I am super tired right now, and it is very odd because there is one more week in the transfer. Next week I will find out what is going on, I will probably stay, but Im not sure what will happen otherwise. I always get super anxious around this time of the transfer. And then a week after that I hit my year mark o_0 crazy to think about. This past week has been pretty crazy.
It basically started last Thursday when we had a zone blitz in our area. The whole zone tracted out a whole appartment complex. It was pretty crazy, but we got some more people to teach out of that. We did some other stuff that day and then we did splits that night. We got quite a bit of work done and set up some lessons for Monday which was very good! The next day Friday, we go back to see some of the people that were contacted at the appartment complex from the zone blitz. The first one fell through, story of my life, but they are still interested and want to meet with us sometime, so we set up a lesson with them on Monday. The second one did go through, it is a Martial Island woman. She does not speak good english so there was a language barrier there and we had to teach VERY simply, that was a new challenge, I will talk more about that a little later though, her name is Kine.
And then the other lesson for that area was this guy named Gideon, this is a pretty cool story. Gideon is a less active member, very less active. He has fallen into some addictions and has gotten to the point where he does not feel like he can be forgiven. This, coupled with some mental illnesses has caused him to become very depressed. The day of the blitz he was contmeplating suicide and was in the process of measuring his closet to hang himself when one of the missionaries knocked on his door. We came back the next day and talked to him. We talked about the Atonement and how it is for everyone. We told him that God does love him and is there to help him. We got him to pray and to make baby steps with his repentance process. At that time he was semi interested in changing his life, but after that lesson he said he was just going to get drunk again that night. We set up a lesson to meet with him again on Monday. I will continue this story later on.
Friday night we had a few lessons with some less actives that went pretty well. Miracle: one of the less active families that we are cool with knows someone who SPEAKS MARTIALISE! That is pretty rare, ESPECIALLY in Utah, ESPECIALLY in this area ESPECIALLY someone who we can get in contact with. God has plans for Kine and her family. The next day, Saturday, was Takashi's baptism. It was kind of a more laid back day because we did weekly planning and then we filled up the font for a while before the baptism. Takashi was baptized and it was pretty awesome, see photo below. He was confirmed Sunday, and we were able to be there for that which is awesome, Sunday was pretty crazy though and I will get into that now. We went to some wards in the morning, but then we had two places to be at 1, a confirmation, and an ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood for a recent convert. We found someone who could drive us around for the day so we tried to make this work. We went to the confirmation because it starts at the beginning of Sacrament, than we went to the ordination and got there right in the middle of it :( We were 2 minutes too late which was sad, but we were there to support him which was good. We then had a lesson and a meeting that afternoon and some other stuff for that night.
Now we get to Monday. If you have been following around so far you will have noticed that Monday has had a lot of lessons set up for. We had 7 lessons set up for monday, starting from ten in the morning and going until 7 that night with an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. 10 oclock..cancells. 11 oclock goes through, we have a pretty good lesson with Jane who is one of our investigators. She is going to get baptized, but she has some issues she has to work out and we discussed that with her. 12- lunch. 1- cancells. 2- cancels. 3- cancels. 4 is with Gideon again, this is where his story gets pretty cool. We go to his lesson and he tells us what has happened over the weekend. The night we were over the first time, where he said he was going to get drunk, he got 1 and a half beers in and he lost the desire, he threw out all his beer. The next day he feels an overwhelming pressure to drink again, he overcomes it. Sunday he feels a comfort and peace that his burden has been lifted a little. And goes to an addiction recovery group and feels very welcomed by everyone there. Monday we meet with him and talk more about the atonement. He is going to meet with the Bishop and work through his problems. The atonement is for everyone, and it changes lives. From meeting with Gideon the first time I get this overwhelming feeling of love for him and all the people we work with. I had an overwhelming desire to help EVERYONE. I felt a portion of how Jesus feels for all of us. A tiny tiny tiny portion of that. Just to put things in perspective. 5- we have dinner with Bishop Fisher and wife, mexican food. 6- we go with one of our wml to visit some people in his ward, good contacts. 7- we meet with Ric and he is close to quiting smoking, he is going to get baptized soon. Overall the score for yesterday is: 4 cancelled, 3 gone through. Story of a missionary, thats pretty normal, but upsetting.
That is basically most of my week. The rest of this week is super booked with lessons most hours. Many will fall through, but many will go through. The Lord is blessing me right now with work and I am very grateful for it. I want the work because this area NEEDS the work, there are so many people here who need to hear this message. Lots of miracles this past week. I hope all is well with yall back home. This email is longer than usual, this is unusal for me because I usually dont like typing, but I felt like telling yous about all this. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
photos:
Me and Jeremy
Takashi's baptism
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