Nobody Else Can Do It

HEY!!!!

I hate to start with this as well but at some point of this week I realized that I have about a month left of my mission. I think I’ve mentioned this before but it made me think about Jesus Christ and the last month/week of his life. I imagine that sometimes He felt weary at times, but nonetheless thought, "Well, it’s time to finish strong." I feel like this week I got to take a couple of steps in the Garden of Gethsemane. I’ll talk about that in a sec.

It’s funny that we’re going to Canada on our trip because Elder Comfort and I always joke around and talk about how dumb the United States/Canada is. We argue about how to say words like "bag", "pasta", "tomorrow", and I usually make a comment or two about hockey being the only sport. It’s really all just friendly but I said out loud just now, "What the heck, we’re going to Canada?!?!" Elder Comfort said, "That’s awesome!" At the same time that I said "That sucks!". Good thing we won’t be there for too long. ;) I’m really starting to love the kid. That’s awesome that Mitt Romney is doing so well...to be honest with you nobody ever talks about that here. The big news here this week was who won the soccer match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Real Madrid won if you guys wanted to know. I haven’t been very inclined to exercise either on my mission but, like you two haha, I’ve been rockin the work out sessions. I don’t know what’s harder...trying to figure out ways to exercise without any kind of weights or doing the actual exercise. (Elder Comfort woke up to me bicep curling two metal chairs once).

Anyways...back to what I mentioned earlier. I read something in Preach My Gosepl this week that really got me. It’s a quote from Dallin H. Oaks, "Nobody else can do it." If I decide to "give up" now that means that nobody else is going to do the work that the Lord wants me to do. So...despite our seemingly fruitless efforts we kept working. Every time we see a family we contact them, and it finally paid off in these last couple days. On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with a family whose handicapped son came and grabbed my hand as we went walking by his house. If that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is. Just one of God’s angels who by simply leading us to his house may have completed the most important mission he was sent here to do. Another story…. we were walking down one of the main streets in our area...and I remember just being a little down in the dumps because we weren’t finding anyone to teach. We walked past a humble tin house and through the crack between the sheet metal door and a wooden post I saw a young woman quickly glance at us. We walked about 4 more blocks but the woman stayed in my mind. One voice told me..."Go back, this is a prompting from the Spirit." Another told me, "You’re four blocks away already and she probably doesn’t want anything like everyone else that lives here." We turned around and a different lady came to the door. She said that she already went to a church and wasn’t interested and paused..."but my daughter-in-law doesn’t go to any church." We had a lesson with her last night, Ana, and she accepted a baptismal date and is super excited about coming to church. I thought about that afterwards. How many little decisions do we make every day that determine our eternal destiny or the eternal destiny of another person. Lesson learned: make the right decision.

This morning we went to Managua so that I could get my ingrown toenail out (for like the 5th time). We went to Burger King for breakfast right after. Even though I’m finishing my mission, I’m still not too old to ask for a crown from Burger King. I’m super happy here and I know that we’re doing what the Lord wants.

I don’t like to think about this much but I’m just trying to plan a couple things for when you guys come. On Wednesday, I was just thinking that after the changes meeting, which ends at like 12:30pm, President will probably invite us to lunch with the other missionaries that are leaving (like from 1-2:30) and then I thought that it would be easiest to just go visit some converts from my office area since it’s right there. President always invites the missionaries and their families to his house at around 7 for like a little goodbye thing (don’t know if you’d want to go to that or something else). Thursday and Friday are pretty much open. I`d like to go to Masaya, Ciudad Sandino, and possibly Jinotepe to visit people from the areas I served in. I figured that we could maybe do like two or three touristy things like: 1. Cerro Negro 2. Las Isletas de Granada 3. Market in Masaya (that we can do when we go to Masaya) 4. Volcan Masaya 5. Whatever else you can think of. So just be thinking about what you guys want might to do the most or talk to Elder Pace’s family to see what they liked the most...Just let me know what you’re thinking.

Also, we’re doing a presentation and I need a huge favor. I need a couple pictures from when I was younger (I remember one where I have my Easter suit on and the car keys which is awesome) and just pictures of some things I did before the mission. I need them for next Monday.

Anyways....I love you guys a bunch and excited to see you sort of soon. But for now...I’ll be on the Lord’s errand. :)

Love,

Elder Ward