00 then we will be going to the office around that time and pick him up. That gives me such peace. Not going to lie. Every time I don't have "My" companion with me it just makes me feel anxious. But I am really excited to work with this elder :)

Ok, so something really cool that happened this week was that Floriena came to church yesterday!! I was so proud of him. Even though he doesn't have time because he has to go to work at the airport, he still tried to make it to Sacrament. I was so happy because of that.

OH! On Saturday I had my interview with President Adams. It was SO GREAT! I love that man. It was so nice just to be able to talk to him, and be completely open with him. He is truly the man called to lead this mission. When you meet with him you can't help but feel that he has the keys for this mission. He has the authority to direct this work in this area, and it's so cool to be a witness of that.

Yesterday, I was with the zone leaders since I did not have a companion and we met with a guy who was a total FJKM enthusiest (Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar - protestant religion),  and it was so cool. Elder Mitchell spoke about the apostasy. Elder Gaul talked about the restoration. And then I followed up at the end about how he can pray to know about the truth of our message through the power of the Holy Ghost. Through our testimonies the spirit was able to bring a feeling of joy and peace into the room. I am so grateful to know without a shadow of a doubt that what I teach is true. The message that I bring is one of joy and peace. And if we hearken to the words of the prophets..They will show us the way to return back to our Heavenly Father.

I am glad that things are going well on the other side of the world and pray for your safety. Thanks for all your help and messages of encouragement and love.

Elder Lehr