The Zachtastic Movie Blog

The plane! The plane! Well, I would say that I would expect to be leaving the area... but I am not quite sure if that is the Lord's will for me yet. Normally what happens when training is over is that the trainer leaves the area whereas the trainee stays, but we have not received our transfer call yet, so you will have to wait another week to learn what happens to me. Sorry!  Best member family EVER. Nevertheless, in case I do get transferred out of Iowa City this week, I learned a valuable lesson that all of us should learn from: when you are in the Lord's service, do everything in your power to "reap while the day lasts" (D&C 12:3). All of the time you have to invite others to come unto Christ and help them receive the Restored Gospel is absolutely precious, and it goes by quickly. Thus, do not waste it; you have to be diligent, humble, willing and sincere in your efforts to assist our Father in saving His children. Even though I am still n...

As many of you probably know, I absolutely love The Beatles. One of their songs, "Getting Better," reflects how I feel that the Work is going here in Iowa City. I won't be the first to admit that working here in this part of the Lord's Vineyard has been difficult, but it has been well worth it. I testify of the importance of remaining diligent, consecrated, humble and willing to do everything in your power to do what the Lord wants you to do - with His help, of course. The Lord cannot excuse apathy, He expects the very best from you. Elder Price and I have both recognized this, and with that, even with our prospects looking slim, we got to work. Elder Price and myself doing service for Judith. In the end, I have to say that this was a pretty good week! Sure, nobody came to Sacrament Meeting, but that is okay because we are continually working on that. The Lord mercifully blessed us with   five new investigators  as a result of our diligence, which is someth...

Hooray for Westwood Drive in North Liberty, Iowa! Yesterday as I was studying Chapter 2 of Mosiah, I came across verses 20-21 in which King Benjamin talks about how if we would simply serve our God for our entire lives, "yet [we] would be unprofitable servants." I pondered upon that and read some other verses to try and decipher its meaning, and eventually the conclusion I came to was this: we should never expect anything in return for what we give to the Lord. He gave us all the greatest gift imaginable: the gift of His Son, and with that His Son's Atoning Sacrifice. That alone is enough to say that we should endeavor to serve Him every day of our lives, and we should not expect to be given anything temporal in return. Yet, that does not mean that our service should be out of fear or any degree of submission; in fact, He loves us, and respects our agency, so all He desires us to do is use our agency for good and experience the joy of the Gospel for ourselves. ...

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone! Today I wish to let everyone know that we should all be grateful for what the Lord blesses us with. Even though from time to time we may face trials such as investigators falling through the cracks, people wrecking into our Church-owned cars while sitting idle at an intersection (yep), and horribly cold weather among other things, there is much to be thankful for.  Despite many things that occurred this week such as those aforementioned trials - heck, this weekend's snowstorm was so bad that Church was cancelled - I am so thankful for the love of God, which makes even the most hardened sinner a happy, joyful person if he allows it to fill his soul. After all, amid such things, Elder Price and I were greatly blessed to find a couple of new investigators this week! Their names are Uriah and Darnell; the former is a hard working family man from Liberia, while the other is a nice guy from Chicago who is trying his best to live a good life. God is...