Hey
everyone! Hope Canada is wonderful - I'm not sure how long everyone was
staying there, but I presume if you're all still there then all is well!
This past week has been another awesome building week. We're
re-committing a lot of people who we had picked up to baptismal dates,
and they're looking a lot more solid now. Not all 8 of them, but we've
got 2 if not 3 right now who are progressing perfectly along towards
their baptismal date. There are a ton of things going on right now, and
we're going through again and tracting out all of the apartment
complexes in the area to try and find those who might have slipped
through the cracks. We're going to commit one more person to baptism
tonight and two more tomorrow. Keep on praying for miracles! Because
they're definitely happening right now!
There's a family that we just met who is amazing. They're one
who has just resurfaced from all of the new Ward Mission Leaders and
stake leaders being shifted around so much lately. They just moved into
the ward a month ago from somewhere in the Ogden area, and they're here
to make a fresh start. Both of the parents are members and have firm
testimonies of the Gospel, but where they've lived for the past 6 years
has just had them completely down. The ward was cold and uninviting to
them, the bishop basically ran them out of church one day, and no one
came and visited them. They have been waiting for the opportunity to
move to a new area and start anew, and they just moved to Brigham and
have been to church every week since they moved in. Since they have
been less-active for 6 years, they have 3 children who are baptismal
age that have never been baptized, and we're going to start teaching
them on Wednesday. It's just amazing when we take a step back and look
at just how the Lord prepares people to receive the Gospel. This was a
family who was longing to come back, but didn't feel that they could
because of the attitudes and actions of others. And now because of the
examples, love, and fellowship of the ward around them they're coming
back full-force into activity and they're loving it. Isn't it crazy how
much of an impact we have on other people's salvation? That reminds me
of something Elder D. Todd Christofferson told us when we were in the
MTC. "This is the Lord's work.. It is astonishing how privileged we are
that he even LETS us be a part of it." As missionaries and members of
Christ's church, we have a remarkable impact - for good or bad - on the
strengthening and supporting of God's children all around us. Shouldn't
that be viewed as a privilege? That God entrusts us with just a little
piece of "His work and His glory, to bring to pass the immortality and
eternal life of man" should be viewed as an amazing blessing and
opportunity to serve and to love.
As for my new companion, Elder Sillito is just awesome. He
works super hard, he's super hilarious, and he loves everyone that we
meet. Have I mentioned how great it is to have zone leader caliber
companions for once? :) We've been working really hard to build up the
zone unity as well as keep the focus on our teaching pool, and we're
definitely being blessed for it. Oh - I guess I haven't told you yet..
Elder LaFond's new companion is from Australia and he's SUPER foreign..
Straight off the boat! Hahaha.. Well.. Funny story. He came to District
Leader Training meeting Friday morning complaining of sharp stomach
pain, and they went to the hospital and he definitely had appendicitis.
Welcome to America! 2nd full day in the mission field and he had to go
into surgery and have his appendix out. So we spent all day Friday in
the hospital and running back and forth grabbing his stuff. He's
recovering now, and he's doing well. We decided that it was a curse
from God that Elders weren't supposed to go into Malad and that the
sisters were supposed to stay there.. Or maybe not. :P The zone is
doing okay - we had a really good zone study on Thursday and set a
bunch of transfer and zone goals.. I love being a zone leader. It's
definitely a lot of work, but you get a lot out of it and there's a lot
of satisfaction to be had by helping and serving and teaching other
missionaries. I really hope I get to stay a zone leader until the end.
A lot of missionaries want to finish off by training a new missionary,
but I think I'll pass on that one.. I don't think I could handle a
C. Part Two.
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