This week definitely had its ups and downs. We had two really cool people we have been teaching who decided they weren't ready to make the commitment to follow Christ yet and wanted a break from meeting with us. So that was really upsetting to hear this week. It's so weird to see how much love that I have for these random people we met all the time. They choose not to meet with us or not get baptized or whatever it is and it makes me so sad for them. Blessing and a curse of missionary work. But there are always way more ups than downs.
We had another awesome lesson with Ram this week. Since he has no prior knowledge of who God is or who Jesus Christ is and so that is basically what we taught him and it was awesome. He is such a cool dude. At the end of the lesson we asked him to offer the closing prayer and it was so cool. It was the first time he ever prayed and wow the Spirit was so strong and he just gets it. I love teaching people like Ram who just want that direction that comes in life from living the gospel and coming unto Christ. Teaching people to pray is one of the coolest things ever. Ram came to church and loved it and wants to start meeting with us twice a week instead of just once. So that definitely made up for Anthony and Drew dropping us this week.
Another cool thing that happened this week was the fact that yesterday was Mother's Day! It was really nice to skype home and talk to my family. Pretty crazy two out of my four skypes home are done.Time is really picking up. But something I have come to realize on my mission is how I definitely took my family for granted. I love my family so much and I am so excited to see them when I get home. Family is so important. The scripture I want to share this week has to do with family. The scripture is from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It talks about love that should be within family. It says, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." I love this scripture because it doesn't say love is only there when everything is perfect. Love has to endure and bear all things. No family is perfect. Everyone has their trials but it is how we overcome those trials and grow closer together because of the hard times. That is something that is so important in today's world. A lot of people when faced with trials just crumble and fall but what matters is how we can take the punches and keep going. That's all I have for this week! I hope everyone had a great week and all the mom's had a great Mother's Day! Have a great week!
This week for me was a pretty weird week but it was a great week. Started the week off with exchanges and it was so much fun. I got to go with Elders Smith and Quinnelly. It was a productive day and we had a blast doing it. I have been serving around both of these guys for a while now and have gotten to know them really well so it was fun to serve with both of them for a day.
We started teaching a new guy this week named Ram. He is from India so that was definitely different. But he is super cool! He grew up Hindu so he has very little Christian background. By very little all he knows is that Jesus was "assassinated." So lessons should be interesting with him. It's pretty cool to see how much he is wanting to learn and find the right religion for him.
I'll keep you updated on him. On Thursday, Elder Wilcox and I had MLC, Mission Leadership Council, which is a super long meeting with our mission president and all the other missionaries who are in leadership positions. It was an amazing meeting. It was such a different setting compared to the other large meetings I've gone to on my mission because it truly was just a discussion basically the whole time. We talked about the importance of willful obedience which was really cool. But probably what I got the most out of it was our discussion about trials. Often times trials that come our way lead to us sinning or they come as a result of us sinning. Sin obviously isn't good a thing and so we view trials as negative things when in reality they are the only things that help us grow and improve. If everything was just perfect in life we wouldn't reach our full potential of who we are supposed to become or who we can become. Sin is like separation anxiety from God. All it does is push us away from Him leading us to feel guilt and shame. But sometimes trials just come and it's not because of anything we do. Life just happens.
As you might have heard, my sister, Ella, didn't have such a good week. My Mom gave me updates on her and asked for me and the other missionaries to pray for her and so that was on my mind this week quite a bit. Nine months ago if this had happened I would have been a mess. I would have been so worried about her and so scared about what might happen it would have been impossible to focus. But that's not what happened this week which was kind of weird. I prayed about it and prayed for her and fasted for her on Friday and I kept feeling like she would be okay and so I didn't really worry about her all that much. I was definitely still worried about her but I knew God was looking out for her. I was still able to focus on missionary work and I just relied completely on Jesus Christ to help get me through it. I knew that Ella was in the Lord's hands and He would take care of her. I could feel my Savior's love for me throughout the week when I would get emails letting me know she wasn't doing so well. Really strengthened my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. The scripture I want to share this week is from 1 Peter 1:7 and it says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He loves me and that He loves you too. When we are faced with trials He is begging us to come unto Him rather than turn away from Him and put the blame on Him. Let Him work in your life when the hard times come because they will. Building our faith in Christ doesn't promise that floods won't come. What it does promise is that we will be able to withstand the floods. And I know that to be true. I've seen it the last nine months. That's all I got for this week. Have a great week! Thanks for all of your prayers for Ella. My family and I really appreciate it!
Being a Zone Leader is a lot of extra work I didn't really expect. Basically we get to serve other missionaries who need stuff which is really nice but can be annoying when they don't really need it. We live with what's called the AP's or assistants to the president, as in our mission president. In our mission right now we have less missionaries then we did a couple months ago so we aren't using as many apartments as we were before. So we got to help the AP's close down four apartments this week which took up a lot of our time. But it is always nice to do some service.
I love my new area! We are teaching some really cool people. It's really fun to basically spend all my time around people my age. We aren't teaching very many people right now but hopefully that will change soon! Another cool thing about the area I'm serving in is I get to cover a college campus. Its Salt Lake Community College but a ton of people go there and it's cool to meet so many different people there everyday. I'm super excited to continue serving here for the rest of the transfer.
Since we only taught for lessons this week I didn't have really any super cool teaching moments this week but I do have something I'd like to share. There is this guy named Mike that Elders Wilcox (my current companion) and Dolan (Wilcox's last companion) were teaching. He is a super cool guy but has just kinda gotten burnt out from religion. He feels like he has done so much to try to give back to God and because he is like 26 and still hasn't found a wife and doesn't have a great job, among other things, that God doesn't love him. He served a mission like I'm doing right now and after his mission he was a counselor at something called EFY. EFY is a week long summer camp for Mormon kids who are in high school. I love EFY. It's such an amazing and powerful spiritual experience. I went to EFY all four years of high school and it really helped me make the decision to go on a mission. Well, Elder Wilcox showed me a picture of Mike and it turns out I know him. He was a counselor at two of the EFY's I went to. Never mine but I saw him and know him. At one of the EFY's I went to, they pulled all of the boys that were there outside and all the counselors who had served missions basically bore their testimony about their missions and how it changed them. I remember two of those testimonies that really hit home with me and helped me solidify in my mind that I needed to go on a mission. One was my counselor that year, Alex, and the other was Mike. I'm so excited to start teaching and meeting with him and to get to share my testimony with him that this is all worth it. So that was something cool from this week.
The scripture I want to share is a great one. It is found in the scriptures a lot but it is one of my favorites. This one is taken from Enos 1:15. It says, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it." That is such a cool promise. When we have a question if we pray and ask God in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, we will receive that answer power of the Holy Ghost. So I want to invite you to think about questions that you have that need answered and then to go to prayer and ask God that very specific question and I can promise you that you'll get an answer. That's one of the many reasons we have the gift of prayer. Weird thinking it is already May. Time is going so fast out here. Gotta make the most of it! I hope everyone has a great week!
