6/9/2009
Hey everyone!
SO this week has been good! I have never felt the spirit as strong as I have this past week! It has been amazing and we have been striving to live worthy of its guidance every moment of everyday and it has made a huge difference in our teaching! Especially with the less-actives because we have really been working a lot with them the past month, that’s why we have not baptized in a while. But this Sunday we got a lot of them out to church finally. One family had been inactive for 8 years! Crazy! And it was fast Sunday and it was by far the most amazing fast and testimony meeting I have ever had in my life! So in the beginning there were not many people getting up, so I had a great plan!
First, I made a deal with 4 different people that if I went they would go, and two of them were my converts and I REALLY wanted to hear them share there testimony. So then I went up and spoke and then they all came up! It was great! I also felt really good speaking; I was not nervous at all and never struggled with my Spanish at all while speaking. Then after they shared their testimonies there was a 6 person line and sacrament meeting went 20 minutes over! It was so great and I really felt like I was able to help the ward out a lot.
Oh and since my companion is a district leader now the zone leaders came over in the morning and studied with us and the senior zone leader studied with Elder Juarez and the junior zone leader studied with me. It was amazing! I learned so so very much and he taught me so many great principles and scriptures and more than anything we talked about how they all apply to the mission and how we can all be better missionaries because of it. I have really been allowing the spirit to help to me grow this past week and has been one of the most amazing weeks of my life. I love being on a mission and I love being here and I know that this is where the Lord needs me to be!
So we had a lesson with a investigator yesterday and it was our second time there and so were read part of Moroni 10 and invited her to pray and I bore my testimony with all I could and then my comp did and it was so powerful and I KNOW she felt the spirit! Also she was mentioning a lot of the sacrifices of a mission and so I brought it up that yeah, we leave a lot back at home to come here, but we are here because we want to share the joy and happiness of the gospel and we have been privileged to share it with her. We are not here to get baptisms or to get memberships. We are here to serve the people and if we can share just a faction of the joy, peace, and comfort we feel with the people here, we have done our job. We do not leave everything we have and knew for personal gain, but we are here for the people and we only want to help anyone that will allow us to. She took it very well and I think it helped her to see how very real the gospel is and how much God loves us because it all comes down to that. Anyways it went very well.
Oh and also people on the street are coming up to us and contacting us! We have really been able to notice a completely different spirit we can carry with us when we are being obedient. People come up and say who are you? What do you have that seems to make such a difference? It’s great and my companion and I really have learned a lot from the experience.
Like I have mentioned before, it all comes down to the very simple point of obeying the commandments and then receiving blessing in every form. Larissa shared Mosiah 2 with me in her last letter and I feel like it perfectly describes this principle. Especially verse 41. I know we are not perfect and never can be, but we can repent and learn to be humble and we can be far better than we ever thought we could be through our reliance on Him we can become that person that we thought we could never be. It has been crazy to me to realize how real the guidance of the spirit is and how it’s really can help us to guide every part of our lives. And no it does not mean we have to become this "molly" Mormon who is perfect, but we can just strive to be our best in the situation we face every day. We can do our best to develop the Christ like attributes that we lack the most of.
I have a hard time with patience sometimes, as everyone who knows me already knows. But I have come a long way on it since I have diligently but my effort into being better at it. I’m not perfect and far from it, but I continue to grow and become better at it every day. I am quicker to apologize when I get frustrated and do my best not to allow my pride to interfere with my humility. No, I am far far far from perfect or even good, and make many mistakes every single day. And sometimes it’s hard, but I try to do my best day in and day out, but most important I am working to allow the Lord to make up for what I lack.
Sorry to go off on a random tangent, I guess I should tell more crazy stories about the crazy things we see every day! ha-ha I love Juarez!
Oh and so my English is just getting worse every day. I am officially losing my pronunciation in English and can sound stuff out anymore.... sad.... Sometimes I can’t even answer my comps questions about English anymore. Sad huh? Spanish is going well though. So that is what is important, right? Also when people talk to me I always respond in Spanish, it’s just what comes out first. Some guys here who don’t know Spanish and were visiting us kept getting frustrated because I kept responding in Spanish to their questions... ha-ha. My comp thinks it’s hilarious so I guess that is good.
Oh and just so people know I think it’s best to send birthday packages to the package office address for the mission. I think I will change by then and please remember it takes a month to get packages through them. Sorry to mention it early but I don’t want to forget to mention it. And my birthday is in less than 3 months away! Crazy!
Sorry I don’t have more time and thank you Larissa for the letter, I love it and the pictures! Oh and I think last week I forgot to mention I got letters from Linda, Sandi, and Kendra! Thanks! Thanks for all for the support and love! I need it!
Love
Elder Andrew Davidson!