Week 8: Do Not Forget to Pray

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all doing well. Thank you for the emails/letters and pictures. Miss you all! And for the people of Idaho's sake I will change all their names because I heard a story of a man leaving the church because his missionary wrote home about him and posted it on the internet.

This week started off awesome. Monday, we taught four lessons in a matter of hours. We usually are unable to teach that many in a whole day. From that experience, I though the week was going to be awesome, that everything would be turning around. Nope I was wrong. Elder Downey has started this program called "Elder Downey Be quiet days" On those days he does not talk and I am in charge of all the decisions we make, lessons we teach and talking to people. Tuesday was one of those days and everything went wrong that could go wrong. All our appointments cancelled, people were slamming door after door and the people we talked to told us to go away. We worked our tails off to find someone or at least do some service for someone. Absolutely nothing! That was a downer of a day. That night, when I was getting ready for bed I did not want to go to sleep. My desire to go out and keep serving was too great to let me sleep, so that night I did not. Sadly once the sun goes down no one will open their doors even though it is only 6 or 7 o'clock.  Wednesday we met a woman named Angela. She called the bishop of one of our wards telling him she wanted to learn more about the Church. She is a super nice lady. She has had a rough past. Drug addiction,  abusive marriage, been to jail, not fun stuff. She has been searching for God and understanding and relief in her life. So we met with her at noon. ( Elder Downey was in bed all day Wednesday so we did emergency exchanges to be able to teach her.) We went through the restoration of the Gospel and the Joseph Smith Story. She absorbed everything. At the end she said the restoration made sense because she was being restored as well. She has been keeping her commitments. She is set to be baptized  on November 22 at 2:00. She was/is totally prepared by Heavenly Father, no doubt about it. It showed me that when we work hard having faith in the Lord that He will provide, He will. We may not always see the fruits of our labor but they are there. Other than that this week was spent in our house. WE left for a total of 77 minutes in 2 days. Elder Downey has been really sick. We have been praying to have the strength to go out and the little time we were, we did a lot! Saturday Elder Downey felt better but lost his voice. I taught lessons by myself. It was crazy! Great Learning experience. Sunday Elder Downey was back in bed home sick with Elder Blake that had the flu. So I went out with Elder Simmons. We had to give a talk in one of their wards. I prepared a 20 minute talk in an hour. Since I was helping the other missionaries it was a very long Sunday. We were at a church building at 8 am and ran from building to building until 4 pm. 8 hours of church takes a toll on you. For some reason I was very contentious for part of the remaining hours we were out. Everything was annoying me. We taught a less active family around 7:30. We discussed the atonement and everything that Christ has done for me in my life. It rejuvenated me and I felt the Spirit working through me. I was so comforted and happy after that. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. He suffered all our pains and sorrows to help me get through my struggles. I am so grateful for everything He has done for me. 

Hope you all have a great week! Do not forget to pray or study the scriptures!

I suggest you read Alma 31:26-38! It is AWESOME!

Elder Rush

Elder Rush is a little taller than his fridge!