3 October 2016

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great conference weekend :) i know I DID!!!!! This has honestly been another slower week unfortunately, but that's ok!! we can't let the slow times get us down :) alls i know is i've been having much more meaningful studies and it feels better to know that i'm at least trying to find people out there, we just haven't found them yet :) so yeah!! Tuesday we had ESL and that was an interesting night... So imma let you all know of this funny little story just because we all got a pretty good kick out of it xD in our ESL class, there is a chinese girl named Chloe (just her english name). She's been in Canada for about 3 years and her mom is here too and has been here for like 2 months. anywes, Chloe speaks pretty good english and is pretty used to the Canadian culture now and whatnot, and also has a big ole fat crush on one of her English teachers.... the one and only Elder Windham!! So we've all know this for a pretty good time now, and last week, at the end of class, she comes up to me and asks me ON A DATE!!!!! dang, that was flippin awkward... of course i had to explain that we don't date and do stuff like that on a mission, and if we were to do anything, we would all 3 go.. haha i don't think she'd really like that as much... but what the heck!!! that's honestly like the third of fourth time on the dang mission that i've been asked out. honestly more than ever happened back home.. haha! so that was funny :P Wednesday we got to go teach a little kid who's turning 8 on the tenth of this month and his mom wants him to hear the lessons before his baptism! him and his little brother are super chill haha. But dang, teaching kids is WAY different and harder than teaching older people.. haha! Thursday was the baptism of the 95 year investigator of the hermanas!! seriously SO CUTE!!!! there were FOUR people in the font making sure that it was all good! xD it was definitely an experience to remember :) hahahahaha ok, so i gotta tell you what i said during our missionary presentation while she was changing after the baptism xD so we watched the #hallelujah video and then kinda had a discussion kind of thing with everyone who was there. Then when we were baring final testimonies before sitting back down, i was like "so, i can imagine that most of you have thought to your self 'wouldn't she have been able to just die and then we do the temple work for her?' BUT that's not the case!! The Lord has preserved her all this time and given her the strength that she can still accept the gospel and follow the Saviours example and be baptised." so it started off TERRIBLE and there were quite a few gasps and giggles, but i came back quick and managed to maintain the spirit. I haven't gotten too much flak for it so i think i got off safe ;) haha! just future refrence, don't always say exactly what you are other people are thinking 😅 Then this weekend was CONFERENCE!!!!! Honestly, it has gone by SO fast since i started paying close attention and taking notes, and you get so much more out of it!! One of the talks that really touched me was when Sister Reeves talked about using the atonement. One of the things she talked about was how sometimes we think that the best thing to do when we've committed a grave sin is to not tell our bishop or others about it in order to "protect" them from the hurt feelings that can come from hearing about something bad we've done. Obviously we don't have to admit EVERY little siin, but there are the few large ones that may require our confession and a more outward effort to receive full forgiveness. That's something that we can all do is if we are trying to hold in our sin and guilt because we don't want to bring shame or disgrace on ourselves or hurt to those we know and love, to not hold that back!! the guilt will just eat us away and eventually we won't be able to bare it anymore. If we just bring them before the Lord and talk to the proper people who have been called by the Lord to help in situation exactly like this, then we will feel the love and relief that the atonement offeres and that guilt will be washed away and as we find in the scriptures,"i the Lord will remember [your sins] no more." that peace of mind and relief of guilt is worth it so much more than holding it all in. I love you all SO MUCH, and i hope you all have a great week!! Love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. in case you are wondering why it says transfer week, that's because it's TRANSFER WEEK!!!! I'm not sure what exactly will happen this Thursday, but it will be the last chance i have to be transferred or get a new companion. 7 weeks from this Friday, i will be coming home........ THE MISSION CAN'T BE COMING TO AN END!!!!!!!