Week 23

New Area, sickness, and meeting new people!

Last time I emailed everyone it was during transfer week. I didn't know much about the area and my companion other than that I had three wards, and a car. After a couple of days I've gotten to know more of the layout of the land. My new wards are really cool and now I'm in Queen Creek Arizona. It's basically a suburb of Gilbert, but not at the same time. There's fewer houses, so it's easier to see the mountains and the sunsets, but there are so many houses being built, its crazy!

One of our wards is 6 months old and another ward is about to be split as it has over 600 people... WHAT! So many people moving in. It's crazy! My new companion is Elder Merrell. And we've been getting along really well! He's super cool and interested in a lot of the same things. We both like music and instruments. He loves mechanic things and robotics and cars. We also both really like reading books, so we've been doing really well. He's a super hard worker and we've had lots of cool miracles here and there. What's cool about this area I'm in right now is that there are several in-active members and they having been coming back! What's super cool is that one family has been gone from the church for over 10 years! And that just brought upon me an important lesson. Never stop loving. Never stop! Even when you think that this inactive member isn't interested, your loving example plants seeds in their hearts! All of those invitations that seemed fruitless and all of those missionaries that stopped by, they couldn't see in the moment the results of their work. Heavenly Father though was preparing them the whole time. So yeah it'll be cool to help them relearn the Gospel and baptize their children. That will be an amazing experience. But we have to--I have to remember--all that God and the members and previous missionaries have already done for us. Just such a cool experience.

Sadly a lot of them are sick right now, I'm pretty sure its all omicron, but it's rough. We've had 6 lessons as a companionship since this past Wednesday and all of them have cancelled. It's crazy, but after it blows over, we'll be back teaching them. But it's been a great week so far! Elder Merrell and I gave a fifth Sunday lesson  and we gave a lesson to the 11-13 year olds about preparing for a mission. It was super cool! They at times asked silly questions, but in the end we delivered the message to gain a testimony. A testimony that Christ is their Savior, Heavenly Father loves them and all of His children perfectly, that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith through the power of God, and that through it we can draw closer to Christ and learn more of Him. Find out for yourself that it is true, and you will be enough. Christ will support you in all that you do. When we try our hardest, we are always enough for the Lord. 

But yeah, that was a great lesson. We spent alot of time contacting members and stopping by to meet people and meeting people around the neighborhood! It's cool to use my love of music and cars and even when people aren't interested in the message at first, I can start a relationship with them. We've had some cool experiences through cars and music. We talked to lady on the street about her and her husband's cars. They had a 66 Mustang with custom rear fenders and exhaust through the bumpers. Super cool! Her huband also had a cool car, a Volvo P100. Super cool old Volvo coupe. Super interesting, but it'll be good looking. It didn't get to the Gospel, she was sick and had to get inside, but after the contact, Elder Merrell said that he has been trying to get in contact with her for months now, she was an inactive member! Lots of knocks and no answers, but we got to talk to her and connect with our love of cars and working on them! Super cool. 

And haha we had a member lesson and it was a great lesson about Christ-like attributes. Afterwards they called us a "powerhouse of a companionship". Haha, it was only our 4th day together. But our teaching could be better, but we blend pretty well and have a good 50/50 mix. There's a lot of work to be done, but it's going to be an awesome transfer! I'm excited! Love ya guys! (The burger is my first In-N-Out burger, and yeah it isn't crazy, it's fastfood, but for the price, it was pretty good!)

ロバートソン長老