Week 13

January 8, 2017

Hello all!

This week flewwwwww by holy cow!

First off pday was awesome! We played volleyball and I destroyed. I was having a blast and I actually hit the ball so hard my hand bled. That was fun! But people were so amazing and it was a ton of fun. Made me miss home a lot!

Then this week all 4 of us got the flu at the same time. Tuesday - Friday. on Wednesday we all had to stay home all day which was really fun. We had to leave the doors open so it was freezing and we have to disinfect our apartment with Lysol. We talked a lot about a lot of fun things. Sports and the future and school and jobs. It was a lot of fun and we are getting super close and we all get along great.

One thing we did this week is set new years goals together and talked about what we can do to help each other. One thing we all struggle with is getting up on time and exercising for real. So we set a goal to all get up and help each other and work out where we all sleep together. We all got up together and worked out and ate breakfast together this week. It really made a difference in our day and helped us be better missionaries. Some of my goals are spiritual but a lot of them are physical because I am getting fat! They are;

1 only eat nene chicken once a week

2 only eat ice cream 2 times a week (i already failed)

3 do 10 push ups a day (almost failed yesterday)

4 only one buffet a month (already failed)

5 and do cardio once a month (i might fail)

Haha it is a struggle here. The members feed us so so much! Yesterday we had to clean our and organize our fridge and balcony because we have so much food! It is a problem I never thought I would have on a mission. It is a great problem to have!

One miracle that happened was on Thursday night! Me and Elder Young were on splits and we had just had zone training. Something I have been struggling with is opening my mouth and talking to people. I am a huge wuss and its really scary. But zone training motivated me. Something that was said is"you can on a mission to preach the gospel so why don't you talk about it with people?" That motivated me a lot and that night my attitude and success changed!

Elder Young encouraged me to talk with people and set a great example. He taught me some conversation starters and we went really hard for 3 hours. We were blessed to find a very prepared man. We had about 30 minutes left and we didn't know what to do. So we prayed that we would find one more person. As soon as I said amen, Elder Young said "alright you follow the spirit, I'm following you." We walked around and talked to a lot of people and were going in every which way. We were trying our best. We talked to people eating, on their phones, with head phones in. At one point I even walked by someone and had the feeling to turn back and talk to him. I ran to catch up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He almost dropped is phone I scared him so bad! We were truly trying our best and giving our all. When we headed home I had the feeling to cross the street instead of walking on the left side of the road like normal. I grabbed Elder Young and we sprinted across the street, barely making it before the crosswalk light turned. We say a man a ways ahead and sped walked to catch up with him. I introduced us and he said "I know, you guys are Mormons, you are about 20 and serve for 2 years. I have been doing a lot of research and I am super interested." We were amazed! Our jaws dropped so low! We got his number and will meet with him this week!

I know the Lord blesses us when we give our all and trust him! This was an experience I will never forget!

Missionary work has been getting more enjoyable and I am starting to love it here! I hope you all have a good week and a great year!

Elder Goon