Happy to Be a Missionary

 

Still Working, Teaching, and Learning

We just did training at zone conference on "the prayer of faith." We spent a week preparing it and it really taught me a lot. I’m still working on making my prayers better and then making my actions better to follow up with them. We have been so blessed to find a lot of new potential investigators that have been inviting us back and a few new investigators who are really solid. Two weeks ago we had four investigators come to church. Sadly only one came yesterday but it will pick up again this coming week. Man I just love sharing the gospel with those who have a humble heart and are willing to listen. I think that without fail every time we talk to someone, they had a different view about Mormons but now they understand the LDS Church) a lot more and are almost always more interested in what we have to say. Sometimes it only takes five minutes or less before they realize how different we are from what they thought. There is a talk called "Come unto Christ" by Elder Eyring (1989) about member missionary work. He says that the Lord will send his prepared people to his prepared servants. It has been so neat to see the blessings of the Lord come upon our companionship as we try to prepare ourselves each time we leave our apartment. Sometimes it’s so hard to win our inner battles over pride and other sins but the lord sure blesses you when you do. (Ha, that sounded kind of prideful....didn’t mean it like that!)

 

Trust in the Lord

I have almost been in Albany for two weeks now...it’s going by so fast, each day goes by faster and faster and when I think it can’t go by any faster it just speeds up. I have a couple rug burns…Elder Mecham and I decided to have a little tussle last night… ha, ha. He weighs about 50 lbs. more than me so it was pretty tough. I put up a good fight but in the end he was just too much for me! He is a great companion, I really have been blessed to have such good companions that I get along with so well. That was one of my biggest concerns before I started my mission but the Lord decided to bless so I wouldn’t have to worry about it too much. The work is going good here, plenty to stay busy. We have 5 great investigators. We have a few people who are coming to church on a regular basis which has been the greatest struggle my whole mission....getting people to come. It was nice to come into an area where the missionaries before me had put in some hard work. Being a zone leader puts a lot more on your plate and is pretty stressful but I’m beginning to cope with it now. Sat. night one of the members of the bishopric called and asked if I would give a talk the next day and if I would be the concluding speaker. I had a cool experience with it. l was sitting there in my seat as church was starting and was as nervous as a jitter bug. I don’t think I have been that nervous for a talk since my farewell talk. I don’t know why but I just was. Anyway, as I sat there I just kept repeating to myself the scripture Prov. 3:5-6 "trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path"... but still nothing changed, I was still as nervous as ever. I had not spoken in front of 200+ people for about a year not to mention my limited time of preparation. As the special musical number ended the Bishop announced my talk and then I began my walk up to the pulpit, my nerves on edge with every step. When I looked out over the large congregation I seemed to forget my nervousness, in fact it was as if I had never been nervous at all. I don’t remember the transition between nervous to not nervous, it just happened. My talk was smooth and I was comfortable the whole time, I even forgot my notes at my seat but didn’t need them at all. As I sat down my mind was brought back to the Lord..." and he shall direct they paths"... I knew the Lord had blessed me but it was not until after the trial of my faith and he was just waiting to see if I would trust in him. I had treasured up the word, I had prayed, and I had shown faith...that’s all the Lord needed me to do. What made it all worth it was after sacrament meeting one of our investigators who just showed up to church 3 weeks ago expressed her feelings about the talk. I love being able to share the gospel and the light it brings into people’s lives. Well tonight we are going to have a full apartment, tomorrow is zone conference and so a bunch of missionaries are coming to sleep over so they don’t have to wake up so early to drive.

The Badge of Service

 

Tons of Work!

Being a zone leader is so crazy, especially the first week because of all the meetings. The first week you had a meeting with the Pres. and his assistants to organize what will be taught in a month at zone conference and the theme of the transfer. It was like a 7-8 hour meeting. This week we are going to two districts in our zone. There are 12 missionaries in our zone counting us in five different areas. Elder Mecham and I train the other missionaries at the first district meeting and at the zone conferences. After that the district leaders train at their district meetings(we go to them as well and sometimes give input). On top of all that we have a massive area with tons of people, over 100,000. We work the outer edges of Albany and there is another set of missionaries that don't have a car who work down town. My first few days were so great. We had the opportunity to teach some amazing lessons to some amazing people. I was so tired by Sunday night and my brain was fried but it's so worth it. I love it when there is tons of work to do.