A Week of Highs & Lows 5/2/2016

Last week started off pretty well. Last Monday evening, we had a family over at a member's home in our ward for some fun and games. P is our maintenance guy at our apartment. Both him and his wife and their son, V, joined us at the members. P and his wife are both members of the church but they haven't been in a while so we are trying to help them find friends in the ward. The only thing is that P's wife doesn't speak very much English, so the lesson quickly turned from English to Spanish. Surprisingly, I was able to understand the gist of what was being said and was able to teach with P translating for me. It was a neat experience for both families, and they were able to form a friendship fairly easily, especially because V is about the same age as the other boys. Well P's wife was able to come out to church yesterday with Sister G, the member, and really enjoyed it.

Later, throughout the week, it seemed like everything was falling through. J, wasn't able to get baptized because he didn't feel quite ready so we postponed that. Then a few of the people we were teaching dropped us. So looking forward to Sunday, Elder Strong and I wondered if we would have anyone at church. Well, Saturday came and we were determined to go out and fill the holes. We worked hard and it did pay off. By the end of Saturday, we were led to many people who needed our message at that exact time. We not only filled the holes, but we were able to find more people than we lost. I think back to a story in the Bible that I have been pondering all week. In John, the Lord comes to his disciples who have been fishing all night and asks them if they have caught any. To which they respond to the stranger in the distance that they had not. Then Jesus tells them to cast their nets on the side of the boat and "ye shall find." When the disciples followed the Savior’s direction, their nets were filled so full that they weren't able to lift it back into the boat. I feel like the Savior taught me this lesson. When it seemed like we were having no luck we had to listen to to the Spirit and cast our spiritual nets where the Savior would have us. In return, as we followed the Savior’s direction—just as the disciples did, our nets were filled.

Last night, our stake had a fireside. J, our recent convert was asked to speak and share his conversion story. It was so cool to hear his side of the story and how he explained that he wanted nothing more than to scare us away with his pit bulls when we came to his house. But as time went on he learned the Savior’s love for him and found purpose to his life and is a part of something greater. Those who came out were truly touched by the sincerity of his testimony. It is so cool that not more than three months ago J was sitting on his porch confused and wondering where his life was going, and now he was able to get up in front of the the whole stake and share what he knew to be true. This gospel does change people and it is true.

Have a great week and love you all!

Elder Bullough