Week 61

Hello all! 

This week was great! I turned 21 and it was awesome. We did some fun stuff and we went out to dinner with a returning less active, an active family had us for lunch and made me a cake, I was sung to by the whole branch on Sunday at the potluck and by other missionaries on the phone (just like last year), etc. 

We went to Great Falls last Monday for zone preparation day and for a stake missionary meeting and then we went to Helena the next day for a zone conference. The roads were a bit icy but we are alive. I'm surprised but not surprised that the whole caravan of missionaries made it without accidents during that trip. I appreciate the prayers! :) 

One of the many things I learned this time was that the wolf we feed is the wolf that will win. It's an old story about the rivalry between a good and bad wolf. We can label all the good traits and Christlike attributes we need to strive for as the "good wolf" and the "bad wolf" with the opposites. I have seen this many times in my mission. For example, I am going to be negative when I feed that emotion. When I dwell on the annoying or not-so-good things that happened that day, I'm going to have a bad attitude and outlook. But when I focus on the good and have a grateful heart, I can be happy, have the spirit, and enjoy my mission. We cannot serve 2 masters so one wolf has to win. That's the one we feed. It's still something I'm working on but this principle is true. 

Here's a miracle: We were contacting a former investigator and it said in the area book that they weren't sure if she lived there anymore. So we decided to try it and see and we found a family who listened and wants us to come back! They took a Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and everything. The dad is not that interested but he says his kids are and his wife was. Definitely have a testimony of contacting formers. 

We found a pretty awesome guy in Sunburst this week. We were contacting a referral who ended up not being interested and then we hopped back in the truck. But then I remembered that we should tract around the referrals house and we said another quick prayer and started knocking. It was cold and not so enjoyable but the last house we tried ended up being a guy who has a Book of Mormon a member gave him who works with him at border patrol and has been reading it! He showed us and had lots of questions and believes some of what we believe. He was more than open to us coming back next week and literally asked us what else we wanted to share with him before we left. It was awesome. 

Later that night, we had dinner and FHE with one of our investigators at a member family's home. Both members are converts so for FHE (and Sister Smith's and my training), we heard their convert stories and the investigator we brought soaked it all in. He's the one who has to wait until he's 18 to be baptized because of his parents, and one of the members had to wait as well because she was 16 when she wanted to join the church. He thanked them afterwards and said he could relate. Aw. Such a good FHE. :) 

Well, that was a good chunk of the week! Hope you all are having a good day!