It's your friendly
neighborhood missionary again!!!! :) This week has really flown by!!!! It's
weird how mission time works. Days feel like weeks, and weeks feel like days!
Well let’s see if I can update you on how the work is going in my area.
Something that I've come to realize is that you don't know how well the work is
going until the end of the week when you can see exactly how many lessons you
had, how many investigators came to church and kept commitments, and if you
found anyone new to teach. And by the end of this week, we had little to none
of those things accomplished. And I thought we had been doing SO well!!!! I was
kind of feeling down about it. Satan has really been working me over this week.
But then I was reading in Preach My Gospel (A missionary tool we use to help us
be better missionaries) and I came across a passage that really helped me. On
page 10 of PMG it talks about what defines a "successful missionary".
And it’s not what you think. It’s not about how many people you baptize, or how
many lives you help change. The book says this "you can know you have been
a successful missionary when you":
1. Feel the spirit testify
to people through you.
2. Love people and desire
their salvation.
3. Obey.
4. Live so that you can
receive revelation.
5. Develop Christ like
attributes.
6. Help build the church.
This really helped me know
that I am NOT a failure just because things aren't working as quickly as I
wanted. I need to have faith in Christ and my Heavenly Father. They know what
is best for me. Better than I do, that's for sure.
So this week I had the
opportunity to go on Spanish exchanges! I was really excited!!! I got to dust
off the little Spanish I knew, and help people come unto Christ!!! My companion
for the day was Elder Mayor. He was born and lived in Argentina until he was 9
then moved to Utah. He is really cool.
So we went out on Wednesday
to try and find some people to teach. We came to a house that looked like it
was being renovated. We knocked and we heard someone tell us to come in. Well
more like Elder Mayor heard someone say come in, I just heard some jumbled Spanish!
We entered and he told us to sit down and got us drinks. This guy was REALLY
nice and we hadn't even said anything to him!!!! We both thought maybe he was a member already but
as Elder Mayor began talking to him it was clear he wasn't. The amazing thing was
that for the most part, I understood what he was talking about. Not every word
of course, but I understood the main idea!!! I was so surprised and happy! I
haven't taken a Spanish class in two years!!!! He told us how we wasn't very
religious but that when he was young he had played basketball with a Spanish Father
of a Catholic church and got some religious experience from him. We talked for
a little about what we believed, he listened intently, and then we offered to
help him remove all of the scrap wood and junk that was EVERYWHERE.
Surprisingly he agreed. So we called a senior couple missionaries that had a
truck and they helped us load all the stuff up and take it to the dump. Did I mention
we did all this when it was pouring rain out? But we all felt such a great love
when helping this man, Alejandro, that none of us were cold. We gave him a
pamphlet of the Restoration of the Gospel and we set up a time to come back.
ALL IN SPANISH! I know that the gift of Tongues and of Understanding Tongues is
real. I was able to understand what he was saying and at least able to
contribute a little bit to the conversation! :)
So let’s see if I can
update you on some of OUR investigators. Michael and Zack are doing great! Still
coming to church, paying tithing. They are amazing and I love them both. We had
the opportunity to go to a fireside last night then afterwards go to the Temple
Visitor Center. It was really spiritual and a great experience for them! :) We
are still trying to help them get baptized.
Some of our appointments
fell through this week. We had set up an appointment with a really great
family. The kids and dad are members and we are working with the mother. So we
went over and we found them celebrating her birthday, drinking. Our
investigator wasn't too drunk, but most of the other partiers were slobbering drunk.
Now throw in a set of missionaries and just imagine where the conversation
went. EVERYWHERE!!!! One man rambled about how he didn't believe in God, yet a
couple minutes later he said he prays to God every day.
Another man, who is a less
active member of the church, also pretty drunk, was arguing with him over if
God is real or not. All in all, we stayed for about 30 minutes, mostly because
we were so amused with the drunken battle of religion going on and also because
every time we went to leave we would get pulled back into the conversation with
a question about Mormonism. Our investigator was a very avid defender of the
Mormon faith, even with her being slightly buzzed! This just proved we have a
little more work with her! But we just have to keep on keeping on!!! :)
My companions met a family
that is super golden!!!! They met them on the day I wasn't there though. So I
haven't met them and I didn't get to have THAT cool experience.
Last week I thought it
would be a good idea to ask to speak in one of the wards I cover, so that the
families can get to know me better and I can get them excited for missionary
work. I just received the talk I will be speaking on. It is David A Bednar’s
talk, “Converted unto the Lord”. I'm sooo excited to speak on this. I have all
these ideas bouncing around my head and can't wait to put them on paper. Well
that's about it for my week.
Oh, today we lose Elder
Carroll. He is being sent back down to Fort Hall to train a new missionary. We
will miss him. We've had a lot of laughs and fun times. I also got a hair cut
by my trainer. It’s a little too short for my liking but beggars can't be
choosers. :) I've been learning how to play the Ukulele on my mission. I can
play pretty well now. Anyone want to hear Hotel California??? I can play that,
and hymns!!!! So even if I can't play the piano at least I have SOME musical
talent ;) I have found that playing the Uke really relieves stress. I'm so
thankful I've had a companion who was able to teach me and now I can pretty
much teach myself the rest.
Well that is all I have. If I haven't written you
back yet (McCabe’s) I'm really sorry!!!! You will be receiving a letter soon!!!
Love,
Elder Rash
The Idaho Falls South District
A little missionary humor
And this is what happens when your companion cuts your hair
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