Well, honestly I would have to say this has been one of the best weeks of my mission. I have seen a lot of changes and help that the Lord has been making in me. Since I decided I was going to increase my faith, the Lord obviously was trying that faith last week. This week we saw the blessings start to flow a little more. This week I have really just seen a huge difference in my enthusiasm for the work. I feel a lot different about what I am doing, and really just feel a lot better.
We had a leadership meeting on Wednesday this week that really reinforced what I was thinking and the revelation I was recieving for myself and my district. The president talked a lot about the importance of increasing our faith to be able to baptize every week. One of the problems we have here, is that people justify just having one baptism a month or so, because the rest of the mission is doing the same. The biggest thing we have to do as a mission is change that vision, and Expect miracles, not just Believe that they can happen. It was a fantastic meeting overall, and I left edified, and energized for the work. The biggest difference I have seen in the week, is that we have taken the decision to baptize every week, and so now we are doing everything possible to make that happen. With our vision lifted like that, it has made a big difference in my faith, in my enthusiasm, and in every aspect of the work. I have really been with a whole new look on the mission this week, and I have really come to realzie the great importance of our message to the world, that of the Restoration of all the truth. It has made it so our lessons are more powerful, and our contacts are more personal. We are finding a lot more prepared people, and it has been going really good. That's not to say we're not having bad days still, but the difference is our attitude. When I am happy and excited for the work, it helps my companion a lot as well to feel more push to speak more and push himself. We have seen that even in the hard times of the mission, we can still maintain a good attitude, and that changes everything.
On Saturday morning there was a pretty big rain storm here. We went with Christian (recent convert) to the conference walking there. My umbrella broke with the strength of the wind, and so it didn't really serve very well as protection after that. As we got closer to the chapel, there was a street we had to cross that was practically a river at that point. We had to cross it, and another, and by the time we got there we were what you can call soaked to the bone. For the first session we sat there soaked and all, but it was still a great session. I loved the conference. We were able to attend the 5 sessions, and I had a spiritual feast to finish off the week. I had written down some personal questions that I wanted to learn from conference, and I was amazed to see that every single one of them was answered in the exact way that I was looking for. I knew right as the speaker said the answer that it was what I was looking for. It really helped strengthen my testimony more that we have prophets and apostles that are living. I know there is no way they could have answered the questions I had, unless they were inspired of God.
This week we faced a lot of opposition of Satan as well. There is a member we have been working with, named Emmanuel. He is a recent convert, and his wife is a member as well, Evelyn. Emmanuel this week decided to look at some anti-mormon things on the internet, and it really shook his testimony of the church. They have been preparing to enter into the temple, and he has been what is standing in the way so far. Anyway, one of the days this week we passed by and he had us sit down, and said he had a lot of questions. As he was asking the questions, I just kept referring him back to the Book of Mormon, and telling him that it is the key to know about these doubts. We talked to his wife the next day in conference, and apparently he said we didn't know anything, and that he wasn't going to go to church anymore. In the 2 hour break in between, we went to his house, and I told him, alright, we are going to answer your questions now. He asked us a bunch of different things that he found on the internet, and I just calmly answered his doubts with the Bible (turns out the Bible study does come in handy). When he started realizing that all of the things against the church he had found could be answered simply using the Bible, he finally gave up his attack. He ended up watching the rest of the conference sessions, and now he is doing a lot better, but we still are going to focus on his testimony of the BOM. His wife was very grateful to us for helping out with the situation, so it was cool to be able to see our labors blessing the lives of someone.
Overall it has been a fantastic week, we still have a lot of things we need to do better, we have a lot more work to do, and things we are focusing on to be more productive, and not just occupied (that was in one of the talks).
I love you guys, and thank you for everything.
~Elder Griffin
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