This
week was a pretty good week. We've been fed so much this week that I feel like
I've gained some serious weight. Every day we've been fed so much for dinner
that most mornings I didn't even want to eat breakfast, but then Elder Anderson
and I would make pancakes and get stuffed in the morning. So the food has been
great recently. I honestly love Mexican food so much.
This week we had Zone
Conference on Thursday and it went
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| "Sick old Camaro we found last P-Day" |
super well. The whole focus was the idea of
making sure that the people we teach become converted to the Gospel. It was
centered around a missionary broadcast that was done back in January while I
was in the MTC. The title of that broadcast is "Teach Repentance, and
Baptize Converts." So in order to baptize people who are truly converted
we have to make sure that they are making changes in their lives. The way we
are able to see this is if our investigators keep commitments because they want
to, not because they feel obligated or the missionaries are cool. During Zone
Conference we also talked about maintaining a positive attitude and how to find
better. It was a super good conference as it always is with President Lewis. Oh
while I was there I picked up a super comfy robe. I'll make sure to get a pic
in it for next week.
We did
service at a senior center and this lady told me a pretty funny joke that I
thought you'd all enjoy. She
said, "Do you know why seagulls fly over the sea?" "Because if
they flew over the bay they'd be called bagels." Kinda goofy but I
figured you would enjoy the goofy humor
So this week we've been
teaching this girl named Gabby. She's a senior in high school and recently had
her brother pass away, so we've talked with her about the plan of salvation and
she really seems to be enjoying it. She was born catholic but doesn't know a
whole lot about the Gospel. So, when we taught her about how we can all be
resurrected and live with our families again, she really liked that. Our plans
for this week are to get her whole family involved, so hopefully that goes
well.
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| Elder Anderson and Elder Miles |
On Wednesday this week
we went and mowed a member’s lawn who overworks himself too much. His health is
good, but the doctor doesn't want him doing too much and he already works like
12-14 hour days. So we went over to help out and of course we got a little
carried away with the pictures, but hey it's not too often we get to wear
jeans, so we had to take advantage of it.
Oh random experience - we
were walking down the road one day and we found this 20 sided die (as in dice)
and Elder Anderson goes if this lands on an 8 we're talking to the guy in that
truck up there. The truck was off our path a little and we were already pushing
being late, but I was like sure why not. And well it landed on 8! So we went
and talked to him and it was this Mexican guy who recently moved to Yakima
because his kids are here with his ex-wife, and he wanted to be closer to them.
So we talked for a little and he said that we were welcome to come by his
house. So we'll see what happens.
Yesterday I was thinking
a lot about the branch and the
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| Local apples |
progress it has made since I've been here. The
branch hasn't seen any baptisms in a while, but since I got to the branch there
have been like 2 less active families that have been strengthened a ton, and an
inactive family that has come back to church. Plus Daniel and Lucia have been
super solid, and the Contreras family has stayed super faithful (they were
baptized a month before I got here). I was thinking about this and the spirit
struck me pretty hard, and I felt this huge reconfirming feeling of the
truthfulness of our message.
--
Elder Miles
Washington Yakima
Mission
