The Challenge and the Russian Accent

The work is still going forward. It’s been a little slow these past few weeks but the pace is about to pick back up. We have really been focusing on finding new people and working with the members a ton. We are doing both a month long fast with the members (This means that each of the members are fasting for one day, not that he is fasting for one month. Whew.)  and doing a game night the end of September. I feel really comfortable here and I know the ward well. There are always new challenges and things that come up but I am liking it here. We are definitely working on managing our time better. There are a lot of good things that we can do as missionaries but there are also a lot of better things that we can do as well. The key comes when you pray to decide what is good and what is better. It’s tricky but we are learning. 

Spiritual: We had a lesson with the man who pulled us over on bikes this past week. We went over and showed him a Mormon message. For some reason the Spirit was so powerful. We were talking about if he should even believe in a God. What good that would be for him. He had the idea that if religion didn't exist then the world would be a much better place. I saw just how confused we can get without the help of the Holy Ghost in our life. It’s so easy to get off of the beaten path and onto strange and forsaken roads without the influence of the Spirit. We were talking about his purpose of life and he was telling us how there is no real purpose and how God doesn't love him and all of these just heart breaking thing. I was able to bear my testimony that God is real and that all he has to do to find out is just to try. Take the challenge in Alma 32 and have an experiment. We challenged him to do that. I know that this is the truth. I am not the brightest kid ever but I know by more power than a logically reasoned argument that this church is true and that God lives and loves us. I am so grateful for the Spirit bearing witness to me over and over and over again that this is true and that this work is the work of salvation. I know it and I love it. 

Funny: We had dinner with a super cool family this week. The Morgun family is so much fun! He is from the Ukraine and has a super thick accent. He is a volunteer teacher at the DLI and is super funny. He was telling us his conversion story and leading up to telling us about how he joined the military. He put it very simply. I pray and I feel good. So I do it. (read in a Russian accent) I like that family. He was also telling us about how on his mission in New Zealand some of the assistants would carry an ax in the trunk and he asked why and they told him while swinging the ax manically "would you like to take first discussion?" It made me laugh to hear that story told by that thick of Russian accent. It made me happy.

Where I am at: It’s so amazing how the Lord answers prayers. We need to have the faith to hold out and be patient when they don’t get answered right then. We also sometimes need the awareness to realize that sometimes our prayers get answered little by little and we don’t realize it. There have been a lot of small miracles this week and we have really noticed how the Lord is still here. I love the small miracles. The investigators are still going well. We have a lot of good plans for the people we are teaching and we are excited for their progression. The new greenie in our apartment is awesome! It’s fun to have a little green fire here. It’s also really fun to be serving around Elder Hamilton. Things are great! Love you all! 

Ammon is Noah Hamilton's zone leader in Monterrey. He says that Noah has a great trainer and is doing really well. Ammon and Noah went to school in Murray together. 

We also asked him about the earthquake in his area on Sunday. This was his experience with it: The earthquake was so crazy that I slept right through it. Didn't even know it was an earthquake. I was actually a little disappointed. We didn't find out that one had hit till much later. haha