well this week has been amazing i love companion
exchanges they really keep me going. But that's so cool that you know
people in Tyler's mission and people here know dad that's crazy. i read
his email and the only advice i have for him with finding is you have to
be excited and want to do it being excited is a good sign of your faith
its awesome and ill get to the reason why later. so Monday night we traveled to lavezares for exchanges and i worked with elder Carlson again he is awesome in the morning Tuesday
we attended district meeting because we are having some problems in
that district that we are trying to work out. Then we ate and headed
back to Lavezares for companion study and elder Carlson and
i talked a lot about the blessings of the mission and he asked me to
share what i thought would help him to become a successful missionary so i shared with him my definition of a successful
missionary i shared some scriptures that have helped me and i shared my
final and ultimate goal for my mission and that is in john 15:10-14,
and that is to become friends with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.
Then we talked about the spirit and how it brings so much joy and
happiness not only to ourselves but to others as well. and something i
have been finding and focusing a lot lately is testimony and what it is
and what it can do you me and others and i have learned that no one can
gain that seed of faith until they hear a testimony and the spirit
testifies to them so i have been trying to find a way to bear my
testimony with every one. and it has been really helpful. then i read
something the other day in preach my Gospel and it says that you work
with many converts every day ask them what helped them to learn the
truth and i thought even people who were not taught by the missionaries
still were converted in some way and i would like to ask any and
everyone who is willing to share to share with me their conversion story
and what it took to get you to where you are today so that i can better
bring those experiences into the lives of others. and i would like to
share with you mine. all i remember in my life is going to church and
mutual and never being able to remember anything that was taught because
i didn't understand the spirit and what it was and as far as i remember
i don't think anyone ever asked me to read and pray about the book of
Mormon until EFY one year and i thought to my self ok
ill try it and it worked but i never really read from the Book of
Mormon again until i left on my mission so the main that that made a
difference for me is a simple invitation to pray and now i ask all the
time for different things like if Jesus suffered for my sins and if He
is still alive today and i know that those answers came from Our Father
in Heaven through the Holy Ghost and that we can all learn. then during
our day me and elder Carlson did a lot of walking and when we finally
got to our last appointment after not teaching any all day we sat down
and like 2 minutes later the power went out so we shared a spiritual
thought and went to buy food and meet up with our companions and we saw
them with some members and elder Carlson shook hands with all of them
and also with a random guy sitting on the corner. That man then looked
up looked me in the eyes and asked what defines pure religion? in
English and i was worried because that usually means the person wants to
argue but i answered any way and said it is the laws and commandments
given from God that people follow and then he said base your answer off
the bible so i quoted that scripture i used earlier in john and he said
that's good and he continued to ask then i remembered a letter uncle
peter sent me about gospel conversation so i asked sir what is you
religion and he said he is Jehovah's Witness so then i asked him what
they believe and he continued to explain and then i asked him why he
knew that that was Gods church and he said that he read it in the bible
and instead of telling him he was wrong, which is never a good idea, i
bore my testimony that i knew the church was true because i asked God
and he answered my prayer and i invited him to listen to the
missionaries and he said sure it was amazing. then we had exchanges in mondragon
Friday and me and Elder Johnson had an amazing day we taught 6 lessons
and saw many miracles we went to one members house and they weren't home
but then we just said that's ok and started walking the 3
kilometers back to town to go finding and then they came back and we
shared a great message and then that happened another time later in the
day and then we went finding and this is where the happy part comes into
play we stopped somewhere and prayed and asked to be guided and for the
faith we needed then we started walking not knowing where we were going
we just knew we were going to be guided and we were just smiling away
as happy as can be and we walked up to a big house that they had tried
before and the guy just walked out to us and we shared our testimonies
and got invited in shared a short message and then got a return
appointment and then prayed again after we left and gave thanks for the
guidance pray is such a big role and another thing we had 2 people
receive and answer that the book of Mormon was true during our lessons
so amazing and i know the gift of tongues is real we taught a lesson in
Tagalog 4 in warry and the hardest lesson we taught that
day was in English who'd a thought that two Americans would struggle to
teach in English but it was hard but it was still good. well then
Saturday we got up and traveled to Allen to conduct a baptismal
interview and on the way home i was hoping to give a Book of Mormon
out that day but in the morning i grabbed an English not Tagalog and i
wasn't sure why but on the Jeep home a guy got on and he was not
Filipino and i was so nervous to talk to him i just kept praying and
finally i asked where he was from and he was from France working for a
french Russian company he was 26 and we talked the whole way home and i
actually gave a Book of Mormon to a guy from France so cool and he said
he would let the missionaries come over but he is never home he travels
all over the Philippines and he was only home for like 2 days and we
just happened to catch him so cool i just hope he reads it then when he
goes back he can find the missionaries so amazing what a small testimony
can do i have felt my testimony grow so much this week its so amazing
how when you use it more fully and efficiently it works like muscles and
gets stronger i love it. well that's all really and we got fed twice on
Sunday this ward is awesome but we have lots of work to do to prepare
for the new missionaries they are adding this transfer day on Friday.
these pictures are from the stake missionary activity or little MTC and house i live in
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