Merry Christmas! What a week! This week by far was the best week of my mission! We went out and we worked hard! Despite our lack of tracting hours (because of studies), we still went and got the most work I have ever done in a week! As you can see by my use of exclamation points, I am still pretty excited about it. We also got to see the fruits of our labors as we had six investigators at Sacrament Meeting yesterday. We also had 16 less active members. I know that it may be because everyone seems to be a little more religious during this time of year, but I can hope that it continues! However, we only had 2/17 recent converts at church. That continues to frustrate me pretty bad, but o-well. Our only job is to invite and do all we can to help them grow in faith. The choice still resides with them. To be completely honest, and I am not sure if this is good to say, but the most frustrating thing to me now is agency. I know it is a great gift, but right now it sure is frustrating how some people use it. Which helps me see how my Heavenly Father feels about me when I don't do what I know is right.
We found a new family to teach. They have nine people in their family and are all pretty strong Catholics. The only reason we were able to teach them is because they have a special needs child. Her name is Mary France, and every time I would pass she would get so excited and yell, "Elder, Elder." We would then wave to each other. One day I decided to stop and talk to her mother and some of the others who were hanging out. We scheduled an appointment for last Saturday night at 8. and didn't get out of there until 9:30. They have tons of questions about all sorts of stuff. I have a great feeling about this family. I pray every single prayer for them. I really want to baptize a family. I am kinda getting tired of baptizing little kids who won't come to church. I don't think it will be very easy, because they are very firm Catholics, but I am determined and I know it is the Lord's will for them to get baptized. I will do anything I can to help them get there.
I just received an email from dad that told me grandma passed away this morning. I figured it would happen at some time in my mission, but even though I expected it, I wasn't ready for it. I don't quite know how to describe my feelings right now except how thankful I am for the Plan of Salvation. I know I am very lucky because it wasn't one of my immediate family members, but I was extremely close to my grandma and I am scared this will make me very homesick. I am even more scared of how Satan will use this to discourage me. It seems that as a missionary, Satan uses the littlest things to try and discourage me.
I am very excited to talk to the family tomorrow. I love you guys and I love Grandma. She was an unbelievable woman and I know that right now she is with our Heavenly Father. She is experiencing EXACTLY what is described in Alma 40:11-12.
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