Questions and Answers

Joslyn had asked Daylen the following questions and here are his answers. A challenge for all is to answer them for yourself, as a sort of spiritual self check.

1. What has been your biggest challenge this week?

Concerns for Missionaries in dangerous areas. Emergency transfers. Spiritual problems of missionaries. Missionaries wanting to go home. Disobedience. Lots of phone calls from President- lots of problems to resolve. 

2. What has been your biggest concern?

Spiritual and physical well-being of the missionaries in this mission. 

3. What has been your biggest success?

Choosing to always stop- no matter where I´m at or what´s going on- to have a personal study (1 hour) and companionship study (1 hour). Receiving revelation through the book of Mormon individually and with my companion on how to conquer our challenges. 

We´ve been running around a lot these days, but every day we´ve managed to get those studies in. One day this week it was after we had eaten a quick lunch at the mall and we were about to head to our next task, but we decided to study first. Surrounded by others in a loud place (for there was no other place to go) we began reading from the the Book of Mormon. I felt the spirit pour out upon me. All the noise seemed to stop. I felt entirely alone and that still small voice was piercing through my soul telling me word for word as I read from the scriptures of how I need to improve. It was a great experience.  My companion said he felt sucked into the book as he read. The best scripture studies were when it was most difficult to study.   

4. Who has been your favorite person this week? Why?

Besides my companion and our mission President and his Wife and the 70 that visited us for stake conference, it was a handicap man named Favio.  He´s 35 years old and he stopped us on the street, speaking loudly and claiming he knew us.  We followed him to his humble home. He didn´t seem to have the capacity to understand very well. The only impression I had as we began teaching was "Teach him as you would teach a 5 year old" 

That impression helped me have more love for him. Gave me patience to help him understand. Gave me ideas for using pictures and examples. Many things had to be taught several times using different ways to really help him understand. It helped me see him as a child, that made his comments more funny than annoying or worrisome. My companion was right there on the same page patiently helping this man understand the restoration. We felt the spirit so strongly that I began to cry as we spoke of the appearance of the Father and the Son to that young boy. As we left these words came to mind "Are we not all handicaped? Don´t we all require to be taught with patience and love until we understand? Are we not all children?" 

He is my favorite person this week for he taught me a lesson I hope I can learn and amplify. 

5. What has been your most significant tender mercy?

We were placed in a situation to go eat dinner or go do visits. We prayed, but didn´t feel anything on what choice to make. We were both hungry, but determined to help those who may need us that day. We decided to go to work and began visiting people. We took trust in the Savior´s promise that if we sought first His kingdom all things would be added unto us. There were many that we were able to help that evening we decided to go work rather then go eat. As we were visiting those in our area more than once they offered us food to eat that sustained us. 

I learned the reason why the Lord had answered that prayer with "no response"- was because both were right. And He trusted us to make a choice. Had we gone to eat dinner- i believe He would still have blessed us. But because we choose to do what was best over that which was just "good" we were greatly blessed and learned a lot.  

6. What are you looking forward to this coming week?

Training's on family history work and missionary work- we are giving to 4 different zones this week. Seeing all the missionaries from Salvador and Camaçari. We´ll be traveling with President as he does interviews for all 188 missionaries. We´ll be giving training´s as he interviews them. 

7. Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it.

Help 3 people be baptized in our area this week. Eliana and her sons are ready if they can just stop drinking coffee. We´ve made a plan together, I hope they can this week, or the next. 

8. Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

"Stop Listening to Satan´s lie that you don´t have time to study the scriptures." Elder Richard G. Scott