Roller coaster...

Jan 10, 2011... Dear Family,



The last week has been really good for Elder Morris and myself. We found eight new investigators and a few of them are really great. The others have potential, but will take more time. We also found a less active lady who is really great. She's been away from the Church for so long that she is more like a new investigator. She was there yesterday and did enjoy it. It will be awesome if we can get her strong and active. It was a really busy week. We taught a lot of lessons and spent a lot of time finding new people. I honestly think it was all around one of my most successful weeks. So I feel really great about it. Last night and today have been a little stressful. The rest of my district had a really bad week...actually they've been consistently having bad weeks. It's hard finding out what I can do to help them. I'm not sure how to help missionaries who aren't motivated. Some of them don't see a need to change. It's really disappointing. That's part of the reason my emails have been shorter. I could have a really great week, but then Sunday night when I get the numbers and they're lousy it is a downer. Then I spend a lot of my time thinking about what I need to do to help them. It's not an easy task. So, I am usually distracted while writing my email. I know the Lord will help me figure out how to help them. He always has, but it does take effort and thought on my part. I think that's part of the reason I'm not a big fan on P-day. During the week I'm so busy that I don't have time to worry about things much, but on P-day there is a lot more down time. Some weeks are better than others of course. The biggest struggle is figuring out what I need to teach at my district meetings. I was having a hard time figuring it out this morning, but then my prayers were answered. There are a few things President Barry wants us to teach before the end of the month. I was planning on teaching them the last two weeks, but I found out this morning that there are going to be other meetings so I won't be able to have District Meeting next week and the week after that. So, I have to teach one of those things this week. Which makes it a little easier. I'm actually going to teach about receiving revelation through church attendance. I have to study up, but I look forward to it.


Anyway, the week went really well for me. I'm happy with how things have been improving. The last two weeks we've actually found a lot more investigators than in the past. Now I need to work on teaching them clearly and helping them become converted. We also have about ten potential investigators. Hopefully we'll be able to turn them into actual investigators!


Being a missionary is a lot of work! It's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. It's also the best thing I've ever done. I've learned so much over the last...almost nine months. My testimony has really grown. I'm really happy I'm out here. Even though there are some really hard days.


So, last week Elder Morris and I prepared a short lesson that we can share with members on the Doctrine of Christ. It's pretty sweet. These are the scriptures we use: Helaman 5:12; 3 Nephi 11:39; Alma 32:21, 27-28, 37-38; Alma 34:17, 33; D&C 20:37; 2 Nephi 31:12; and 2 Nephi 31:20. If you look through and study the scriptures they lead from one to another. The Doctrine of Christ covers faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It's a constant cycle that we all are on and repeat. It's really the way we find happiness in life and in the life to come. We start by building our faith. We do it by reading, praying, and going to church. That leads to repentance, which leads to baptism, or renewing our baptismal covenants, which makes us worthy for the Holy Ghost, which leads to enduring. Enduring is repeating the process over. It might not make a whole lot of sense right now, but I could explain it better if I had more time. Just study it and pray about it and it will make more sense. It's really cool.


Ok. that's all for now. Sorry if this email is confusing. My mind is all over the place right now. That's part of the reason I titled this "roller coaster." This last day or two was like a roller coaster and my mind is going nuts. We get transfer calls this Saturday and I'll let you know what's happening next Monday.






Love Always, Zach