1) Draw close to God. It is much simpler than many think to grow their relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Some of these simple things are going to church, reading the scriptures, and praying. As you do these things your relationship with those above will increase slowly but surely.
2) Fill your heart with love for others. Jesus taught "love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). And many times he has said love your neighbor and your enemy. This may be the hardest thing to do. People can be very mean and rude but there is only one thing we can do, turn the other cheek. I know it is hard at times to do this. I have been told I am a liar, had the door slammed in my face, dogs sent after me, and told that I'm going to hell for sharing the message of the gospel. It's very difficult to walk away from those situations with a smile on your face and a good attitude. But there are things that we can do to make it easier. One of those things is service! As we serve the people we begin to grow our love for them. Service does not have to be some grand thing but can also be simple. There are so many ways to serve I can not list them all but some may be, being a friend to others, helping them with yard work or something, and doing things with them that they enjoy doing (like their hobbies, fishing, hunting, games...). As you do these things your love for them will grow.
3) Strive to walk the path of discipleship. This becomes an easy thing once we have the desire to follow God, which comes by starting to develop that relationship. As you work to develop the relationship God and Jesus will do their part. "If ye love me keep my commandments" (John 14:15). This is so simple! If we love our family we don't want to hurt them. So therefore if we love God we will not want to break the commandments!
4) Share what is in your heart. This also is very simple! If you bought a new car or go on a grand adventure you can't wait to tell your family and friends! It should be the same way about the message we learn from church or the new scripture we find as we personally study! These things are just as exciting as a vacation and when we recognize them as important we will share it with all!
5) Trust the Lord to work his miracles. Many times we invite people do not accept and this is a result of agency. Jesus calmed the sea and can turn water into wine but he can not take away somebody's agency. We must have patience and wait for a person's heart to be softened and wait for God to perform his miracles! This does not mean we can sit back and do nothing! We must still do the first 4 steps to be ready for that miracle!!
Y'all have read the message so now it's time for the funny story of the week. This is what the pictures are all about below. We went by to visit an older member and they had a bucket of ashes they needed dumped out by the canal in the back of their yard. We dumped it out and my companion kicked the bottom of it so everything would come out and his foot went right through the rusted metal! She picked it up and tried to get the rest out but accidently dropped it 50ft down into the canal!! She was so distraught about littering we decided to go after it. We tied a rope around my waste and I went down after it. The wall of the canal was very sturdy due to all of the vegetation so there was no problem retrieving the bucket! And then to make up for breaking the bucket we mowed her lawn for her.
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