Week 39

Hey guys! It’s another Monday morning in the Internet cafe, and getting ready to start the coming week. Oh how time flies.

The week was good. We didn't see progress with investigators but we had a good time strengthening the members. It was a really big push to get almost every single member that lets us in committed to go to church. Ill break the week down with the people we worked with.

Investigators.

I had a mini cambio with our new district leader Elder Jackson this Tuesday. It was our first time working together. He is a really cool guy. He is from Riverton as well but went to Bingham High. (At least I think it’s in Riverton boundaries. He claimed it was). We had a good day, our goal was to inspire members and fortify their testimonies. We set off at the start of the day and contacted like mad men. We talked with everyone. Not too far from our house, we stopped to talk with a lady conversing with someone in front of her house. We got to know her and asked if we could pass by and share a quick message. She accepted. We got in and found out she and her family had been sharing with the missionaries quite a while ago, and one day they just stopped coming by. She was pretty interested to us passing by again and sharing the lessons. I was stoked. We set some commitments and set an appointment for the coming Saturday. We passed by that Saturday but she wasn't there.

Mostly our work with other people was doing contacts this week. We have met lots of potential investigators, it’s just a battle to sort out the false numbers and directions; the ones who are truly interested.

We had another activity this week. We set up a movie night in the little chapel. With permission from our leaders we showed the movie 'Turbo'. Yeah, the one about the super- fast snail. It was awesome, the people really enjoyed it. We were able to apply it to the situation here in Retiro. We are such a small branch and no one really pays any attention to the members here and no one really believes that good things can happen here, but it’s not true. We have to follow our dreams and push ourselves to become great. Miracles are possible and dreams are achievable. The activities that we have been doing have been turning out nicely. This Sunday our branch president was going around and extending invitations to the upcoming activity this Thursday himself!! Good things like that are starting to happen. It is an incredible blessing to see little things like that happen here in Retiro. I am grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father gives us.

MA's (less actives).

We focused on working with Veranía and her son Esteban, The Saldaña's, The Campos family, Miriam, The Sepulveda's, and German. We visited them all through the week and shared great messages. Something that really helped us was breaking out our video player and sharing Mormon messages to catch their attention. We had powerful lessons and were able to extend some strong commitments to all of them. We worked hard with all of them, but our biggest focus right now are the youth. We know that they can help us a ton in the branch with their excitement and energy. We worked especially hard with German and Esteban.

We were able to bring German to the activity and to church! The first time he has gone to anything at the church for about 4 weeks! That was a victory.

The Campos family came to church this week!!! I had lost hope with them, I have extended the commitment to church almost every single week while being here. They had never come until this week!! It was amazing!

Members.

We mostly visited with our branch mission leader and served our branch president. We spent time with them during the week and strengthened our relationship. It was good. The Uribe's contracted a nasty flu this week and president asked if we could go over and give them blessings with him. We accepted. We got there and they looked like zombies! We administered the blessings with a powerful spirit in their house. It was awesome to jokingly share the warning that I didn't want to kill them (reference to the time I gave a blessing to an old lady in the hospital and she died the next day) but I was willing to do it anyway.

With the branch mission leader we visited his family and left to visit people with him this week. We are starting to gain confidence with the branch.

On Sunday I gave a talk on revelation, the importance of it in the church and how it applies to us. It went well. I had lots of members comment on it. It’s nice to be in the middle of giving the talk and have the understanding of the members so that when I make my little mistakes in grammar we just laugh it off together. I like this verse in Doctrine and Covenants 42:61

If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.

I am so grateful for the knowledge that God speaks. Not that He spake but that he speaks. It is so comforting to know that we can receive his guidance in our lives, personally. It is a blessing to have an eternal Father who guides us and to have his attention and his care. My testimony of a loving Father and Son are growing ever deeper. I love the gospel and I love sharing it. Nothing brings greater joy.

Thank you for all you do. I love you guys so much. I love hearing about how life is going. It is so good knowing that I have your support. I love you all and miss you tons. Until next week!

Elder Ethan Haws