Faith Can Sometimes Be a Little Fishy

Hi family, This week was filled with the best times and the worst times. Elder Fisher is gone replaced by Elder Lopez-Carrasco. The thing is that he is Spanish speaking so we do a lot of work in the Spanish program in the ward. It’s awesome! There is a Spanish group in our ward and there were always sisters covering it but they are over three wards so they don’t get to do a ton of work in Fort Ord. Now it’s our turn to do a ton of Spanish work. The Latino population here is huge and there is a ton of work to do. We have run into so many prepared people that we had no clue about before because of the language barrier. Now that the language is not a problem we have so many more potential investigators and several more people to teach. Those two years of Spanish are really paying off. haha I can pray and bear my testimony and tell someone that we are missionaries and talk to them for a while. 

Spiritual: We met with Dhani this past week. He is really struggling on knowing if this Church is the truth. He has had several spiritual evidences that this church in fact is true and he needs to join, but he keeps coming up with doubts and concerns that try and persuade him to think otherwise. Oh it is so hard for someone to join this church! It’s such a commitment; howbeit the best commitment that they will ever make in their life, but this is not an easy life to live. He is also concerned about the stigma that associates being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has a lot of concerns. For example his mother is against anything religion. Oh how it breaks my heart to see him where he is. He is so close! I know that this will be the best choice he will ever make. He just needs to make it. In Alma 32 when talking about faith it compares it to a seed. Seeds though take a SUPER long time to grow. It takes a while to see it sprout because it is under a bunch of dirt. It takes time and it feels like it takes longer when you are looking at it every day. We promised him that he would get an answer, but he is going to have to use faith as well. Faith is a key part in conversion. We will not know everything, but we will know enough to make a correct decision. Prayer and Diligent scripture study is what Alma tells us to do to have the seed start to grow. I know that the diligent seekers of truth will find an answer to their prayers. 

Funny: We found Nemo. One of our less active members went fishing and gave us this fish. It’s still sitting in our freezer waiting to be flushed. 

Where I am at: Elder Lopez-Carrasco is an incredible missionary. He works hard and has such a talent of loving everyone he meets. I love being with him and I am loving the work right here. President is winding down. He has about half a month left and you can tell. For MLC he started showing us pictures of his mansion that he is building on Hawaii. Oh boy. "You can’t tell us not to get trunky president!" haha He is sprinting to the end though. He is working really hard and everything is gearing up. I love this work and find out every day, especially the hard, fulfilling days, how true the church is.