I just relied completely on Jesus Christ to help get me through it.

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!