Hi Mom!
This week was a tough ( but good ) week.
Lets start with the good. So last week Elder Shaw and I recieved a referral. When we call him he flat out says I want to be baptized! So we tell him we would love to but first we would like to get to know you a little bit. So we go over and teach the Restoration. And while we are teaching the spirit was so strong it made us all tear up! We left him with a Book of Mormon and the Moroni Challenge. The next day we get a text from him saying he got an answer and that we wanted to tell us in a few days. So when we call him a few days later he tells us that the people who he is living with don’t want us around so we will have to figure out a way to keep teaching him. But anyway we challenged him to pick a day for him to be baptized and hopefully this next week we will have a Baptismal Date!
But the success doesn’t end there. We recieved a referral from some Elders slightly south from us about service. So we head on over and we are there for 3 hours! 2 hours doing service and 1 hour teaching! She loved what we had to say so we left her with a copy of The Book of Mormon and a promise to come back! We are hoping it all works out.
This week has probably been one of the most challenging weeks so far on the mission. Elder Shaw and I have been working non stop. This week has both flown by and dragged along. There is so much that I have learned about myself and the way I teach that it makes me want to improve my teaching skills like right away. But I know that certain things need to work line upon line. One day at a time. So right now I am going to work on taking it one day at a time.
So the pictures, the yellow car was a super cool mustang that we just had to take a picture of. Then on saturday Elder Shaw went to wash his whites but didn’t take a pen out of his pocket so now he has ruined like 3 white shirts and a pair of garments 😬. So he tried just about everything to get the stains out hahaha he even started salting them and soaking them in alcohol.
I got a cool new tie this week too! We had a member dinner at a mexican restaurant. And the member brought us ties! I had made a comment on sunday about a cool tie he was wearing and he was like “do you want one?” Oh ya I do!!! Something cool about this tie was that it was hand made! All the little designs where hand stitched in! Crazy cool!!!
Anyway, that’s all I can really remember. So I guess I’ll end on a spiritual note. So my brother and I talked a bit about coincidences on P-day. And how a coincidence isn’t really a coincidence. God has a plan, I have definitely learned that while out here! God knows what is going to happen to us and what needs to happen to fulfill that plan! Take this week for example. The referral we received was a bit of a coincidence. Elder Shaw and I just happened to be in Statesville when he was looking to be baptized. We were so excited that we honestly couldn’t believe it. Until now Elder Shaw and I hadn’t even taught the restoration to anyone since we started our missions and here was somebody literally asking us to teach him! I know that everything happens for a reason. Not just because it was culturally planted into me growing up in the church. But because I have seen to many coincidences that could not be credited to some kind of higher power. I would like to end by saying I know God is my Heavenly Father. I know that his son Jesus Christ came to earth to die for all of us. So that we could return to God. It is a beautiful thought knowing this. And I will continue to lean on this knowledge because I get so much joy from it.
Till next time,
Elder Service
