Week-17

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you had a great time with your friends and family. This week was pretty fun for me and really showed the kindness this world can have.


MONDAY was mostly a normal P-day with activities like basketball, volleyball, and a game called Signs. Something that was pretty fun for me, though, was that some of the other missionaries taught me how to play Magic: The Gathering. It was enjoyable, and they were good teachers, so I'll probably try it again if I get a chance.


TUESDAY felt pretty short because we had weekly planning and didn't have a ton of time scheduled for tracting that day. As much as I love the work and love finding new people to teach, knocking on doors for 3 hours can get pretty tiring. During the short bit of tracting we had for that day, we actually talked to this guy for a while about the beliefs of the Native American people in New Mexico and how they are really similar to our beliefs about the Book of Mormon, which was interesting.


WEDNESDAY we actually ran into the same guy from Tuesday and talked more with him about the Native American beliefs and their relationship with Christian beliefs.


THURSDAY was Thanksgiving, so we didn't go out finding that day. A lot of the time that day was spent talking with family, visiting friends and members, and doing the studies our mission president had assigned to us for the day as an apartment. The studies focused a lot on gratitude and changing our desires to focus on Christ and doing his will. It was pretty cool and helped remind me what I'm grateful for in my life. For dinner that day, we went over to one of our members' homes for their Thanksgiving party with them, some other families from the church, and some of their friends. It was pretty great, and I definitely over-ate once I got to the pie.


FRIDAY we had District Council and exchanges, so I learned a lot from the other missionaries that day. After District Council, Elder Holbrook and I went to Chick-fil-A to try one of the shakes that another missionary had been talking about. When we were about to order, a member from our ward came up and said that he'd pay for us and even got us food too. It was really unexpected, but I was really grateful that he did that for us and made sure to thank him.


SATURDAY we woke up to find that it was snowing pretty hard outside. It was pretty cool when we went to the complex gym and got to walk in the snow.


SUNDAY we had a really awesome lesson where we went over the restoration of the gospel and about how the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. They really seemed to be understanding what we were teaching them, and they could definitely feel the spirit testifying to them the truth of our message. After our lesson, we went and picked up dinner from one of our members who signed up to feed us. It was really nice of them, and they went all out, getting us steak, potatoes, fruit, bread, and vegetables. I'd say that it was probably one of my favorite meals I've had on the mission so far.


This week had some moments I wasn't expecting, but it was pretty great. The spiritual thought I'd like to share this week comes from Alma 32:21, which says, "21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." When we have faith in something, it doesn't mean that we understand it perfectly, but that we believe and hope for it anyway. In a world where so many people think you have to see to believe, faith is becoming a rare thing. But I know that when you have faith, that is when you can truly feel the love and receive the blessings the Savior has for us.


Thanksgiving with a lot of pie
Snow in the desert
Snowman outside the gym
Awesome dinner



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 43

Image
This email won't be too long because the only thing that really happened this week was that both Elder Shawcroft and I got a stomach bug which knocked us out for the week. It was a rough couple of days, but we're back in shape and are excited to return to the work. MONDAY we had our last p-day of the transfer down in Santa Fe. We played a bunch of dodgeball with the whole zone for a bit and then a handful of us started playing the one board game called 7 Wonders with one of the senior missionaries. The rest of the day was pretty normal, except at the very end when Elder Shawcroft started having symptoms from the stomach bug. TUESDAY we just stayed inside and let Elder Shawcroft work on recovering. WEDNESDAY we managed to have a phone lesson with one of our friends we had been teaching for a bit, Anna. It went really well and they are loving the gospel so much. Then that night I ended up getting hit with the stomach bug which was really rough. We also found out that both of us a...
Read more

Week 24

Image
This was a really good week, but a lot of it is kind of blurred together. There's a day where I'm thinking that we talked to a certain person just yesterday, but it was really three days ago. At least that means the days are going quickly. MONDAY was a fun and sad day. At zone p-day, we had a lot of fun playing basketball, board games, and just hanging out, but we also said goodbye to a sister who was going home early. It's sad to see missionaries go home early in every case, but I know that the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us. At dinner that night, we got to hold some snakes that this member family had. It was pretty cool to be able to hold them and feel them, but Elder Stanger was not as excited as I was. For the last bit of the day, we were able to have a lesson with the bishop of one of our wards and a less active family that we had been meeting with, and you could just feel the bishop's love for them. It's always amazing just how much the gospel un...
Read more

Week 73

Image
Don't worry, I didn't miss a week; we just had our p-day moved to Christmas Eve! This email will be slightly longer, but next week's will be a bit shorter. MONDAY we made cookies with our district before everyone got together for p-day. We didn't have a mixer, so they just made me use my hand to mix the dough. TUESDAY we had a couple of really good lessons with some of the people we met. I also had a meeting with all the other social media trainers in the mission to help get them prepared for the new transfer. WEDNESDAY nothing went as we planned. We had everything set up a certain way that morning during daily planning, and by the end of the day, our schedule was completely different! THURSDAY I took a bit of time getting some presents and letters ready for my last and current mission presidents. FRIDAY we woke up with no hot water in the apartment, which really sucked when we had to get showered! This last transfer had mixed up the zone a bunch, so I had a good time g...
Read more