Why, Hello Everybody!

I hope that you all were able to enjoy your holiday break (for those back in school already) and that those who are continuing to have theirs have an enjoyable rest of their time off. As a missionary, we have had a successful working “holiday” filled with success and miracles beyond number. I am grateful for the Holiday season we had but am more grateful for the ability to get back into a normal schedule.

This past week was filled with some experiences that, in all honesty, have caused me to reflect on my own personal position in life, as a trainer, and especially as an individual missionary. Our week was a normal work week until New Year’s Eve night. We needed to be IN our apartment at 6:00 because of how crazy it gets at night (especially in South Phoenix ) So, that evening we did our weekly planning while listening to some much needed music. Friday, New Year’s Day, was a normal work day for us. Up at 6:30, out by 11:00…the usual. Friday we actually went and did a Zone Blitz for part of the day. Some of our English elders were struggling with people to teach so we decided to help them out a bit. It was tough…we found 1 New Investigator after 2 hours of tracting. I gotta be honest, I have a LOT more respect for stateside English speaking missionaries…they put up with so much more than us foreign language missionaries do…But, from that point on our week changed. On our way back I (not intentionally) upset my companion. We were joking around and I apparently hit a bit of a soft spot. That just….wow, drove the spirit out of our friendship in a heartbeat. When we made it back to our house, I didn’t dare push him to go out. If there is one thing I will never forget Elder Bingham telling me is “Don’t EVER go out of the house if the spirit is not in your companionship. You will only do damage to the work.” So, we took an hour and a half to try and bring the spirit back in. I spent an hour praying, reading, studying, writing…for those of you who read Elder Scott’s talk from last conference, that was exactly what I did. By the time dinner rolled around, things were going much better. I felt more confident in my training abilities, things seemed to be smoothed over, plus I felt a little more spiritually boosted myself. We worked the rest of the night, had a couple of really good lessons with investigators, then came back to our house to prepare Elder Giles for the split we were going to do that night. Well, to make a long story short, the house came down…something triggered an angry spot in both of us and we just…it was bad. Strangely enough, after the fallout and after the chance that we FINALLY had to get everything out in the open ( it took us a couple of minutes to calm down) our companionship just evolved. Like a simple snap of the finger and things were better. We haven’t had any other problems since. Let it be known folks, don’t hold stuff up inside. Talk about it in a nice way, write things out. It makes a world of difference.

Saturday we did a split with Elder Bingham. I had his companion, Elder Chipman, with me for the day. It was incredibly good. We actually set 2 more baptismal dates we weren’t expecting to set, found 5 or so more potential investigators, found a couple of other investigators we had (a continual struggle of ours. We still don’t know where everyone lives…) and had a great lesson with Hector, our Recent Convert. We were supposed to have an appointment with Carlos, one of our Invs. with a date but he called and canceled on us. By the end of the day, we were beat with just riding and working. Man, there is nothing like that type of tired. We ended the split that night and ended our day with a fantastic nights sleep.

Then Yesterday came… A day that, quite literally, changed my life. We started our 9:00 meetings this week in our ward. As missionaries we attend the meeting with the Bishop, his counselors, auxiliaries, etc. every week. Well, it starts at 7:00 Sunday mornings. After our meeting we simply stayed at the church and tried to make up for some of our lost study time that we missed. At 8:30, Hector showed up to the church. Now, for those faithful readers, this was the same Hector that was baptized the weekend before I entered the field, the first person I confirmed, the first Recent Convert I had to receive the priesthood, and (for a while) the one Recent Convert we struggled to get to church every week. Well, after a little night of disobedience to the Word of Wisdom, he has come to church all but one week, received the Priesthood, and has helped us with some of our other investigators. Well, yesterday, we witnessed a miracle when this same Hector blessed the Sacrament for the first time. It was quite an experience for me and one that started a definite change of perspective of this work. The second experience that happened took place that afternoon. Elder Giles and I went out with a couple of new elders (both of them are thinking about a mission and one just came home a little early from a mini mission because he was sick) to go do some split tracting. When I was on my split on Saturday with Elder Chipman, we passed a trailer park where I had a very distinct thought that we needed to go tract it soon. The opportunity presented itself and we took it. We were blessed in such an incredible way. Altogether, we found 16 new investigators, well over a third of them have shown us some great promise. Chuy, the mini mission elder, basically told him that he was thinking about going back to finish his mini mission but, has changed his mind because he feels that there is too much work for him to do here in our area. He will be accompanying us this whole week.

The final (and most sacred) of these experiences occurred last night when we went to go visit Carlos. I will not include all the details of this experience because, many of which, are too special to share to the world through the internet. Basically said, I saw with my own two eyes, with my spiritual eyes, and felt with my heart and soul the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I saw it change someone right before my eyes. I want to testify to you that I know Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us. He knows our needs and he knows our righteous desires. Trust in his ample arm. Lean and trust in the council we receive in our scriptures. Allow him to change you, to be clay in his hands. With humility, meekness, faith, hope,... all those attributes we need he WILL change us into our best selves. I know this to be true because I saw it, I witnessed it. I am forever changed by what I witnessed last night, in that old, cold trailer, here in South Phoenix. The Atonement is real…The Atonement is real.

Well everyone, my time is running short. I love you all…more than many of you can even know. I feel all your prayers offered in my behalf and I hope the same can be said for mine. You all are loved, missed, and are included in every one of my personal prayers. Thank you to all those who sent Christmas cards, wishes, letters…etc. I will be replying to those as fast as I can. Until next week, LOVE YOU ALL!