Losing Myself in the Service of the Lord



Sunset Ometepe

Hey Fam!

First of all, I just want to apologize for not writing you guys yesterday. Not that this was the highlight of my week, but we had the best P Day I’ve ever had in my mission. We went to the Island of Ometepe with President and his family. It´s that island that is in the middle of the HUGE lake. Anyways, we left at 4am and got back at like 7:30PM so there wasn´t any time to write you guys last night. This letter is gonna be a little short because we gotta get out and do some soul savin´pretty soon here.

Jaime and Juana

Jaime and Juana's Baptism

Sweet Pricesmart Cake

I could basically just send you guys pictures to explain everything that happened this week, but I forgot my camera in the house. But...I’ll start with last Saturday. Jaime and Juana´s baptism was amazing. It was cool to see how happy they were after waiting for so long to get baptized. They love this gospel so much and they are already talking about going to get sealed in the temple :). We got a sweet Pricesmart cake made for them and everything and about 70 people from the ward showed up, so it was a success. In our meeting with President on Monday he told us that he wanted to take us for a trip with his family to thank us for the work that we’ve been doing. It was pretty funny because as he was saying that, Ometepe Island popped up on his little digital photo frame and I received revelation. We proposed the idea and that explains yesterday´s events.

Another Long Day...

This week has been another super busy week...I feel like the more I get the hang of things here in the office, the more work there is for me to do. It doesn´t surprise me though because life is never really going to be just smooth sailing, especially when you´re doing the Lord´s work. There have been a couple of days this week where I fell asleep in my missionary clothes and last night I woke up at 3am with my knees killing me...fell asleep again praying. It can be tough sometimes but this week I couldn’t help but have the overwhelming feeling of joy that comes knowing that I´m losing my life in the service of the Lord. Dad, I liked your mountain analogy. There are days where I feel like I can’t hike anymore...like a sressful day in the office, and when I get to the field I´m tempted to just give a half effort. It´s amazing how the Lord gives us strength when we think we can´t anymore.
The Lord continues to work miracles in our area. Two days ago we were walking to an appointment when some punk kid says, "Hey, this guy wants to talk to you!" He did it as a joke, probably to bug the man, but we went and talked to him anyway. Welp, this Sunday he went to church with his daughter out of nowhere and he loved it. We also started teaching a family named Yubelka and Carlos. The wife read the Introduction of the BOM and Joseph Smith´s testimony and said that when she read it she felt so much peace and happiness. They promised that they would pray about the BOM. I think I already talked about Agustin and his grandkids but they accepted a baptismal date for this Saturday. We found out that his doubt was that he can’t read and felt like the Lord wouldnt accept him in His church. As we testified that he was a child of God and that all he needed was a willing heart the Spirit was super strong.

Ouch!!!

I learned something valuable from President this week. I´ve found that when someone has so many things to do at one time that it’s pretty stressful, and it’s easy to lose your patience. President called me this week, laughing as he told me that he had backed his car into a pole on the basketball court at the church. He came to drop his car off at the house...the back of his car looked like a smashed tin can, windshield broken, the whole deal. He just said..."It was the pole’s fault!" and was pretty calm about it. If it were me I probably would’ve been super bummed, but President just laughed it off. Maybe he´ll react differently when he sees how much it costs to fix it.  :)
This letter is getting long...but yesterday was super legit. We took two of the cars on the ferry over to Ometepe and went and did all this stuff on the island. Went and drove around the volcano, went to some museums, had a super good lunch, did a hike, and just enjoyed being with President and his family.
Welp, all my bros (friends) are coming home. I’m not gonna lie, I wish I could be there to see them come home but I wouldn’t ever give up my time here. I still love being a missionary and I’m trying super super hard not to ever be trunky haha. My bud, E. Reyes (one of the AP´s) is going back to El Salvador this week so that’s kinda a bummer too. Every now and then I think about that day and how I will feel and it motivates me to give all that I can to be able to say that I fought the good fight. Tell all of them that I said hi and that I love them.

Love you guys!!!!!!!
Elder Trevor Ward

Ferry to Ometepe

President Monestel and family and The Office

Volcano on Ometepe