Like last week, we've spent lots of time knocking doors. Haha it's pretty fun when it's right around 100 degrees. You get pretty sweaty pretty fast. But it's been okay. We met a cool dude yesterday named Travis who we made a return appointment with. Unfortunately today he had to cancel that appointment, but he said he still would like to come to church with us on Sunday. He said he was a Christian, but didn't really have a church that he attended, and he was all on board when we invited him to come to church with us. Hopefully we can stay in touch this week and help him have a good experience when he comes on Sunday.
On Saturday this week I was able to go give a baptismal interview for a kid named Gavin that the Sisters have been teaching. He's 9 years old, and is such a cool kid. From what I hear, his baptism on Sunday evening was well-attended and the ward showed lots of support for him and his family. Elder Conner and I didn't go to the baptism because we were busy knocking doors, but I'm grateful that the ward was supportive and lots of people were there. I've said this before, but I'll say it again - when there's a baptismal service in your home ward or stake, go! It's important to help new members feel loved and welcomed and wanted, and also it's an opportunity for us to observe a priesthood ordinance and feel of the spirit that accompanies it.
We also had zone conference last week. It was my last one of the mission, as well as President and Sister Sainsbury's last of their mission. Weird to think that President and Sister Allred are flying in this week to take the Sainsbury's place. This mission is going to have some major changes in the next couple weeks, and it's going to be pretty hectic for those in the office and those in charge of other stuff. It was a great zone conference that we had, and one of the themes of it was to replace our experience with faith. That's something that we have talked about before, but it's something that I've been working on and thinking about a lot more in the past week. The idea is that our experiences create a belief for us, but sometimes when we have negative experiences our beliefs become negative and even pessimistic. It then becomes our responsibility to replace that experience with faith. For example, if you knock 40 doors and nobody lets you in, you can't go to the 41st door thinking, "Man, I've been rejected 40 times already, here comes another." You have to go to every door as if it's your very first one and say to yourself, "We are going to get in and teach a lesson here." Forget whatever negative experiences you've had previous to that time. Replace it with faith. When we do that, things work out better. And even if you do get rejected that 41st time, you're still optimistic about number 42. I know that when we replace our experience with faith, blessings are more apparent and we are happier in all that we do.
Well, my emails seem to be getting shorter. Sorry about that. Know that I'm grateful to be a missionary, that I love doing it because I love those I serve with, I love those we serve, and most importantly I love the Lord. He is the reason we do what we do. I love Him, and I love wearing his name on my chest each day.
Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide
At Zone Conference - Me, Elder Buck and Elder Robins.
Me and Elder Dietz at Zone Conference.
The many faces of Elder Feltner and Elder Barfuss.
P-day from a few weeks ago at "The Club" with the district.
Me and Elder Conner and the nice line up of Malibus.
See if you can "find Elder Beach" at Zone Conference.
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