Week-6

It's been a pretty eventful week for me this time. I spent a lot of time in town this week for a couple of reasons, and while it was pretty exhausting, it was also very fulfilling and joyful.


MONDAY was a pretty normal P-day, with me talking with my family, going shopping, doing laundry, meeting in town with the other missionaries for some fun, and all the other normal things we do on P-day. Closer to the end of the day, once we got back to missionary work, we met with one of our friends and had a pretty long talk with them about where we go once we die. It was pretty interesting to hear his thoughts, and I'm excited to keep having lessons with him.


TUESDAY was a very special day for me for a couple of reasons. It just so happened to be my mom's birthday, so I was able to call and talk with her and see how she was doing. It really helped me to be able to talk with her and get motivated for the work again. After that, it was a pretty normal missionary schedule until around 8:50 when we came back to the house so we could grab our overnight stuff and head into town to spend the night. The reason we were spending the night was that our entire zone was going to the temple early the next morning to do temple work there. It was fun to hang out with all the elders for a bit, but it was a rough night because of how cold it was.


WEDNESDAY we all woke up early to have breakfast at the mission president's house before going to the temple. While at the temple, we were able to spend a couple of hours doing temple work and just feeling the Spirit. Afterwards, we headed back to Tijeras to plan and get back to work. At the end of the day, we went outside with the rest of the elders in the house and spent time stargazing. We got to see constellations, satellites, and even a couple of shooting stars.


THURSDAY I went on exchanges with the zone leaders in town, so I had to go on a drive back to town for the third time this week (I'm so happy miles reset.) During the day, we spent a lot of time tracting and teaching. We had a lot of lessons on the restoration of the church and on the Book of Mormon, which was fun.


FRIDAY we continued our exchange in town because we also had District council early in the morning and decided it would be easier to just end exchanges afterwards. Once council finished up, we ended our exchange, so Elder Whetten and I made the drive back out to Tijeras. We had a lesson later that night with a family about the organization of the church and helped clear up some of their questions about the church, which was cool. Then we headed to our chapel to help supervise the youth sports night and ended up playing Chinese war ball.


SATURDAY I decided to start my personal study by reading my Patriarchal blessing. While I was reading it, I was filled with the Spirit and was just overwhelmed with a calming feeling that helped me to start my studies and the day off right. The rest of the daytime was spent with us tracting around a couple of neighborhoods with very little results, unfortunately. But we were able to have a lesson on the first half of the plan of salvation with some of our friends, which went really well. Once the sun went down, we decided that it wouldn't be very productive or safe to keep tracting in that area, so we headed home and spent some time finding through Facebook and contacting some members to set up lessons. Finally, just a little after 9:00, the other Elders that live in the house with us showed back up at the house and convinced us to go to the store and get ice cream with them. So at 9:07, we went running out of the house, re-tying our ties so we could get some ice cream at Walmart. Fortunately, the trip didn't take too long, and we got back to the house around 7 minutes before our curfew.


SUNDAY we got up early as normal to head to church for ward council that day. During the first hour of church for our second ward, my companion went up and gave a talk on receiving revelation through the Spirit, which he had been preparing for a while. The talk went well, and a couple of members even came up to talk to him about it, which was nice of them. Later that day, the zone leaders showed up at our area to go tracting with us, which led to us meeting a couple of new people and setting up a few lessons, which is pretty exciting. And at dinner, the ZLs even made chicken and waffles for everyone, which, while very kind of them, made the kitchen very hectic.


This week was pretty successful in my eyes, and it was awesome that we were able to go to the temple and serve the Lord there as well. The thought I'd like to share this week is actually one of my favorite scriptures and is one that's pretty comforting to me. In John 16:33 it says, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." I've liked to turn to this scripture pretty often on my mission when I'm facing a difficult challenge and just remember that no matter what happens, I have the Lord with me helping me to push past my trials.


1 - at the temple
2 - all the elders at District council
3 - me and Elder Whetten learning masonry
4 - too many cooks in the kitchen




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