I Love This Work!

Dear Family Mas Salvage,

Man, I sure miss you guys. On Tuesday night as we walked through a neighborhood with dirt roads, spotted with tin and plastic houses, getting drenched in the rain, I took a step back from reality for a second and realized how crazy it is that I’m in Nicaragua serving the Lord for two years. I feel like I learn more and more every week and this week I learned a lot.

It was kinda weird because I read the story about Connor (selling pest control door-to-door) and I couldn’t help but think about a lot of the days I’ve had on the mission. We basically started out this week, and this month, with not very many investigators and not the same excitement we had the last month. Sunday I had a day that was pretty similar to Connors. Nobody was home to teach and just about everyone rejected us. On Tuesday we did an activity in the zone where we all did divisions and went to a different area in our zone. That morning I pleaded with the Lord that He would allow us to be instruments in His hands and find the people that are prepared to hear the message. Tuesday turned out being such an awesome day. We ended up finding 30 new investigators and 7 new families that day. Connor, learn from the times that you’re going through right now because it’s the preparation that the Lord wants you to have for your mission. Everyone has their hard days but the Lord always blesses us with success when we’ve learned our lesson.

On Thursday night we went to talk to a girl named Milena who has been an investigator ever since I’ve been here basically and has just NEVER wanted to get baptized. We talked to her with the young women’s president but she still just said that she didn’t want to, maybe next year. We were pretty bummed.  On Friday night, we went by the church to see if a few investigators went to mutual. We were surprised when she ran up to us to tell us that she wanted to be baptized on Saturday! It seriously was a miracle. As I thought about what made the difference, I realized that it wasn’t necessarily all the lessons we had with her but from the influences of all the people in her life. Hermana Marcia (one of our converts and her mom) told us later that she wrote in her journal how much she loved the gospel and that she wanted her daughter (Milena) to let it change her life. All the young men and young women helped her a ton by being her friend, and especially the young women’s president. This week I learned that the organization of the church is truly a revelation from God and how important YM and YW’s programs are.

Anyways, the baptism was awesome and it was another good week, even though it was pretty stressful. I love this work and I love this gospel. I love you guys a bunch and tell all the family in Utah that I said hi!

Love,

Elder Ward