Busy Week

 Howdy ya'll! Sorry for not sending an email last week, we were crazy busy!

Last Week: Last week was the end of my time with Elder Phabia. We had a great time together, and I was sad to see him go. Regardless, on Thursday last week we went to transfers and I picked up my greenie! I forget if i mentioned him in my last email, but his name is Elder Balad and he's from the Philippines! He's an absolutely fantastic person and he's gonna be an even better missionary.

Monday: Last Monday was Elder Balad's first, so we did some nice prep work for the week. Upon returning home, we played Monopoly the rest of the day, which Elder Balad seems to love now!

Tuesday: This was a great day! We started by cleaning the bikes, then went to do some door knocking. We found a very kind and welcoming family who we really hoped would progress, and so far so good. After that we went to do Sister Natalie's baptism interview, and she nailed it! We were so happy! After we taught a few more lessons and then went home.

Wednesday: Wednesday was a rough day, as we couldn't get anyone to pick up the phone. We did a lot of finding and met a few promising people. Here's to hopin! After that we taught the family that we found the day before and went home on a good note.

Thursday: Thursday was a standard day, beginning with an attempt at fixing the bikes. It worked! After that we went finding, taught a ton of new people, and shared a lot of the gospel. It was a pretty perfect day in my opinion!

Friday: On Friday we started off different as there was no DCM today. Instead Elder Balad and I went to a pizza place to get some of the best pizza ever. While waiting on our order to come out, we received a message from Maisha and her son Gift, who were on date to be baptized. They completely dropped us, and we are heartbroken over it. Please pray for them to continue reading and to come back! The rest of the day was blurred, and I couldn't entirely focus. There were long lessons and we went home super late.

Saturday: On Saturday we had our DCM, and the ZL's joined us. It was very uplifting and inspiring, we learned so much. After that we tried to see all the people that we met in previous days and most of them canceled. We hung out with Natalie for a bit to calm her nerves then taught a lesson. After that, we felt guided to head to the family of recent converts. Recently we have discovered that their younger brother who we had also baptized had moved, and was now in the hospital with cancer. We offered the entire family blessings of comfort, and I'll explain more about that later!

Sunday: The day of the baptism!! We are so happy to announce that Sister Natalie is now a full fledged member of the church! I've never seen anyone so happy to be baptized before! Another special detail is that President and Sister Holmes came and attended sacrament meeting with our ward, and said it was just perfect after the 2 hours of church and baptism was over (which they also decided to stay for). They were very loving and welcoming Natalie and gave us heavy congratulations! The rest of the day was spent putting one more person on date and eating with an amazing member.

Spiritual Thought: I wanted to again, bare my testimony of the priesthood! When we gave the whole family blessings, mother and daughters, they were relaxed. Not only were they extremely happy to have received the blessings, but the blessings worked! The Spirit was so strong, and it even convinced the dad who was home and never talked to us, to also receive a blessing... OF HIS OWN REQUEST! What a miracle! God truly does use His worthy and able priesthood holders to bless and serve His children!