Dear Everyone,
I hope that everything is warm in the United States, because things just keep getting colder here. I never got used to the cold, either, so I have been putting as many clothes on as I can to avoid feeling the disastrous affects of the temperature. As I was suffering outside, dealing with this climate, asking myself why, oh why was the cold created, I had an apostrophe (I think he means an epiphany) that God probably invented the cold so that His children would be
forced to be chaste in their clothing for a least three months. Now the cold doesn't seem so bad. But I'm still not its biggest fan.
Our week was one of miracles. As I have been contemplating what I must do to fully give myself to the Lord and do what Christ would do in any situation, I have wanted more and more to just
be a blessing to this people in any way that I can. Obviously the best way to serve them is help them repent and be baptized, because the greatest joy comes from that of losing one's self in the hands of the Lord and reaping the blessings of righteousness and happiness. My end goal is to baptize, but why am I doing it? Is it for personal gratification, or is it to build the kingdom of God and to serve the people? For me, maybe it has been a little of both, but this is continually changing (for the better) as I try harder and harder to be more like Christ. I am convinced that because of these efforts, both from myself and my amazing companion Elder Gila (by the by, it's pronounced "Kee-la"), we have found great success this week. Still, nobody is coming to church, which is pretty much the greatest setback there ever was to missionary work, but we must show the Lord that we are willing to work hard and be obedient, even if that means that we don't see the blessings that we are expecting immediately (even if the expected blessings are righteous and just). This, I believe, is called patience. And it's something that the Lord is finding many ways to bless me with.
What were some of the miracles we saw this week, then? Well, to understand, I must start with the premise that in Florida, it has been very difficult find people to teach, and especially difficult to help them agree to us
even coming back to talk more. We would be lucky to find even one new person to teach every day, and normally our weeks would end with much, much less than seven (going with the idea of one per day) "new investigators," as they are titled. This week, however, the Lord blessed us with not just seven new people to teach, but seventeen. These were amazing miracles. Every day, we would go out and say "we don't know if it's possible to have as much success as we did yesterday, but we are going to trust the Lord and hope that He blesses us." Lo and behold, we saw a great deal of success. And it was such a wonderful gift from the Lord. There is a great chance that we lose several of these people to the walls of non-progression and disinterest over time (because exaltation requires actually doing something and some people aren't interested in action), but I trust the Lord. And I know that if I do everything I can to follow His will, then we will have the success that He is waiting to grant us.
Another tender mercy of the Lord this week was running into a less-active lady who was baptized by my trainer, Elder Sevilla. And it was just a nice reminder from the Lord that Elder Sevilla was, indeed, the boss that I make him out to be. Because he literally was amazing. And I miss him a lot. Anyway, I just know that we are doing our best. And although we're not perfect, we are getting closer every day. I hope that everybody has a wonderful week. I love you all. I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.
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