Dearest Ward Clan,
Man, I love reading your guys’ letters! It’s truly amazing that we can be in two different parts of the world and have similar spiritual experiences. I’ll respond to some of your thoughts with some of the experiences I’ve had this week.
To start the week we had interviews with President Monestel. It’s always a super spiritual experience and I think for me it made me really reflect on my mission and what more the Lord expects of me. It got me really fired up to just be the best that I can be so I’ve been trying really hard to be the best that I can in every way. This week more than ever I’ve felt the pressure of being a Zone Leader. We’ve been trying so hard to give the elders in our zone good examples, teach them true principles, animate them, train them, and love them. I’m gonna let you guys in on a sad secret. I think everyone would imagine that all missionaries, considering that they’re representatives of Jesus Christ, are obedient or mostly obedient, and everything is just fine and dandy. Unfortunately, there are very few in this mission that are like that. Connor and Collin, decide right now that you will give the Lord your all in your missions because there are many called but few are chosen. We found out this week that there are problems with obedience with the majority of missionaries in our zone. Elders with girlfriends, elders with extra cell phones, elders that don’t work, elders that leave the zone to go have fun, and just a bunch of stuff. These past couple of days have been super crazy, but somehow I’ve found peace in having to make a bunch of decisions with many of the elders. I’ve had to ask the Lord for a lot of help and it’s truly amazing how He’s guided me in everything that I’ve done. I was reading Mosiah 2 this week and I was amazed by the love that King Benjamin had for his people. In his last moments of life he took it upon himself to talk to his people 1. because he loved God and his fellowmen and 2. so that he himself could be clean from his sins. I’ve learned that all that we can do is be the very best that we can so that we can tell the Lord that we did all we could.
That ties in to another experience that we had this week. We’ve been working hard to find new families to teach and baptize but haven’t been seeing very many fruits. We were kinda bummed because we didn’t have anyone in church when all of a sudden a family of members walked in with 3 people, a family and another guy. They just came from another city and were already taught by the missionaries. The member said, “hey elders, I brought some investigators to church for you. They’re basically just ready to get baptized.” We have an appt with them tonight so we’re pretty stoked. Honestly, sometimes we feel like our obedience and our diligence isn’t paying off but the Lord always has peculiar ways of blessing us.
Last night I spent the night in Elder Pace’s area. He’s had some real tough times with his comp who is having emergency changes tomorrow which is a long story, but it was fun to be able to just hang out and talk about how much the mission has really truly changed our lives. We reminisced about the times we used to hang out in front ofWallace Theater in 7th grade and where we are now, in the heart of Nicaragua
Love,
Elder Ward
PS...I really don’t know what else I’d want for Christmas....one idea, don’t know how you’d do it but what I’d love is like a little folder or binder of pictures that I could use to teach from all the principles of PMG...but don’t worry if that’s too big of a hassle cuz I could make it too.
Man, I love reading your guys’ letters! It’s truly amazing that we can be in two different parts of the world and have similar spiritual experiences. I’ll respond to some of your thoughts with some of the experiences I’ve had this week.
To start the week we had interviews with President Monestel. It’s always a super spiritual experience and I think for me it made me really reflect on my mission and what more the Lord expects of me. It got me really fired up to just be the best that I can be so I’ve been trying really hard to be the best that I can in every way. This week more than ever I’ve felt the pressure of being a Zone Leader. We’ve been trying so hard to give the elders in our zone good examples, teach them true principles, animate them, train them, and love them. I’m gonna let you guys in on a sad secret. I think everyone would imagine that all missionaries, considering that they’re representatives of Jesus Christ, are obedient or mostly obedient, and everything is just fine and dandy. Unfortunately, there are very few in this mission that are like that. Connor and Collin, decide right now that you will give the Lord your all in your missions because there are many called but few are chosen. We found out this week that there are problems with obedience with the majority of missionaries in our zone. Elders with girlfriends, elders with extra cell phones, elders that don’t work, elders that leave the zone to go have fun, and just a bunch of stuff. These past couple of days have been super crazy, but somehow I’ve found peace in having to make a bunch of decisions with many of the elders. I’ve had to ask the Lord for a lot of help and it’s truly amazing how He’s guided me in everything that I’ve done. I was reading Mosiah 2 this week and I was amazed by the love that King Benjamin had for his people. In his last moments of life he took it upon himself to talk to his people 1. because he loved God and his fellowmen and 2. so that he himself could be clean from his sins. I’ve learned that all that we can do is be the very best that we can so that we can tell the Lord that we did all we could.
That ties in to another experience that we had this week. We’ve been working hard to find new families to teach and baptize but haven’t been seeing very many fruits. We were kinda bummed because we didn’t have anyone in church when all of a sudden a family of members walked in with 3 people, a family and another guy. They just came from another city and were already taught by the missionaries. The member said, “hey elders, I brought some investigators to church for you. They’re basically just ready to get baptized.” We have an appt with them tonight so we’re pretty stoked. Honestly, sometimes we feel like our obedience and our diligence isn’t paying off but the Lord always has peculiar ways of blessing us.
Last night I spent the night in Elder Pace’s area. He’s had some real tough times with his comp who is having emergency changes tomorrow which is a long story, but it was fun to be able to just hang out and talk about how much the mission has really truly changed our lives. We reminisced about the times we used to hang out in front of
Love,
Elder Ward
PS...I really don’t know what else I’d want for Christmas....one idea, don’t know how you’d do it but what I’d love is like a little folder or binder of pictures that I could use to teach from all the principles of PMG...but don’t worry if that’s too big of a hassle cuz I could make it too.
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