Rough Week/ Spanish Conference/ Bikes

This week was pretty rough.  It seemed like everyone we had appointments with canceled and no one seemed to be home, which left a lot of time for us to go and knock.  Apparently I'm one of the weird missionaries in that I really like knocking doors.  I think its fun to go and show up at someone's door and tell them you have the truth and invite them to learn more.  A lot of missionaries don't like tracting because they don't believe that its successful.  It's as successful as you believe it can be.  I know that as we put our trust in the Lord, He'll bless us in His work.  Its a nifty promise that he's given us but its true!  

Also this week was hard because we've been running low on miles... again.  Thus we had to start walking everywhere we went.  That's a lot of walking!  Lucky enough though we've got an awesome investigator named Manuel who saw us walking one day and the next time we went over, he gave us bikes!  They kind of suck but a bike is a bike, right?  No more walking for us!  I like when people are super nice to us and give us stuff.  It makes the work a lot easier. 

The Bikes

 

Two other neat things happened this week:

#1 Spanish Conference

#2 I received a stronger testimony of the Spirit

Spanish Conference

#1 Like always Spanish Conference was amazing!  The Spanish missionaries in NOM are clearly the coolest ones in the whole mission.  The cool thing that I've always liked about being a Spanish missionary is that, because we're such a small group (there's only 30 of us out of the whole 280 missionaries in the mission), there's a tight bond that we all have.  We're all going through similar trials, we're all trying to learn a language, and we're all out here to serve the Lord and have a good time while we do it.  Getting to see everyone like Elder Shipley and Pulver and Jensen and all those who I've served around (or will eventually serve around or with) was a fun time as well. 

Elder Pulver and Me

Side Note:  Apparently things in Sioux City are going great!  After Jenny and Fernando's baptism, their brother Javier got the Priesthood as well as Fernando and they've been going to the temple together!  You have NO idea how happy I was to hear that!  I miss all those people in Sioux City.  I miss them a lot but I'm glad to know everyone's doing well.  

#2 The Spirit hit me hard this week.   I already had a pretty strong testimony of how strong the Spirit was but this week that just grew.  I've noticed that there's always something that keeps me going.  There's always something that says, "just knock one more door" or "read this scripture" or "keep up the good work" and its the Spirit!  It's brought such joy and peace into my life this week that its hard to explain but its strengthened my testimony that this is the Lord's work.  Fernando (an investigator) helped me realize how strong the Spirit is with us in this work when he said, "Guys, I could be having a terrible day but there's something about you guys that makes me feel good, that makes me want to talk even if I don't feel like it, something that says 'this is important, talk to them.'" I guess I never noticed how strongly the Spirit is with us until then.  I feel blessed to have this opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. 

I love you!  I hope you had a great week too!  

Lots of Love,

Elder Zack

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