Monday, September 26, 2011

Travelling around the Countryside!

Buenos dias!        Sept 26, 2011

Wow - the weeks come and go so fast, at times it is still hard for me to separate the days. This week was still a good week, but it was filled with both good and bad, but that just comes along with the job description, I guess.

SOUNDS LIKE IT IS TIME TO
 WRITE ELDER CHAD!

This week I finally had the realization of how long I have really been away from home. For the longest time I was just going out and doing the work and nothing effected me, but last week it just all sort of came down on top of me. Don’t get me wrong and think that now I am totally useless and haven’t worked for the past week, because that wasn’t the case at all. I just finally had it hit me that I have been away from home for almost 13 months and haven’t seen any family or friends. It is just something that was very unusual for me. I haven’t had a day like that, or even thoughts like that for a really long time.  I was definitely caught off guard by those feelings. It was just a one day thing, and now I am back to normal and enjoying the time here once again. It just was different to be out for this long and to see how far into my mission I really am. Well enough ranting about that...

Visting Historic MANTI TEMPLE!

This week I was able to go on exchanges with an Elder from the Castle Dale area. He came back to Price with me and worked in my area. It was a good relief for the day. It was nice to get away from my regular companion for the day and get a new fresh view of the mission.  On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to go to the Manti Temple as the north part of the mission. It was pretty amazing! It just feels like a castle, but there is so much history, symbolism, and artifacts there.  We had to wake up and be ready to go around just to make the trip to Manti and be there by 8. So it was pretty tough. It is surprising how much riding in a car drains your energy.
          In the evening we had a really amazing experience with one of our investigators named Claire. She has been going to church off and on for quite a few years, but has never been baptized because she can’t kick some habits. Her home situation is a pretty interesting one as well. As we went into the lesson, I actually was thinking on how we could get out of there and get over to someone else’s house to teach them.  Well the Spirit had completely different plans for us. Claire and Margaret were both having terrible days, and they were just stressed out about life and how they were going to keep going. So we followed the Spirit the whole time in the lesson, and it truly provided. She talked about how she loved the principles of the Gospel and wanted to stay close to the Church so that her son could have the examples of the members in his life. She hopes that one day he would make better choices then she has. It was at this point where the lesson was taken to a whole new level. I was guided to ask the question, "Well how much more powerful would that example be if it came from inside the home?"  Claire just basically stopped and stared and thought for about 2 minutes. She was completely taken off guard. She was having a huge internal battle about what to say; we eventually went on to talk about how she could make those necessary changes and how she could be that example to her son. It was one of the most powerful lessons that I have had in a while. It was what we would have called an "ideal lesson." It was probably the main highlight of my week to have that experience.
On Thursday, I hit the road again, and was out traveling almost the whole day. I had a ton of baptismal interviews to do, but because our district is so huge, that makes it tough to get in the miles. First we were off to Green River, which is an hour away. I interviewed a pretty awesome 76 year old man.  He had a pretty amazing story. and had some eye opening experiences lately, and he decided to take the plunge.(to be baptized) As soon as we got back to Price, we had to hop in another car and head to Castle Dale for another interview. This one was for a 9 year old boy. We got home and had to hop in our car and head out to East Carbon for dinner and a lesson with Tony and Kristie. So you think that day is pretty full and done, but we had to go back to Price and once again do another baptismal interview. My day was just jam packed with traveling and interviews. It was a tiring day, but a good one.
Some of the bad this week has been dealing with a lot of cancellations. I think this is just a little test and trial for me. I will just have to work harder to overcome those cancellations and find the people that are prepared for the Gospel.
This week ended with an awesome recent convert fireside. There were some great conversion stories that were shared. It really strengthened my own testimony on how important this Gospel is to me. It also reconfirmed on how much the Gospel blesses my life and anyone’s life if they will just apply the principles and give it a shot. Well that about wraps up my week.
          I am grateful for your love and support! Thanks for everything and keep on moving forward!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!     Les Amo!      Dios les bendiga!

                          ELDER D                         


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