Monday, 3 June 2019 ~ Week #97

Weekly Letter #97

Hey everybody out there!

I am so, so happy right now. Tired, but super content. It was a great first week in the final area. I would actually like to share some stuff I wrote in my diary so that you all can catch what I felt in the moment.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

I don't think I have ever been happier! Elder Lopez, my new companion from Mexico, and I have just finished our second day officially working in Lomas del Norte, opening it now after 6 months only receiving missionaries time after time. I am so happy to be serving this ward with this companion, and I am pleased to know that this will be the last. I feel so relaxed, so happy, so natural!

Yesterday was a little bit hard, because we didn't quite know what to do, haha. The elders of Juana de Arco came over and gave us the area book and a bunch of documents and told us, "There you go! Everything you could know about the area!" And it actually was! ...

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Today was impressive! We began with ministering to investigators with Jeremy and Jimena, both who are preparing for the mission. We confirmed an appointment with Yuli, an investigator who has desires to be baptized, and she started to cry on the telephone call and said it would be better to come another day. We let her know that she was included in our prayers as well as many from the ward. Now, this call was after a call to Natali Rios, Relief Society president, who offered to send a sister to buy a treat and help Yuli out. So we went with the flow! ...

We walked over to Juli's house and knocked, but no one answered; even the windows were closed from the inside. About to leave, she finally came with her her little daughter. We gave her the pastry, along with a card we wrote for her, and she was very grateful. ...

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Wow, I am so wiped out of whatever energy I could possibly have, but at the same time am so p leased with what we've done this week. We've gained the confidence of so many members and have started iniatives for a lot of things, thanks to our visits with them and to the ward council today. We will be having a dinner wih each member of the ward council this week; we have a calendar set up for this week in the which we already have plans to viit investigators with members, and in the which the members would go and visit on the days we don't visit them. We've received a good number of referrals. We have also shared a great deal of spiritual experiences with the members who have been helping us and with the investigators we've taught. Things are going fantastic with Elder Lopez, we kicked it off real well. I don't think I could be any more content! I am so happy!

(Thursday)

We visited first the mother and sister Vivianne of Hector Boror, an investigator with a baptismal date who has assisted a different ward Llano Largo already 3 times. After some chat about religious beliefs, we talked with them about the Book of Mormon, and promised them the blessing of coming to know Christ more than ever before. Jeremy was with us and testified sincerely to this, having been born in the Church, nevertheless having obtained a testimony of his own. Then Hector came! We read in 1 Nephi 5 with him and he was certainly impressed to see how the Book of Mormon prophets read the Bible too. More impressed than him perhaps was his mom, who was sitting right there listening! And then he agreed to start assiting lomas, taking into account the difficulty of going to Llano Largo, and already recognizing the support he's received from the members of Lomas. This was an important step taken, and proved to be the most important thing done that day. ...

(Saturday)

Though we didn't have appointments, we did have a neat experience with Dominic, an active member. He invited us to go to a bread shop with him and talk about some referrals he had for us. And this turned out to be a very sweet conversation. He told us that every time he hung out with his girlfriend who isn't member, he saw the missionaries pass by. And he's had some doubts, majorly as to whether he should end the relationship due to dangers of her passing his limits, or whether he should invite her to come to Church, etc. He said he's talked with her bout the Gospel and she has felt the Spirit. He said he also feels like she has different intentions than he does. We encouraged him to pray, understand perfectly his situation, because we have had to make choices like that too before going on the mission. We encouraged him to exepress everything that concerned him in his prayer. ... And then he invited us to a TON of bread!!! We had to thank him a lot for the time he shared with us, along with that bread. He was all the more grateful that we were able to resolve his biggest doubts.

That's just a blip actually, because I honestly do not have enough time to rewrite everything I wrote in my journal. There was just so much that happened.

My testimony that the Savior guides His church has strengthened. I have come to adequately look at myself as His servant, through the way that I have prayed and how the Savior has given me opportunities to fulfill the requests I make in my prayers -- the requests to serve Him and find His sheep, along with being an example to the members, and forgiving me for my faults. The Spirit has been our constant guide. I am so grateful to be a part of His church. I know He has a plan for all of us, and a particular assignment, calling, and mission for all of us to complete if we so desire it. Of all things, the most satisfying mission, calling, or assignment we could fulfill and magnify is in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Your friend,

Elder Dredge