think about what has happened the past six weeks I realized I have
grown a lot more then I thought. You never quite see the changes you
are making while they are happening. I guess for me I see them once I
stop moving forward and check my progress. Elder Lewis has been a
great help to me and I know that God put us together for a reason. He
and I are so very different but at the same time we are united in the
purpose of sharing the message of Jesus Christ. It has been a lot of
fun.
We are still teaching Rachel as well as working with Amber. Both of
them are truly making changes in their lives to draw closer to God as
well as their families. We are just trying to answer their questions
and see what they want to do next in their journey. I think that is
why I love this religion so much. As we go around and teach there is
the doctrine we believe in and ways to know it is accurate but there
is no set way in which we have to learn. We have the ability to do
things based on what each person needs and where their level is at. I
have really come to find that being on a mission is so much more than
the numbers. There are individuals behind those numbers. They have
families and lives. We have to help them to learn the doctrine but at
the same time help them to take sufficient steps along the straight
and narrow path so that when hard times come they don't have to fall
so far before getting back up and trying it again. We want to help
these people make the covenants and promises in the temple. Not just
in the baptismal font.
Our ward mission leader gave us a great way to help the active members
in missionary work as well as benefit ourselves. We ask the active
members if we can visit them at their house and teach them a full
lesson while they take notes on what we could of better as teachers.
We have found that this shows our trust in the members and helps us to
become the teachers that can really bless the lives of others. We
tried it out on our ward mission leader Ammon Taylor and it went
great! He played the role of an investigator and really gave us some
good insight on what we could do better. A lot of the things were
things I was already trying to work on but it was nice to get a second
person telling me to work on them. We are going to continue to teach
the members and work on their suggested improvements.
We had a day this week where we didn't have any appointments planned
and really wanted to find new people for us to start teaching. So we
hopped onto our bikes and started riding in hopes of finding people on
the street. We talked with a few people but after multiple hours I was
pretty fed up with the whole thing. I let myself get into a negative mood
that really didn't help the situation at all and now looking back I
could have done a lot more to make the situation better. We did find
one person to go to church with us but, come Sunday he was no where to
be found so it was a bummer. On another note for the first time in six
months of being in this area I finally saw the inside of our bishops
house! He is a scout for the Seattle Mariners baseball so he travels a
TON. but we stopped by randomly and he was there. It was pretty cool.
This week we also got to do some service and help a lady move out of
her house. There was so much stuff and it was a ton of work but I
really don't mind it much. However since the last rainstorm it has
been nothing but humid so I am not so happy when we have to go outside
haha. Especially to move around tons of furniture.
On Friday morning we had the great blessing of being able to go to the
Mesa temple with brother Fullmer before he has his second knee surgery
done. I have not been in a few months so I was excited to go. There
was only a handful of people in the temple when we went so it was very
small and personal. I went in with the question of what I needed to do
in order to be a better missionary and as I was sitting the song "a
child's prayer" came into my mind. It goes "Pray, he is there;
Speak, he is list’ning. You are his child; His love now surrounds you.
He hears your prayer; He loves the children. Of such is the kingdom,
the kingdom of heav’n." It was a great experience.
Well I hope you all have a marvelous week! This week is transfers and
Elder Lewis is leaving me after just one transfer together! I am
staying in brother Fullmer's house which I am more then happy about
and I get to continue to help this ward grow. We will see what
happens! Love you all!
Until next week,
Elder Cole Safford.
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