What a week. Life is just bustlin along in Kingsburg and Parlier.
So many crazy things have happened and so many good things, too. I'm
writing today because yesterday our library in Kingsburg that we go to
to email was closed, and we just had a great Zone Conference in Hanford,
so we've stopped at their library to email quickly.
I love being a missionary. There is nothing better than coming home
dead tired as if I had been spending the whole day working the bees in
Mount Pleasant and planning what else we're going to do tomorrow,
cleaning up, and hitting the pillow. It's such a good feeling. Every
morning we've been running and we probably bike 5-7 miles in a day, so
Elder Bolton has been losing weight. Which is great. The bike works
well, and my shoes are just as comfortable as the first day I got them.
Crazy things from the past week: one of our investigators, Juana,
was supposed to get baptized on saturday, like I had said before. BUT
her daughter just had a baby, and has to move out of town because the
Army will only give her 30 days for maternity leave. So she has
entrusted custody of her 1 week old baby, in addition to her 4 year old
to Juana. Juana has a heart of gold and expressed that she could not get
baptized because she can't take care of the kids, or drive and might
have to leave, and says she can't keep the commandments right now so she
doesn't want to be baptised until she can. Of course, we tried to
express that everything could be worked out and we could get her rides
and whatnot, but she said we would talk more about it soon. So, please
pray for Juana. Another thing, we were out with a woman preparing to go
on her mission next month last week and had FIVE set
appointments--shcheduled, set appointments--and every single one of them
fell through. That was a hard day. Saturday was pretty similar. And we
biked about 10 miles out of town to visit an investigator only to
arrive, one of their dogs bit Elder Worthen (it didn't go through his
clothes) and then have them tell us they don't have time to meet with us
or go to church. Sweet.
Good things: we had a miracle on Sunday. We worked our hardest
Friday and saturday to teach and do the work, but got nothing done, but
the Lord concecrated our efforts and we were blessed to have EIGHT
investigators to church on Sunday. One whole family of four the Campos
family, two brothers we're teaching, the husband of a member, Javier, a
new investigator, Jeremiah. That was so great. Now we have a bunch of
investigators progressing to baptism. We set baptismal dates with the
two brothers, Ray and Jay, and their little sister, Lupita, but they are
moving to Fresno within the next two weeks, so we're hoping that they
get taken care of asap in Fresno. We've also found a bunch of really
promising potentials and want to get 15 new investigators this month.
Elder Worthen and I were asked to give training in Zone Conference
and we taught on how to accomplish goals and I want to share what we
learned and taught:
If we're setting goals well, they will be things inspired of the
Lord for us to do. And these goals will be like the actions of old in
the Bible and Book of Mormon. The accomplishment of those goals follows a
pattern, exemplified in the story of Nephi building the boat. There are
four common factors in accomplishing goals: 1. Faith, 2. Works/action,
3. Opposition, 4. Obedience.
1 Nephi 17:8-9 --> the goal, or action the LORD would have us do
1 Nephi 18:1-2 --> We must do it the Lord's way, and pray often
1 Nephi 18:3-4 --> Praying often, we check back with the Lord to
verify what we're doing is right, and leaning on His understanding, not
our own. We will finish, and our goal, our "ship" will have been
accomplished/built by the word of the Lord, and not by men. Also, read
on page 753 in the Bible Dictionary about prayer starting "The object of
prayer..." to the end of the paragraph.
I testify that as we all set goals, we will grow, and if we set
goals that the Lord would have us set, and pray often, seeking for His
holy guidance, our efforts will be blessed and we will accomplish them.
We've also been doing a lot of service. We have been insulating a
members family room and dropping the ceiling. 5 hours of work every
weekend probably for another two weeks and we've already put in two
Saturdays. Who knows. It's plenty fun. The Ward here loves us, but I
don't know if they really like us enough to do more for us. We will see.
I love everyone in this ward and am so excited for the next two months
at least that I have here.
There are a lot of good things progressing in the California Fresno
Mission and I thank everyone for their prayers and letters and
thoughts. They make my day every time I get a letter and read it before
lights out.
All is well!
Love,
Elder Bolton
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