One In One Out‏...

February 7, 2011...Hello Family,



What a week it was. We had some pretty crazy things happen this last week. Elder Hammond said some funny things. I just remember that we were eating lunch at home and pretty much out of nowhere he said,"I'm a hopeless romantic." It was so funny. He then explained his statement, but it was really random. He says a lot of things like that. It definitely keeps things interesting. I had one of the craziest lessons of my whole mission. Elder Hammond and I were out going to visit an investigator when out of nowhere we got a call from a different potential investigator....well long story short we went and saw the potential investigator. She was really upset about something her daughter had done. We talked to her for a minute then asked if we could have a prayer. Elder Hammond started saying the prayer and about 30 seconds in she starts saying something, which isn't unusual, but she really gets into it. Next thing we know she was almost yelling praises to God. She went on for a few minutes and we didn't know what to do. We just sat there like we were praying, but she kept going. Eventually we just looked up and she was looking at us and still nearly shouting praises. It was really bizarre. We taught her a little, and at the end of the lesson she told us to wait for a second because she wanted to go get something to show her gratitude. Before we could say anything she walked out of the room. Next thing I know she came back in and was trying to pay us. We kept refusing the money, but she kept trying to get us to take it. She was reaching to try to put it into our jacket pockets! We just kept refusing and she eventually gave up. It was the first time I've ever had anyone offer me money. It was strange. So, those are some of the little stories from last week.


As far as the work goes, it's going well. We are no longer working with Bob. He was avoiding us early in the week and when we finally met up with him we talked and basically it came down to that he isn't ready right now. It's unfortunate because I know he's been happier since we started teaching him, but he just doesn't want to change. However, we were able to set a baptismal date with Jasmine. She's an eleven year old girl we've been working with for the last few months. It's been pretty slow going these last few weeks, but we made a lot of progress. She's actually going to be baptized this Saturday. We also have another baptism scheduled for the 26th of this month. Hopefully he will be ready. His name is Robert. He's actually married to a less-active lady we ran into a few weeks ago. He's really great too. We taught a lady named Magdalena again. She's really awesome! The first time we met her was a complete miracle, and this second time was incredible too. She's so willing to do what the Lord wants her to. We were teaching her about the Word Of Wisdom and before we had even committed her to living it she was thinking of ways she could stop drinking coffee and tea. It was a really special lesson. Then we've got a few other investigators that are coming along very slowly. The end of the week was a little nuts. We are working on getting everything organized for Jasmine's baptism, and it's not fun setting these things up. It's just hard to get everything done for the baptism along with all the other things we have to do as missionaries. It works out though. Overall it was a good week.


My studies went pretty well. I was studying and in a roundabout way I came to D&C 52:33. It says,"Yea, verily I say, let all these take their journey unto one place, in their several courses, and one man shall not build upon another’s foundation, neither journey in another’s track." Now in this verse it's talking about some Elders that are appointed to share the gospel while traveling to a conference. I was thinking about it and it came to me in a different way. I was thinking more along the lines of how each of us need to come to know the Church is true. We're all journeying to the same place, finding the truth/happiness, but the way we get there is different, and we can't stand on the foundation of another. I think of the foundation as our testimony. We can only get so far on someone's testimony before we have to find out for ourselves. If we try to go our whole lives relying solely on the testimony of someone else then we will never survive in the Church. The Lord asks way too much of us to rely on something like that. If we are going to make it in this life and eventually make back with our Heavenly Father and be with our families together forever, then we must build our own foundation. Basically we must each individually find out for ourselves if this is true. I applied this to the "journey in another's track." We won't go through the same struggles or trials as those around us. Even if we have the same thing happen to all of us we are going to handle and look at it in different ways. So, we each have our own unique journey. Regardless of where our journey takes us we can then take comfort in knowing that our Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ are there for us each step of the way. They know all that we go through and know how to help us. We just have to look for Them and trust inThem.


I hope this email makes sense. If not, I'm sorry.






Love Always, Zach