Monday 5 September 2016

Up From Below

15 August 2016

Okay, this week has been a miracle week. It's been an absolute blast.
"I'm riding on heaven's flames coming up from below"
This was our first full week in our new area, so Elder Ronces and I decided to get down to work. Our inventory of investigators wasn't very big at the start of the week, so we just continued with the trend we set, and when a lesson would fall, we would just start knocking doors or talking to people on the street, and try to teach them a lesson in their home then and there. It's seriously so much fun to just go around and share as much as we can, to find those elect people the Lord has prepared for us.
On Wednesday, we had a bit of a surprise hit us when some missionaries, Elder Arguello and Elder Thorsen, who came in from São Nicolau for Zone Conference on Friday, called us needing a place to stay for the week. That meant that we had an extra two missionaries in our area to work, so what we did was we split up during those days, me with one of them, and Elder Ronces with the other, and just get to know and find as many people as we could. By the end of the week, we had knocked out 36 lessons, a total I don't think I've ever hit or come close to on my mission. During that time, we found 22 new investigators as well. At the beginning of the week, we had a box full of Book of Mormons. That box is looking pretty thin now... hahaha
One of the investigators we've been working with is named Lu, she's a 27 year old single mother of a 3 year old. The Sisters had been working with her, and expressed to us that she was really really cool. As we got to know her, on our second visit, we began to review some stuff the Sisters taught, and as I had seen on a sheet given to the branch president, I thought she had a baptismal date marked for the 20th of this month. At the end of the lesson, I said to her, "so, I know the Sisters have already talked to you about baptism, right?" to which she responded, "what? no..." and I was kinda taken aback, so after gathering myself, I said, "well then, we'd like to talk to you about baptism :)", and gave my companion his first opportunity to invite someone to be baptized. She accepted a date for the 27th, and came to church on Sunday. She's looking super boss. She's got a really incredible desire to follow the Savior.
We also had another investigator, named Danielson, who the Sisters had been teaching since June, who had progressed relatively little, and was actually dropped by them. One member showed him to us, and we focused in on him with his Book of Mormon reading and his answer. While it was really simple, when we came back, he explained to us that, in his prayer, he felt that he needed to come to church on Sunday. When Sunday came around, we passed by his house to remind him, and his mom had to wake him up, but sure enough, he came! All last transfer, the Sisters really struggled in this area, and had one investigator come once in 6 weeks, and on Sunday, the Lord worked the miracle of bringing 2 :) we're coming up from below here.
We also had a SWEET Zone Conference this week. It reunited me with some dear friends on the mission, including Elder Bullock and Elder Schofield, the latter who goes home in a week, leaving me the last living missionary from my first district out here. I'm so old dang it. President and Sister Mathews had their son, Mark, come and give a training at ZC, and it was awesome. He really focused in on the importance of the First Vision and Book of Mormon in teaching, and even though I've taught about it a million times, I felt like I was understanding it all for the first time. It was perfect for what I needed right now, especially as we're picking up a newish area here.
I can't tell you how many times this week we've had lessons where the Spirit is so strongly there to testify of the truthfulness of what we say. I feel like this week alone, I've had more people make solid connections on what we are teaching, than in the last 3 or 4 months of my mission. The Lord is truly helping us find prepared people and families. I'm so excited to see what comes of all our work we're doing :)
Well, I've written a lot. My new comp is cool, and we're finally leveling with each other, getting used to each other. We're having a lot of fun, and he's really chill. It's good for me to have someone so chill right now.
Life is awesome
Love y'all!
Elder Massey

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