Week-11

This week was pretty fun because I got to really see the better side of Albuquerque for once. I also got to see a ton of missionaries this week, so I had to learn a ton of new names. Probably going to forget a lot of them over the next few weeks, but I've got 2 years to learn them all, so I think I've got time.

MONDAY started off with all the missionaries in the Trapp house (that's the name of the house out here, I don't know why) getting up at around 5:30 so we could get ready to leave for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The Balloon Fiesta is probably one of the biggest things happening in Albuquerque throughout the year, and all the northern zones were given special permission from our mission president to attend it this year on our p-day. When we got to the site, the Fiesta had already started, so there were a couple of balloons already in the air, but we were still able to watch a ton of balloons go up and enjoy ourselves. Because all the northern zones were given permission to come, there were a ton of missionaries there just hanging out and enjoying themselves, all talking with each other and catching up. Afterwards, once all the balloons were starting to come down, we headed out of the park and went with most of our zone to Denny's for breakfast, where we had a lot of pancakes and spent some time sharing photos from the balloon fiesta. Later on in the day, during the mission's family home evening, it was our zone's turn to do introductions where we just told everyone a little bit about ourselves. It was a really fun day.

TUESDAY we had zone conference and vehicle inspections. Because inspections were going to be happening just before conference, we headed to the car wash right by the conference site so we could make sure the car was clean enough. But apparently a ton of other missionaries had the same idea too. By the time we were finished cleaning our car out, there were more than 20 missionaries there, all washing their cars and preparing for inspections. That's more than the entirety of Elder Bates and my zone. It was pretty funny to watch happen. After inspections, we had conference where we got some really awesome advice on remembering to get out of our own way and to remember that we're not here for us. We are here for the Lord and to teach others about His gospel. It was really motivating to hear it all, and it always gets me excited to return to the work.

WEDNESDAY was a bit of a slower day because we had weekly planning, and that ate up some of our time for that day. Other than that, it was just a bunch of tracting and talking with people on the street.

THURSDAY was a decent amount of tracting and just trying to find some more people to teach. During the middle of the day, we had a one-on-one training with the social media trainer where they taught us a couple of things that we can do to be more genuine and effective with our finding efforts using Facebook.

FRIDAY I woke up and started cooking my lunch for the day because we had District council, but I didn't want to get fast food. I ended up making some pretty good chicken and rice, which was pretty filling for me. Then we headed into town for District council and talked a lot about following up on the commitments we make with the people we teach. It was pretty cool, and we all hung out and had lunch together afterwards.

SATURDAY we had some pretty great service work to attend to. The other Elders in our house have been volunteering at the local food pantry for a while, and they told us that it needed some volunteers for Saturdays. So we were able to go and help out for a couple of hours, just learning the ropes at first, but then being pretty quick with whatever they needed us to do. Afterwards we headed back to the house to finish our studies, but were interrupted halfway through when we realized that the solar eclipse was happening. So everyone basically paused their studies and just went outside, with us at the Trapp house coming up with an interesting way to see the moon covering the sun.

SUNDAY church was as long as it normally is because we cover two wards, but today there was something special in the first hour of our first ward. They were doing a primary program where we got to watch all the primary age children go up to the front, sing songs, and talk about the favorite thing they'd learned in primary that year. It was so cute just watching them all share their favorite stories of Jesus and why they loved them so much. After church we got back to tracting a couple of different neighborhoods and parking lots where we met a ton of really friendly people who were just looking for something uplifting in their lives at that moment. I could really feel the spirit as we were talking to them, and it just really makes me remember that we are all sons and daughters of God.

The week slowed down a bit in the middle, but that might just be because I wasn't looking hard enough at the little things in life. I'm loving missionary life, and I hope that you all are enjoying my emails. The spiritual thought I'd like to share this week comes from Doctrine and Covenants section 3 verses 1-3, which says, "1 The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught. 2 For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; therefore, his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round. 3 Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men." Whatever we do, it won't stop God's plan for the world. He is eternal, and He doesn't stray from his purpose. We aren't able to mess His plan up, but we can work to support and help bring it to pass in our times.

1: our solution to watch the eclipse

2: missionaries after zone conference 

3-5: balloon fiesta

6: one of our ZL's at Dennys