Pretty great week this week! First of all district meeting was awesome! I love our district right now and Elder Crandall is my district leader which is awesome. It was way fun being able to be back with him. He gave an awesome training about prayer and for part of it we read the intercessory prayer of the Savior and it was so powerful reading it out loud and really listening to it and how he prayed. I think one of the most interesting things is how God has blessings waiting for us that are conditional upon us asking for them. Think about how many blessings we miss out on just because we don't ask! Of course that doesn't mean we ask for ridiculous things thinking we will get them but realistically God wants us to be happy, he wants us to have those righteous desires!
We also started preparing for transfers and man it was crazy looking at that transfer board! I've never seen that many missionaries to plan for! It really seems like we are doubling the mission! It's going to be so exciting to see what happens to the mission. All the missionaries that are coming in when I leave have already been called too. It's weird thinking I'll never meet them!
This week we went with President to a beach close to Lushnje because there was a couple getting baptized there! I love the members in Lushnje, they are awesome. It's super fun being able to take road trips with President, I asked him about Cameron and I flying home together and he said he would talk to the mission department so that hopefully it'll happen!
There was also some crazy flooding in Tirana this week! We were in our car and the water was up over the tires! It sounded like we were in a boat with waves and stuff! I've never seen anything like it! I thought we were going to get stuck but it only lasted like an hour then it died down.
Something that I really am happy that I have improved on since being out here on my mission is being happy/positive and actually looking it! I tried to make it a goal to always have a smile on my face and just be happy and it really is a choice. It's so cool to have people actually ask you why you are so happy all the time! One of the bishops daughters is 15 years old and speaks english perfectly and is super funny calls me sunshine and butterflies because she says I'm always happy. So quite a difference from "with a smile on my face"!
Last week Sunday was pretty crazy and we were really trying to get people into church and this one guy was lost and kept saying he was coming and so we kept having to leave and we actually ended up missing 4th Ward sacrament and when I realized that I was just so disappointed. It actually surprised me and made me realize how much the sacrament meant to me. I knew that I was going to be able to go down to 2nd Ward really quick and get it but it still was just kinda sad. I have realized that the time that I have taken the sacrament is the closest I can get to the feelings that I have in the Temple. Those few minutes when the sacrament is passed has kinda become my own little time in the Celestial Room. I've noticed as I try every week to only think about the Savior during that short time that I have really come to understand and value the sacrament more. Again one of those things I wish I would have understood before my mission as the sacrament used to just be that time that I fought the urge to check my phone.
Something that I have begun to think about now that I have reached this point in the mission where I kinda "have it down". Like I know what I'm doing in most situations is its given me the opportunity to think about the WHY behind what I do. Not like the why of why I came on my mission but why do I give commitments to people? Why do I try so hard to get them to read the Book of Mormon? Or come to church, why is the message of the restoration often the first message I share with people? Why do I recite to them Joseph Smiths experience with his first vision? Of course the easy answer is it brings them closer to God, but one of the tough things for me is that it's not quantifiable it all works different for different people. It's all just too simple to be honest! Almost as if God uses small and simple things to bring about great changes (scripture come to your mind) that's been my conclusion of why. These things are all so simple. So simple they confound the wise and those who try to look at it intellectually! But an unlearned man will say I will read it and he will be changed forever! We over complicate things so often and it really doesn't need to be! God beats us all in complexity and yet we think His road is too simple to be right. The crazy thing is it works! As I've been talking to people now I have just been saying why NOT try this? Really though you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Ya it sounds crazy but it really does work and there are millions of other people that can tell you about how it's worked for them! God is good! That's all I have to say! I've really come to appreciate Him more and more as I've drawn closer to Him.
Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! 21 tomorrow!! Going to go party for sure!
Love you all! Have a great week!
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