Family and friends,
Yet another week has gone by too fast. It's completely insane to me
how fast this transfer has gone by, the fastest of my mission by far.
It's also been the best, busiest and most fun transfer of my mission as
well. Life in the YSA is bomb. I just can't believe that this coming
Sunday we'll be getting transfer calls. It doesn't feel real that the
transfer is almost over.
This week we had a really awesome Zone Conference. It's always
refreshing to see President and Sister Wadsworth, the Assistants and the
nearby zones. I really learned a lot by impressions from the spirit
about commitments. I'm trying to deepen my commitment to my Savior in
each moment by always remembering Him. Also, they showed us a segment
from the most recent Mission President's Training Seminar about finding.
It was all focused on finding and teaching those between their
mid-teens and their mid-twenties. Elder Anderson shared a clip from some
general authority trainings they were doing where they asked 300
general authorities to stand first if they were baptized after the age
of 25, second between the ages of 9 and 25 and lastly 8 and younger. By
far the majority were converts between the ages of 9-25. This and many
other studies show that this age group is the most receptive to the
restored gospel and are most likely to remain active and flourish in the
church. I really enjoyed the training because it offered some cool
insights about working in the YSA Ward. Also, I felt like our whole Zone
was just staring us down because most companionships in our zone have
been receiving self referrals for or just finding by their own efforts
some really solid YSA aged individuals. I felt sorta bad but I'm not
complaining. Like I said earlier, the YSA life is the bomb.
Investigator updates:
- Kelsey: She is doing so well. She's still reading the Book of Mormon like a champ and has read the past decade of General Conference addresses. We taught her 5/7 days of this past week, we're teaching her tonight and we're probably teaching her tomorrow too. She is just unbelievably excited for her baptism. Yesterday we finished off all the missionary lessons! His is the first time that I've taught an investigator from the first lesson all the way through. Most people I've taught in my mission I either started on the lessons and then got transferred of I got their right at the end of the lessons. It's been cool to be a part of the whole missionary process. Kelsey has some friends and coworkers that are former investigators and less active members and has been sharing the gospel with them. One was baptized when he was 8 but was never really active. He wants to know the Book of Mormon is true but says he struggles finding the real internet and sincere heart to know its true so she's been teaching him how to do it and sending him her favorite verses and chapters and bearing testimony to him. We had dinner on Friday with her, Meg and Joseph which was really awesome. As we left Kelsey and Meg told us that they decided to take a road trip to Rexburg on Saturday to see the temple and just explore I guess. So that's the second temple that Kelsey's visited! Last thing, quick funny story. So they were in Rexburg and they wanted to get some Chick-Fil-A so they put it into google maps and followed the directions and guess where it took them? Straight into the temple parking lot. I laughed so hard and said, "I've always known it, Chick-Fil-A really is the celestial restaurant!" It was one of the best moments of my mission.
- Tatum: Tatum has been coming to church for a couple weeks now and we finally got to have a lesson this week with her. She had a couple friends here in the YSA Ward but they all just left on missions so now she wants to meet with us and find out if she feels comfortable here because it's the truth or just because she was with her friends. She participates in church and is already so committed to following God. We're teaching her tonight and things seem to be going well.
- Milo: He's preparing to be baptized but we're not sure what date exactly because he has 56 siblings. 56 siblings isn't technically a problem, it's just a little complicated because he has so many because of polygamy. He grew up in a polygamist colony down by Chihuahua, Mexico. Good thing is he has no desire to ever practice polygamy and is currently living with his 2 nephews that both also have polygamous parents but are really active in the church now and one of them' an RM so he has lots of support! He's doing awesome and always comes to church.
- Ethan: He's actually a recent convert, he got baptized a couple months ago and he is such an inspiration to me. He is so faithful even in the face of so much opposition. His whole family was very opposed to him being baptized and they are always coming to him with new anti-Mormon topics. He always responds so well and says that when he was first baptized it always gave him a couple doubts that were soon washed away but since he's had so many concerns and questions answered he now doesn't get shaken at all. Even if he can't find an answer he recognizes that the spirit has testified to him of truth and so he knows that there is an answer out there somewhere and that sometimes it's okay to not know what it is. He's such an example of real faith. Even with so much opposition and still being pretty new to the church he's planning on serving a mission because he loves it all so much.
This week has been filled with so many awesome lessons and miracles.
The Lord blesses you as you get your heart right and serve Him for the
right reasons. The gospel of Jesus Christ contains answers to every
single question or concern out there. God has a plan for all of us and
that plan is perfect. We just need to find out what He wants us to do
and then do it. We are taught in Mosiah 3:19 that we are to yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. Think about what it means to yield.
Basically that means that the Holy Ghost gets the right of way. Become
more committed to live your life in line with God's will as you discover
His will through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.
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