Well this week things are starting to
look up with the work! Basically everyone (including the Zone Leaders)
have given up any hope of success in the area I'm in right now. When
they found out my comp was staying here another transfer, they both said
they were so sorry for him. This place doesn't have a good reputation.
However, we had some really cool experiences! It started out with
finding a family Sunday night of last week and being able to meet with
them multiple times this week. The mom (Naomi) has been going through a
really rough time, she recently had a son murdered in Mexico. We're
trying to help her understand the Plan of Salvation and that she can be
with her son again as his mother. It's really great to see how much the
gospel can touch people. She seems to be doing much better and being
happier, even though she's been pretty sick the whole week, which is why
she couldn't come to church. We've also been working with another one
of her adult sons, Miguel, and he's doing a lot better than we thought
that he would. We left him with something to read from the Book of
Mormon (Alma 40) and we dropped by last night to see how he had done
with reading before we came by today to teach them some more. (He had to
work Sunday morning.) To our surprise, when he started talking about
something entirely different than the Spirit world. We asked him where
he was reading, and he said Ether 15! It wasn't quite what we had hoped
(where he had just read from Alma 40 to Ether 15) but rather that
somehow the assignment got mixed up. However, it ended up being exactly
what he needed! He read Ether 15:3 to us and said that it was exactly
what was going on with his mom! ("and his soul mourned and refused to be
comforted," Ether 15:3, last lines) So that was really cool! We're way
excited to talk with them tonight again! He said that he had a hard time
reading in the physical book, so we downloaded the app onto his phone
and showed him how to use it. He was really excited with that and said
he was going to read more! Way cool!
And in other
news, our mission president is going home this week. It's pretty clear
that he's been kinda trunky. He (and especially Sister James) have been
very excited to spend time with their grandchildren. I had my last
interview with them on Thursday, and that was really cool too. I'm going
to miss them, but I'm glad I had the privelege of serving with them for
about 10 months! The really cool part is that our next mission
president (coming in on Thursday or Friday) is Elder Holland's son!
We're super excited for that, and I get to have him for over a year! I
hope that Grandpa (as Sister James referred to him, referencing how the
new mission home is going to have a guest room) comes to visit sometime
and just happens to want to talk with the missionaries too! It's going
to be a little weird having a mission president who actually has a
family out here, we think it'll make the assistant's job more stressful
because President Holland will also have to spend time being a father
rather than just being able to be with the missionaries full time.
Still, I'm looking forwards to the experience!
So
random thing about knocking doors in trailer parks: you can find a TON
of change just scattered everywhere. I know an Elder who collected more
than $70 in 2 transfers. It's pretty crazy. Apparently change collecting is a common thing with missionaries out here.
And
in other random news, being with my MTC companion again has been way
good for my morning workout. We just ran 4 miles this morning, and we
usually do three every day. We would do more, but we have time
constraints on exercise. Still, it's not even hard to run anymore, and
I've actually been able to outrun him in both long distance and
sprinting! It's cool to see how much the Lord blesses you in every way
out here, even physically so that we can have energy to do His work!
That's still kind of hard, I'm tired every day!
I think that's the news of this week, love y'all!
Elder Battraw
The
pictures are first, our district just being crazy at Zone Conference
(like normal), second a random sword we found while tracting, and
finally, the famous fridge of the wife of our ward mission leader. Even
if you don't want to give her your magnet tag, she'll take it. If she
liked you, but she's basically every Spanish missionary's mom that goes
through Raleigh. It's their house where my trainer had his last meal on
the mission after his crash, and you can see his tag there too. (Elder
Rolph)
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