"Could ye not watch with me one hour?"

So we had multi zones this week which was awesome!! I seriously love President Smart so much!! All sorts of inspiration flowin' out of that man.

The Temescal Valley Zone

Sister Tucker and I got a phone call the night before from the ZL "Brown" Wood and ZL Randell (we are really into referring to missionaries by their titles) and they said that President wanted us to roleplay a bad companionship inventory for multi-zones. Oh and to add more pressure he wanted it to be funny…I'm not funny.

Obviously, I am pretty dang nervous to roleplay in front of all of these missionaries and President and Sister Smart, so I decide the best thing to do is to just call out missionaries. We pretty muched just had comp study, but went WAY off on tangents that had absolutely nothing to do with what we were studying. 

It was pretty funny. 

I talked in a British accent (which is funny enough considering I can't), made fun of Sister Anderson and sang a line of the star spangled banner…seriously, I can't even believe I am writing all of this… I am so embarrassing.

But, we had a really good training from the APs about teaching the importance of church attendance and the Atonement to our investigators. We broke off and did some roleplays with each other and I used my favorite Atonement scripture, wanna hear?

We sit there and talk about an investigator who didn't come to church and then we are supossed to act as the missionaries and address their concern and get them to comitt to coming to church. So I start out with Matt 26:38-39 which I believe (that could be wrong I don't have my scriptures right this second) is when Christ has His disciples wait for him and then asks Heavenly Father to remove this cup from him… 

There is lots of pausing, lots of emotion and testifying. We talk about how Christ suffered for all pains and afflictions and we relate it to their lives. Then we go to 3 Nephi 18 and talk about when Christ instituted the scarament and how that is our way to show Him our remembrance and gratitude for His sacrifice.

Okay now here is my favorite part…

We turn back to Matt 26 and finish the story. I say "Christ went to check on the disciples to see if they were keeping watch as He was suffering for them, for you and for me. Will you read verse 40 to see what happened?" 

Verse 40 says that when Christ goes to check on them He finds them asleep and turns to Peter (my favorite apostle) and says "what, could ye not watch with me one hour?" 

I pause, turn to the investigator and say "Christ is asking you the same thing he asked Peter. Will you attend church this Sunday, sacrifice one hour to partake of the sacrament and show Christ your gratitude for His eternal sacrafice he made for you?"

It's powerful.

Keeping the Sabbath day holy is vital. We must make partaking of the sacrament our top priority. Sports, shopping or even family are never good excuses for not attending Sacrament meeting. May we all strive to come closer to Christ by focusing our week toward that one hour?

I am out of time, but love and miss you all. Seriously more than you know.

Later Skaters,

Sister Nelson

(email received March 17, 2014)