What A Week!

Hello Family! Well, all that I can say is that it has been one crazy week! Things went good, things went bad, got new investigators, lost some investigators... A lot happened this week! But the biggest thing for me was that I came to realize something really big this week. But we will save that for later!

Well, the week started out a little rough. We have a new stat in the mission that we are working on, which is lessons taught to investigators in the house of a member. So at the beginning of this week, we went and visited some members that would be willing to have some lessons in their house, and it went really well! We had a member for every investigator that we had that was willing to share their house with us. So we were off to a good start! We went to go make sure with our investigators that they would be able to do it, and that went fairly well also! We had a family that agreed to have a family home evening in the house of a member, another investigator that agreed to have just a regular lesson, and we had one more that we were going to visit, but he wasn`t home. So we had that all planned out and everything. But, when the day came to do all of them, that is where it went downhill. We passed by the members that were going to have the family at their house first, and they told us bad news. They said that the family didn`t want us to go and visit them again.. We were shocked! We asked what happened, but they didn`t tell us much, just that we shouldn`t go visit them again.. So yeah, lost that family to something that we don`t even know.. So then we went to see the other investigator that we had planned to see, and he wasn`t home, even though he said he would be home. So not only did it hurt us, but the family that was planning on having him over was hurt also. We ended up talking to him later in the week, and he made up some excuses. So we told him that we would still be in contact, but we had very precious time that we could spend with others, so we kind of dropped him also.

Now that sounds bad and stuff, but it actually turned out to be really good for us. Our Zone Leaders had taught us last week that it is shown that we are wasting too much time with investigators who aren`t progressing and keeping their commitments. They told us that we can spend that time to find others who are willing to listen and willing to keep commitments. We took that to heart, and basically started anew. We worked hard to find references and new investigators, and everything turned out amazing! We ended up with about 25 references that we can go see, and 16 new investigators! That is amazing! We have figured that we are going to start from the basics again, because out of those 16 new investigators that we have, maybe 10 or so will be willing to have more lessons with members, and then 5 or so willing to have a date for a baptism, and then 2 or so that really complete it and carry it out. So just from our work in about 3 days, we can really likley have 2 baptisms later on! So we are really working from the beginning, and we can see the fruits of our labors later on!

Also, I came to realize this week that I have been focusing too much on the end result, and not much on helping everyone out on where they are right now. Maybe we didn`t have any baptisms this week, but we helped about 5 less active members come back to church. We also had some lessons with members, where I could see right before my eyes their testimony growing. So maybe I`m not bringing as many new people in the church as I want, but I am helping those that are in the church already stay in the chruch and be firm and strong in the Gospel. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Alma 37:6 These lessons with less actives that appear to be "small" can really turn out to be "great" in the long run. So I have realized that, and my attitude had really changed this week!

I just want to thank you all for the support you have given me these past couple of weeks. I really am doing great now, thanks to the scriptures, you guys, and the Lord`s hand in my life. I am so grateful for him, because He is always there for all of us, whenever we are not feeling the best. He has experienced all of our difficulties, and for that he knows what is the best way for us to get back on our feet. I have such a strong testimony about this work and this Gospel, all of it is true, and I know that with all of my heart. My testimony has really grown this week, because really, "There is no testimony without the test." I love you all, and hope that you have a great week! Until Next Time!

- Elder Stuart