Dear family and friends,
What
a week! The Lord sure has us working hard to bring everyone the gospel
and I am loving every second of it! Like Susana said in one of her
emails (a month ago? time is kind of fuzzy now), missionary work is
nothing like she expected. Truer words have never been said (besides the
Book of Mormon, of course). Missionary work is nothing what I
expected... I think it's better than what I expected. It's hard work, hot
work, and long work, but it's good work.
We've been working with a wonderful investigator who has now
attended church 4 times. He is a cheery fellow, and Hna Shiraki and I
have had the pleasure of teaching him the Word of Wisdom more than once.
We got him a calendar with motivational quotes and such to help him out
and he has been putting checks on the days he has kept the Word of
Wisdom. The best part is that it's working!!! His family is very
supportive of him investigating the church and we're planning on working
with them ASAP. Ward members have also been getting involved in being
his friend and being amazing. President Hinckley was right in saying
that every new convert needs a friend, a calling, and the word of God.
A lesson I learned this week is that it's important to get the
members involved in helping with missionary work. It is VITAL to the
success of the mission. We were able to get the Bishop to accompany us
to teach someone... the spirit was so strong!!! Not only did the presence
of the Bishop help motivate our investigator to learn more, it helped
get the Bishop very excited about missionary work! We now have a ward-wide plan to have an open house where all the members will bring someone
to investigate the church. I am so excited to see how this plays out!
Even if I leave with the upcoming transfer, I am super excited to hear
about what happens!
Elder Valenzuela (setenta) came to speak to us this week! It
was pretty amazing! He focused on the importance of involving the
members in missionary work and the importance of teaching when you find
and finding when you teach. We should always be asking for references
when we visit members. I hate to admit this, but back in Utah, I was
always hesitant to give the missionaries references (there aren't many
people I know who aren't members over there, but still). I have
repentented of my ways and I promise on giving the missionaries
references whenever I can when I come home! Member references are
amazing because they already have a support system in the church. Elder
Valenzuela brought a great spirit and got everyone excited to continue
working. It was all pretty amazing! Him coming also meant that we got
to look our very best for the conference. Yes, we should look our very
best everyday, but it's not super easy with the heat and all... Anyway,
we all had a wonderful time trying to look like ¨perfect¨ missionaries
:)
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