Dear Family,
I'm really really really sorry about the lack of pictures. This week like I said before was "Consecration Week". Elder Poulino and I spent a lot of time finding new people to teach on top of everything else we have to do so it was a very busy week.
This week was a bit of a stretch for me because finding is definitely the most stressful part of missionary work for me, right now at least. We were asked to spend a minimum of 4 hours a day finding in different ways so that we could grow our teaching pool. I've definitely gotten more used to it but I enjoy teaching a lot more. The fruits of this week are a lot of Potential Investigators. We've set up a few return appointments for this week but for the most part we got a lot of phone numbers and addresses without a specific time or place to meet again. Daylight savings has cut into our finding time a bit as well. Anytime we go knocking while it's dark outside people get very rude very quickly. It starts to get dark here around 5 PM and anytime after that people consider it to be "nighttime" and rude to disturb anyone after that.
Friday was a particularly challenging day for me. We had arranged for 2 lessons with potential investigators in the morning but both of them were dropped early in the morning. Because of that we had to spend more time finding. I was feeling very discouraged and dreaded spending most of the day talking to random people on the street or at their door. I spent some time praying and asked for the strength to accomplish all that the Lord needed me to do that day and for greater faith in finding people ready and eager to learn. As we began walking we stopped and began talking to the first person we passed on the street. Immediately this encounter was different than most of our others. The man's name is Mark and he was really excited to talk to us. We were able to talk very openly and connected with each other almost immediately! He also expressed that he had prayed and had experiences in the past that lead him to know that he has a Father in Heaven. It was an amazing finding experience and we even hugged it out on the street when we were done talking! We haven't met with him yet but we've scheduled an appointment and he is very excited to meet with us again.We didn't have very many opportunities to meet with our current investigators but we're going to see Bob tomorrow.
I'm really glad to hear the dog exchange went well. It's nice to know that Oscar is home even though I didn't have any doubts that he would be safe with Erin. I'm also glad to hear that Halloween was fun for everyone! Halloween isn't much of a thing in England. From what I understand it's growing in popularity but isn't much of a holiday compared to Halloween in America. The next big holiday is Guy Fawkes Day. It really captures British humor and attitude toward things. I don't know a lot about it or even exactly what day it is but it's celebrating Guy Fawkes' unsuccessful attempt to blow up Parliament. So everyone stays up late lighting fireworks in celebration.
I'm very excited for this coming week and have faith that some of our potential investigators will become regular investigators. This week was hard but Elder Poulino and I are already seeing the benefits that came and are to come from it. The weeks are starting to go by so fast! I've heard countless times since I've been here that the time will fly by. To some extend that is already true but it doesn't in anyway change that we have to work and teach each day. I'm excited for the experiences that are to come and have increased faith that I will grow to love my mission more and more everyday. I will try to write more later but I can't guarantee that I will be online again. Elder Poulino has some pictures of me and our district so I will try to send those today.
I love you all so much, your support and prayers give me the strength to do this.
Love,
Elder Draney
No comments:
Post a Comment