I'm
staying. Elder Johnson is leaving. It was a painfully short transfer. He's the best. I
will be with Elder Ledezma tomorrow! He is an older elder in the mission and I
don’t know too much about him. I'm excited to have the new chance to serve and
love and grow. AND! We will be 3 packin'. I will be training a new missionary!
Idk anything about him. He gets here Wednesday. And I'm still district leader.
It's going to be another 6 weeks of intense growth. I love getting
better.
Man it's
been a crazy, crazy week. Black and white couldn't do it justice and I didn't
take any pictures. So...
I'm not
going to write anything.
Jk
MONDAY!
We played bball for the 1st time on my mission (I think) and it was fun. I played
on a team with the other 3 elders in my district and we dominated. They are the
best. I'm so lucky to have them. Monday afternoon we got invited to eat with a
Hawaiian family. We ate this awesome meal but I don’t remember what it is
called. It was basically like personal Benihana’s with this awesome meat and
sauce. That night all our lessons flaked but I started an exchange with Elder
Andrews. He is in one of the other districts but his companion needed some
practice in his Spanish so I sent him to Desert Bloom with Elder Johnson. He
and I have served around each other before but never really gotten to know each
other so we had a nice long talk and got pretty close. He's awesome.
TUESDAY!
I got to spend the day on bike, in the heat in English! What a blessing. We
biked like crazzzy. Over the course of the day Elder Andrews fed me a ridic
amount of food. Like sooo much. He made me bfast and lunch and all these
members fed us. I felt like I was wearing a backpack over my stomach! We met
some really cool people. One was a couple who were converts of about 20 years.
They had married in the temple and sent children on missions and were getting
their life in order to become temple workers. They are awesome missionaries.
They are always sharing the gospel and fellowshipping and doing everything they
can to get others to be happier. They told us their awesome conversion story. I
can’t tell it all bc of lack of time. But basically the man opened the door one
afternoon and the elders were standing there and he felt something saying to
him, “Invite them in, what they say is true.” So he did. And he listened. And
then got baptized. Long story short - his life in the church was then dotted
with miracles. They told us that they contacted the 8 missionaries that taught
the two of them -- all inactive. They were devastated. It was such a happy
story to hear but so sad to hear about the missionaries. They did so much good
for this family but they lost it :/. Life's hard sometimes. Dinner was ground
beef tacos. Eating them I thought how I really don’t ever want to eat faux Mexican
food again. It's just not nearly as good. Not worth it. Then we had a sickkkkk
lesson with an investigator. We said a prayer to start but then the member and
him started talking about work for a few minutes and the investigator said, “Alright
alright, let’s start again. Can we say another prayer?” So sick. Then when we were talking about the Atonement
he got a little emotional. It was such a powerful experience to teach someone
with such real intent and such a testimony of the Savior’s love. He'd lived a
hard life. More on that in 2 years. That was defff the highlight of the day.
WEDNESDAY!
We got a free lunch! Then we had a lesson with Martha (the eternigator). She
said she'd been pondering since the lesson on Sunday (about baptism) and she
wants to get baptized! That threw us off. She said some other weird stuff but
the desire to be baptized was a new thing!! We later went to a members house which
was cool too. Members love us which rocks. We visited a family of recent converts
and when we asked what we could do to help they said, “Stay safe, find people
who need you, and come back soon.” Warmed my heart. That night we had the
craziest night with a LA [less active]. We sat in the complete dark talking.
Sounds weird but it wasn’t the first time I've done it on my mission. It's odd.
But I guess people are comfortable doing it.
THURSDAY!
We had 3 lessons set up but all fell through. People are hard to catch here.
Then out of nowhere the ZLs called and asked us to do an emergency exchange
with Elder Fahina (who I look up to a lot. He's a great missionary with a great
attitude and he works hard and is very Christ-like) We had a miraculous day. It
was soooo good. We had an amazing experience at dinner. The sister who fed us
was a single mom of 5 (2 sets of twins!) and really struggling with a lot of
things. Her kids don’t respect her and she is trying to get herself active in
the church and everything. We read some of the Book of Mormon with her and she
started crying and really opened up to us. She said something like, “I've got
one foot in and one foot out and it's tearing me in half.” We testified of the
scriptures and their power and it was such a spiritual experience. Nights like
that are the reason I’m here. When you want to talk to God, pray. When you want
to hear His voice, read the scriptures. I love the scriptures. We had a great
night and I learned a lot from Elder Fahina.
FRIDAY!
We had a District Leader training meeting and a Zone Training Meeting. Both
were super good and I learned a lot of things I can do to improve. I
always want to be better. Then we continued our exchange, Elder Fahina and I.
We visited a bunch of LA and had a really good night. With a PMF [part member
family]we had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon. Want to have a good
lesson? Teach the Book of Mormon! It's the best! I love it. It was a great day.
SATURDAY!
We found out the transfer doctrine, Elder Johnson to Green Valley and me here
in the 3pack. I’m excited. I've served in sooo many 3packs it’s kinda funny. We
got a free box of donuts for trading in an ugly tie. We had a couple great
street contacts.
SUNDAY!
Great day. A bunch of people at church. The A. family (our golden family) are
being so well integrated. They have a group of friends and a support group and
are progressing really well. We went out with a recent convert at night and
talked with formers and stuff. It was a good experience but we didn’t get in
anywhere. Just as we were about to call it a night we knocked on one more door
that we already knocked on. The person we were looking for didn’t live there
but a PMF did! Cool! They were super interested and we are going back soon.
We see so
many miracles here.
The
church is true. I know it.
I'm going
to miss Elder Johnson but I'm pumped for a new chance to learn and grow.
I love
you all so much
Sam
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