This week was another incredible one! haha. I sometimes wonder if you people get sick of hearing that phrase... lol. I'm sorry if you do, but they just keep happening!
We've spent the last week or so in sort of a funk... Last week we worked SUPER hard, but none of the people we invited to church made it... Everyone had something random and serious happen all on the same day. ha. Satan is cool like that I guess. His goal was to get our hopes down, and to make us loose steam. To an extent he did... We didn't work any less hard, but my heart really wasn't in it... Anyway. We had a good companionship inventory about our investigators, and our lack of Ánimo, and decided that we could change some things up... Mainly pray more as a companionship. We always pray before we go out, and at meals and stuff, and up until like a week and a half ago we were religious with our night time companionship prayer. Anyway, we made it a goal to get back in the habit of saying out nightly prayers together, and man did it help! We could hardly believe it when SIX of our investigators showed up at church yesterday!!! :) God truly does bless us for our obedience! Also, I now understand why President is so adamant about nightly companionship prayers. I've always done it just to be obedient to Pres, but now I understand how much of a difference it truly makes! If you are currently latched to a companion of some sort (especially of the eternal sort), I challenge you to make an effort to be better with your companionship prayers. Also, to pray for your companion. I can't even express how much it helps with unity and love. It's like that marriage triangle diagram thing: The closer we get to God as a companionship, the closer we get together. :) Say your prayers. :)
Also, this week we've made some grand strides with our ward leaders. :) We set up a meeting with our Bishop on Wednesday night to ask him for Less Active Families in the ward that he wants us to visit and also to discuss our current Ward Mission Leader situation (he's less active himself... ha). We had a good long talk and decided it would be best to help our current mission leader magnify his calling rather than call another. So we set up a meeting this Wednesday night with the Second Counselor in the Bishopric and the ML. We have high hopes. :)
Also, Yesterday, our bishop stood at the pulpit and said "well today we're gonna give the Youth a break (every third Sunday he calls on 4 or 5 random youth from the congregation to give a talk that they've all been told to previously prepare), and we're going to hear from the Missionaries in our ward. hahahahahaha!! We were SO surprised! He's never called on the missionaries before, and he didn't give us the slightest heads up! But as missionaries do, we all whipped something out, and each gave a solid 7 to 15 minute talk. Ha. I talked on Elder Holland's "Broken things can be Mended" (at least that's how I think it translates... ha. It's from last years April conference I believe, and I keep it in my scripture case at all times for just such occasions), and used verses from Alma 7 to express the depth of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. :) It actually went really well. :) And the after effects were even better. :) We had TONS of members come up to us after and tell us how much they enjoyed sacrament meeting. Plus, we had 2 different members come up and set appointments with us to give us references! In our ward, that's a HUGE deal!!! It was SO great to feel that love, support and trust from the members in our ward! We are so excited to get out there and get some work done this week! Our bishop also has expressed a desire to come out with us to meet our progressing investigators. :) We have lots of high hopes for the growth of our ward! :) Now we've just got to get some rockin' activities planned to keep all this missionary work ánimo flowing!
Anyway. :) Our investigators are still doing really well. :)
Annie: has been on hold this last week. We wanted to see if she really had a desire, and if she'd come to church all on her own without us passing by, and calling her all the time. :) I doubted her a little, but she pulled through! We're going over to her house to talk to her tonight. I will let you know how it goes.
Jisela, Dilka and Daniela: They're the family I told you about that the Montero Family introduced us to (they're neighbors). They are doing really well! Jisela had to work yesterday, but both Dilka and Daniela still got up bright and early to come to church. :) They are all still excited about their baptism date, and have started the first Book of Nephi with the goal to read the Book of Mormon ALL the way through! :)
Julio: Julio is a guy that we started teaching last Saturday. He saw us in the street one night, and told us he wanted us to come by. We've passed by like 3 times now, and he is just eating this stuff up! He reads everything we leave with him, and the last two times we've passed by, he's pulled out a sheet of paper filled with questions on the things he's read. :) Unlike other investigators we've taught with lots of questions (i.e. Dani), Julio accepts ALL our answers. :) He understands them, or keeps questioning until he does. :) He also woke up at the crack of dawn (big deal for him because he works until 11 pm on Saturday nights, and has to work again on Sunday afternoon) to come to church with us. :) He loved it! He said it was a little long, and he was tired, but he headed home planning to write all his questions down so we can answer them tomorrow morning when we pass by.
La Familia Montero: They're all doing well. They watched The Testaments movie like 5 times this week. haha. They are all so great. Adriana calls us her hijos, and always brings us piles of food when we stop by their house. :) Also, Yoel is still wearing his "swear word punishment bracelet" and he says it's going well. :) We'll keep loving him, and praying for him until he decides it's time to take the plunge. And with all our prayers (even Adonis, the littlest, prays for him to get baptized in every prayer), I don't think it will take long. Ha.
Núris and Desereé: A mom and daughter that we contacted into last week. :) The are both long time inactive members, but have recently had some schedule changes, and were just in need of some ánimo to get back to church. :) So we brought it. They came to church with us yesterday. :) We've got another appointment with them this week, so I'll let you know how it goes. So far they're proving to be the easiest reactivation EVER. ha.
We're still contacting lots, and bugging lots of people to give us references. :) We've made a goal to get to know our ward better, and to increase our references. So if all goes as planned our investigator pool should be growing A LOT in the near future. :)
Other than all that, we're doing just great. :) It's been raining lots and lots lately, but that's kinda just how this island is. lol. It's funny that I used to think Utah weather was bipolar. ha. Here it can be sunny, one minute, and POURING buckets the next. It's nuts! We've actually sat and listened to the rain come in... ha. The second we hear it in the distance we know it's time to run for the nearest colmado and hunker down. ha.
Anyway. Life is great. I love being a missionary! I know this Church is true, and I am proud to be a part of this great Work!
I love you all! Keep the faith!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
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