It has been pretty crazy! No I'm not quarantined-yet. Only restrictions we have at the moment are not tracting and not entering people's homes, there is still lots to do its just different! But we're preparing to be stuck in our apartments soon. We're lucky we have most of our mission in Wyoming and Nebraska where there's not many cases of COVID-19, so we're behind lots of other missions. Although with all that we've been talking about and doing, the work is actually going to hasten rather than halt, if us as missionaries work effectively and use the tools we've been given. This is actually a pretty huge opportunity to change the way we do missionary work to a more effective and fruitful way.
But I got some of the worst news ever Tuesday morning. My release date changed from July 23rd to April 30th, so in a moment 3 transfers left changed to this being my last transfer. And Elder Hughes, who was supposed t out have 4 weeks left, got the news Tuesday morning that he was going home on THURSDAY. So it has been a pretty crazy week with lots happening. President Palmer shared D&C 124:49 and it helped a lot. I feel terrible that I'm losing 3 months of my mission, and it's been uos and downs. Its not easy to leave home to come on a mission. But it's weird that HOME now is here, and I don't want to leave my mission. But I've felt lots of peace and I've seen the Lord's hand in lots of this. Doesn't stop it from hurting but gives me a better perspective and thank goodness for that perspective or else I'd be wrecked!
Got Elder Garrison, my new companion, on Wednesday. It was a crazy busy day, Elder Garrison didn't have time to unpack at all until a few days later. But despite all that was happening we took some time to go contact this member. Ended up livng across the street from a guy we've met before and talked to. Started talking again, and this time he had time to listen to us share a message! It was pretty cool to hear him open up about some worries he has with his parents and his family and testify to him that the Savior can help. Left him with a Book of Mormon! Cool how the Lord blessed us with that miracle in the little time we had that day.
Thursday was my birthday woo-hoo. Again pretty busy, I said goodbye to Elder Hughes which was a bummer. Wasn't expecting that to happen until a few weeks later, but sall good! Had an Elder spend the night with us who was supposed to go home Thursday but got his flight canceled and a new one for Friday. The set of missionaries next to us, with ANOTHER missionary in the same situation with his flight canceled came over. Made a cake and had a party, good times.
We've had lots of people reach out to us with all that's going on. WE ARE DOING FINE, but it's nice to see that people care. A lady we met a whole ago and had a really cool experience on her doorstep texted us to see how we were doing. She's a nurse and we found out she was stuck at her home. She mentioned how it's a good time to read a book. And we said the book of mormon is one of our favorites, and she told us that's exactly where she was going with that! (we gave her a book of mormon last time we saw her). That text conversation with her made me pretty happy.
Saturday we were pretty successful with making lots of chats with people we're teaching. Kinda frustrating, we've been seeing lots of miracles that could've been happening before. BUT it took a risk or being stuck in our apartments for weeks to get the motivation to use our devices more. One is specific, we made a chat with someone were teaching and threw a legit member in with us. We've just been sitting back and watch them talk back and forth, it's AMAZING. Like I said at the beginning there is lots of good coming from this, it's actually blowing my mind. I think the Lord didn't see the missionaries moving fast enough with using technology tbh.
Sunday was good. Policies with the sacrament changed. The mission presidents have permission to authorize missionaries to administer the sacrament and our whole district got together for a little meeting. Our district leader, Elder Chinbaatar, did great. Looked just like a bishop up there. Good experience. Interesting to have no babies crying or deacons passing but the same spirit and closeness to the savior was felt. Had a lesson over google hangouts later that day, it was rough to help them get their app working but it all worked out! Also met a dude later that day who hasn't been to Church in 10 years but thinks it's maybe time to come back and bring his girlfriend and her daughter and his son with them. Huge miracle that just fell into our lap.
Monday was a pretty busy day, had a couple meetings. BUT there were a couple new missionaries and their trainers nearby so we took 30 minutes to go on a short exchange with a couple companionships. Went for a walk around the lake with a brand new missionary, Elder Clark, who was supposed to be in Vietnam right now. An interesting experience. Me abruptly being at the end and him just barely a week into the mission. Talking to everyone we saw about Christ. Ended up talking to this guy fishing for about 20 minutes. It was a really good time. Lots of blessings from the Lord this week.
Spiritual thought:
In Alma 37, Alma is speaking to his son Helaman. Towards the end Alma teaches how important it is to hearken to the words of Christ, and uses a pretty beautiful phrase. He says, if we hearken to the words of Christ, they will "carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise" (Alma 37:45). Sometimes we are in pretty comfortable positions, and the Lord asks us to leave that. Sometimes leaving our place of comfort brings us into sorrow. Sometimes circumstances and death and pain and trails bring us into a "vale of sorrow". But if you face your trials correctly and you follow the voice of the Lord through those hard times. There is a "land of promise" , better than the "land" you left. I can testify that this is true.
Pictures:
-the Windsor district (ward?)
-Elder Blart
-bye bye elder Hughes
-happy bday
Comments
Post a Comment