4 January 2016

Hello one, hello ALL!!! We are now starting off a happy new year with.... NO NUMBERS!!! Yup, ya got it, we had just 2 less-active lessons this past week.. Thanks a LOT holidays!! haha! jk, i'm not really dying about this. It wasn't too surprising that we couldn't meet up with any of our investigators. Peeps have lives, unlike missionaries (lol), so you can't think about it too too much when they have to cancel :P BUT, we did have a pretty good lesson with both of our less-actives we've been teaching :) The first ones (and the one with the most desire) was AWESOME!!! We went in planning to teach the restoration, but that was not what he needed, and that became very apparent, very fast. Like somehow, the priesthood got mentioned, and he was just like "why can't women have the priesthood? it seems a little sexist, doesn't it?" so we went on to a long conversation about that trying to say how we each have our calling in this life, and it is generally the role of the women to care for and raise the children, and the man to work and provide for the family. Both must set examples for the children on how to follow and worship our father and heaven and follow the teachings of His Only Begotten, and raise the family together. For some reason, we were still having trouble getting him to understand it, even with his wife there backing us up and adding her own things too. Eventually, she went and Face timed her dad, who helped A LOT, and we answered all his questions and in the end, he accepted it all and understood that if nothing else, God just decided that it is that way, and we accept his judgment calls. It was a really good lesson and i left feeling even MORE love for him and proud of him for having such a desire to learn and understand more. Then yesterday, we had actually gone to en english ward to try and scope out the spanish peeps and meet just more people, and i gave my testimony in english.. haha! i for some reason just felt like i needed to bare my testimony, and lemme tell you, i had to choke back some stinkin tears.. haha! i talked about how the gospel can bring so much happiness to our lives and the lives of those we love, and i had seen such a great change within my family because of the gospel and i can see the difference between when someone actively has the gospel in their life, and when they aren't doing what they've been taught.. it was just super nice and kinda funny since i didn't know ANY of those people in that ward and i was totally trying not to cry in front of them... haha! oh well, i guess there was someone in there who needed to hear it :) Also, we taught our less-active teenagers, and i kinda threw down on them for not doing anything, and we can't keep taking our time to come and teach them if they aren't gonna do anything we tell them. I also explained that we don't want it to be a waste of time because we love them and want them to progress spiritually because we know that that's where they'll find true happiness and security in this life and the life to come, and they all said they'd read the book of mormon every day! i told them that we no longer care how much they read every day if they just read something every day.. like a verse or 2 at the least. So we'll follow up with them laterz and see what they've done since then :) anywes, the mission is just a roller coaster of annoyance, lack if desire, INCREASE of desire, spiritual progression and setbacks, searching and finding and searching for people with real intent, poaching, speaking better and worse spanish.... Just a roller coaster of everything really. haha! however, would i give it up because i get sick of it sometimes? HECK NO!!! Would i stop working completely because it's discouraging when people can't make up their minds? Naahhhh it's not worth it to stop. I know that if i (and all of us)endure those hard times and come out fighting, then we'll always be on top in the end and we'll be stronger than before, and we can look back and see where we were before and where we are now and say that we are a better person. I love you guys, and i hope you all have a GREAT new year!! take care y'all ;) Love, Elder Levi Windham