Sorry I just had to get that out. There are so many
things, and the only possible way I can think to organize this email is
to do a "Top Ten Highlight Reel of the Week." So enjoy.
⚡🏆Top Ten Highlight Reel of the Week🏆⚡
1) Exchanges on Tuesday
As
I explained last week, as a District Leader, I go on exchanges with
Elders in my District and the Zone Leaders go on exchanges with District
leaders in their Zone. So on Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder
Lott, one of my Zone Leaders. We had such a great day. And I learned a
new thing that I am beginning to use. It happened when knocking on
someone's door and she was very polite and she said she was Christian
but not interested in hearing our message, but Elder Lott just goes,
"well would it be alright if we read a quick scripture with you before
we go?" And he shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and we had a
nice conversation about God and Jesus where we could share our beliefs
with each other and it was just really a positive and uplifting
conversation. It was really cool.
2) Latoya Jones!!!
So
Wednesday was another fantastic day! I went on exchanges with Elder
Larsen that day. So we did back to back exchanges those days which was
super crazy busy. But it was so good. Elder Larsen is super funny, we
had such a fun day. Interestingly enough Elder Larsen had a personal
goal of using the Book of Mormon more when teaching, and I had recently
been thinking a lot about that as well so we made it a goal for the day
to use the Book of Mormon every time we had a teaching opportunity. So
to kick off the day, we were biking to an appointment but we had some
time, and we saw a lady sitting at a bus stop with her head down. I
thought she might be asleep so I didnt want to wake her up, but as we
began to pass her, her head shot up and I slammed on my brakes. So we
talked to her, and she was super nice and is very Christian and she had a
lot of interest in talking to us. And her name is Latoya Jones. I just
really like that name. And then remembering our goal I asked if we could
share a scripture with her, and she said she would love that, and we
asked what she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said she didn't
know much but that she believes it's good because she knows it's about
God and Jesus Christ. And all of a sudden I realized I didn't know what
to share with her, but then right before I went to open the Book of
Mormon the scripture Helaman 5:12 popped into my head, which says,
"And
now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our
Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your
foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea,
his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm
shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down
to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye
are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build
they cannot fall."
So I read that and shared my thoughts and
feelings about it, and Latoya just started crying and said that recently
she had been through a lot of trials like losing her home and some
other very difficult things, but she said that she started praying more
again and reading the Bible more, and that her faith has helped her
through those trials and so she knows how true the scripture is. And she
said that she felt like that scripture was meant for her. It was really
powerful. And it was another thing that added to my testimony and my
knowledge that the Book of Mormon is God's word, and that it's a gift
from God to bless our lives and help us come closer to Him and to Jesus
Christ.
3) Another Miracle
So
flash back to a few weeks ago, the day that the whole cactus incident
happened. I mentioned that we successfully contacted a family we had
been trying to contact for a while. Well after that happened, they
became hard to contact again. She's very bad at answering texts, and we
just couldn't find her home. Well this particular family was originally
being taught by Elder Larsen a couple of months ago, but they moved into
our area. And so Elder Larsen really wanted to be able to teach them
again. So had planned to go by and we were hoping to find them home so
that we could maybe actually teach them something, which is something
Elder Bess and I hadn't been able to do. So we prepared some stuff we
wanted to share, we were so hopeful they'd be home. And we were just
praying that we'd actually catch them at a good time. And there was a
part of me that was worried because based on the recent past, it almost
didn't seem possible, which was a doubtful and negative way to think
about it, and so I tried to silence those thoughts by continuing to pray
that we could teach them. And so we went over to their home, knocked on
the door, and the mom answered the door and immediately invited us in
because her whole family was home and it was a good time. It was so
amazing! God really does answer our prayers. Sometimes it isn't always
the way we think or want, because God has a plan, but sometimes our
prayers are answered the way we hope. Again, not from anything of our
doing, but because God knows what's best and sometimes He blesses us
with miracles. Miracles do happen. And in this particular case, it was a
miracle and a blessing that we were able to teach that family, and
specifically for Elder Larsen that he could teach that family again.
4) Lessons on lessons on lessons
So
on Thursday alone we had a ton of teaching visits or "lessons" if you
want to use the slang termuntil. I was back with Elder Bess again, it
was weird not being with him for two days. But it was just awesome
teaching so much. We were so busy. It was wonderful. Our teaching skills
improved a lot just in one day just because we got to keep doing it
over and over and evaluating over and over to find ways to improve. It
was a lot of fun. I love teaching about Jesus Christ and His Gospel and I
love the scriptures. They're so good.
5) Omar!
I
told a little bit about Omar and his family last week. He is just doing
great though. We met with him on Monday night and also on Saturday
night. Also, his family is out of town and he came to Church yesterday
BY HIMSELF and he was ON TIME. He's really awesome.
6) I turned 19 and a half
That one's not actually that important, I'm just running out of things to go on the top ten list.
7) TRANSFERS!!!!!!
So
this is where things got crazy. Much to our surprise, we learned that
one of us would be leaving and going to Mesa. Of course to make things
unnecessarily suspenseful they wouldn't tell us who until the next day.
It was just sad though because things were just going so well, and Elder
Bess and I were just loving life, and then Transfers had to come along
to bum us out. We're thinking positively now though. As we realized, it
is just prideful and selfish to think it's unfair that one of us had to
leave because transfers always ends up being for the best. We did find
out the final news though. Elder Bess is leaving me and Elder Salter
will be joining me as my new companion. I am no longer the District
Leader either, that will be Elder Salter. He seems cool. He's been out
for about 4 and a half months, so less than me. And that's all I know
about him. It'll be good though.
In other transfer news
though, we learned that we will be sharing the Ward with Sister
missionaries again. And that's all I'll say about that because I just
said some profound things about not being selfish and prideful and I
don't want to contradict myself.
8) Elder Larsen and I found a lizard while doing service and so I've attached a picture
Yep.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed the
⚡🏆Top Eight Highlight Reel of the Week🏆⚡
Tune in next time for more exciting updates!
Have a great week!
~Elder Oswald
P.S. Pictures:
1. The promised picture of Elder Larsen and I and a Lizard.
2. Turns out that's the only picture I have from the week
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