Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Out With The Old....

Family!!!

Good talking to y'all ayer!  It's kind of funny we had the call only two weeks before me coming home. =)  But it was a good one!

This week I went to my final two zone meetings.  Every month we have a meeting with our English zone and the Spanish zone.  The Spanish zone meeting is always great because all of the Spanish missionaries in the mission (all 14 of us) gather and have the meeting in Spanish.  Over the past few months we've been getting new Spanish missionaries, and as I was at the meeting it was kind of nostalgic to look at the zone and see how much it's changed.  It's weird to think that in a few months it will be completely different.  It also made me think that I am literally training my replacement...

As a Spanish zone we had a goal this week to have 60 committed to church by Thursday.  We put a huge focus on church and ended up having 11 committed by Thursday night!  We continued to see them and keep them excited in between Thursday and Sunday, and we had 8 come to church!  That is the most that have ever come to church in this area in one week!  It was a miracle!

When I got here again with Elder Adams we tried a lot of people that I had taught here before.  Many of them had been dropped by other missionaries, but we decided to go and see if they had any more interest.  We stopped by the Losa family, and they were excited to see us.  We had a very spiritual experience with them right off the bat, and they said they'd like us to keep coming by.  I felt really good about them, so we put a big focus on them.  They started progressing, but they soon started tapering off a bit.  Not too much was happening with them.  After nearly two weeks of not being able to see them, we finally made contact again.  We had a member with us who also works long and difficult hours, and he testified of the blessings that have come to him and his family from attending church every Sunday.  His testimony touched them, and they agreed to come to church.  We kept following up, and on Sunday they showed up as a family just in time for sacrament meeting!  We found them nearly a year and a half ago, and it was so fulfilling to see them finally take that step and come to church!

The members were pretty excited to see so many people at church.  They swarmed them all after the meeting and made them feel very welcome.  Later we talked to one of the members and she talked about how she knows how important it is to fellowship the investigators because the missionaries leave after a while, but the members stay.  It is really exciting to see the members fulfilling their role in missionary work!

I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and His grace.  I know that the atonement really does provide and enabling power as Elder Bednar explains.  I know that as we do all we can, Christ helps us to do even more.  I know that He loves us and that He is the ultimate expression of our Heavenly Father's love for us.

Love you all!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Foote

Picture: me and some of the new Spanish missionaries