Spencer - Called to Serve: Week 92 - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Feeling Like 'Fried Chicken', and Getting Ready for Zone Conference

Conference was AWESOME!! It went hand in hand with what we talked about in our MLC meeting this past week. There just is a special power when we hear it from the mouths of the Prophet and the Apostles. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sums it up in one of my favortie songs:

"Come thou fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Streams of mercy never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above

I'll praise the mount I'm fixed upon it

Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Hither by thy help I come

And I hope by thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above

Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wondering from the fold of God

He, to rescue me from danger

Interposed His precious blood

Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee

Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love

Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above"

Every time I listen to this song, the spirit just fills me. It applies to me so perfectly as well.

A couple months ago, we received an online referral. We contacted him but he said that he lived in a certain city. Unfortunately, there are no missionaries in that city and the church is still far. Well, since that moment a couple months have passed. His name for some reason was still on our desks. When my companion and I were cleaning things up and calling referrals we found his name still in the pile. We called him again and he mentioned that he is now living in Jakarta. We set an appointment and visited him. As we sat down our whole discussion went to happiness and what true happiness really is. The spirit was so strong. This man told us the story that he was one day online just with lots of questions about happiness and ended up finding the church's website. This was a true miracle. He lives in the other ward's boundaries.....which we learned after visiting him! So we handed him over to the right missionaries!

Another awesome experience was with one of our investigators. He called us on Tuesday night saying, "Elder, tomorrow I would like to meet." We set the appointment and he came. Our plan was to talk about repentance with him. In our MLC meeting that is what we really focused on, teaching repentance. We sat down and went straight into it. We went step by step how to repent and why we need to repent. The spirit was so strong throughout the whole lesson. This investigator at the end just broke down in tears knowing that this is what he needs to do. He came to conference yesterday and listened to every talk! It was so cool to experience this with him.

This past week the focus has been on repentance. In conference and in our MLC we have talked a lot about it as well as the zone training meeting that was held on Friday. The principle of repentance is so precious to me and is summed up in the lyrics above, especially verses 3 and 4.

Our travels start this week. We have our PLD meetings and will still be talking about repentance. Our first one will be held here in Jakarta on Tuesday and Wednesday. Next week we will be traveling to Solo and Surabaya. The heater here is starting to crank up. IT IS HOT! I feel like I'm becoming "ayam goreng" (fried chicken) somedays!

I love you all. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real! We can all repent because we all are "Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above." Have a good week.

Elder Hayes