On the Lord's Errand : ~HAPPY DECEMBER!~

What a wonderful Thanksgiving week here in Russellville. I was able to enjoy both a Spanish style of Food for Thanksgiving as well as traditional English dinners!

I was also able to play soccer on Thanksgiving with the English ward and the Elders in my district. I haven't played in so long (since the CCM) but it was so fun! My companion and I then watched them play in a Turkey Bowl afterwards.

We were also able to teach some wonderful families and lessons. One lady asked me what I wanted to do when I got off my mission and I told her my major and then she said, "Can you help me?" Me being a missionary said, "Of course. I then pulled out a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and talked all about it." She read the whole thing by the next time we came and her only question was.... Can I have more of those pamphlets? We then gave her all the lessons in small little pamphlets to read. The next time we went she had read them all and is ready to live the standards and commitments of all of them. We just need her to come to church twice before she can be baptized.

Tuesday was one of the hardest days (rejection wise) on my mission. Normally people are really kind when they don't want to listen to our message, or are not interested, but this day was something else. One door after the next. People would just open the door and then shut it without even talking to us. We would go up to someone in the street and they would say, "Oh heavens no" and quickly walk away. I knew however, that if we just kept going we would find someone prepared. I honestly think the Lord was just testing us to see if we would keep going, keep trying, keep our heads up. That night after dinner we had 2 appointments. Both fell through. However, that is when the miracle came. We felt impressed to knock on this door that we had passed several times. It was late at night and normally we don't knock on doors late at night but we decided to go and knock on it. This lady answered and let us in. We started talking to her. Before we even got to far she says, "Where is your church? What time?" We told her and then she said, "OK I'm coming." She then had to go so we ended with a prayer. We asked her if there was anything that we could bless her with and she just started crying and said "Health". It was such a miracle to have knocked on her door and to have met this wonderful lady.

It ended up being a wonderful day.

It reminded me of a quote I love that says, "Learn to Love your struggles. You simply can't grow without them." We learned a lot that day, and I'm so grateful for that.

I'm loving the opportunity I have to serve here in Russellville. The English ward here is helping us out so much. They have given us multiple referrals (which the English Elders HATE.. because we are "Spanish speaking" but most of them are ladies that apparently we might be able to better help.) The Spanish branch has maybe 50 people in it with about 30 people attending the past 2 weeks. It is very small so us missionaries get to participate a lot.

Well that's about it for the week. Have a wonderful week,