Ups and Downs

There have been a lot of ups and downs this week, but I really mean it when I say I've learned and grown a lot. The highlight was when we watched "Together Forever" with the Barrios family. Let me tell you, that movie is one of the cheesiest things they give us missionaries to use, but for whatever reason the Spirit was really strong when we watched it that night. The mom was crying at the end and said she knew the gospel was true, and Elder Trujillo and I walked out deeply touched. 

    This transfer, the mission-wide study focus is on Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel, which discusses the atributes of Christ and how we can apply them. Even though it's not one of the ones listed in PMG, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude recently. Twice a week we volunteer at a food pantry, and about two weeks ago they had to close early one day. The woman who went out to make the announce came back and told us that one guy just exploded when he heard. He started shouting at the woman, and told her that the pantry isn't open enough, accused them of misusing the "government funds" they get (even though they work purely on private donations), and that their bread was so hard he could use it as a leathal weapon. ridiculous, right? here's a guy getting FREE FOOD and he's shouting at the people giving it to them about their services. But then I was reading in Mosiah 2 the other day, and I realized a lot of people tend to do that with God. Even though He provides us with absolutely everything, and everything He sends our way is intended for our ultimate growth and benefit, we often complain about what we lack or lost. That's something I love about King Benjamin's discourse--it gives us a good dose of humility and gratitude. I've determined that I want to focuse more on our blessings every day.

     Not too much has been going on though, but things are good. We get fed like CRAZY here (I think our investigators just really like Elder Trujillo), which has been great. And somehow, almost every investigator we find knows other people we're teaching. But anyway, we're seeing lots of miracles and we've got some great investigators. I know this is Lord's work, and that He will heal us if exercise faith in Him.

 

Elder Gaughan