Exhaustion.....

Being a missionary is so emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausting.

Friday was supposed to be an amazing day. We had 5 scheduled lessons. 5. I was pumped when I woke up. Then the first lesson cancelled. Then the second, then third, fourth, and fifth. So the whole day we were just basically walking around doing some finding to stay productive and busy. It was so frustrating though. About an hour before each lesson they all cancelled.


So many people throughout the week had told us that they were going to be attending church. We had like 10 people, about, that said they were going to come to church. We were excited, then one investigator showed up. So upsetting. But maybe it was good only one showed up so we could really focus on him and introduce him to stuff and be by his side. The investigator that did show up introduced himself as "I'm nick, and I have been here once before and I'm thinking about being baptized." So it was awesome. During the week while we were finding when our lessons got cancelled we found a couple people that want to meet.

So like the intro to this email, it is exhausting in every way. It is such a roller coaster every single day. Good things and bad things happen daily. Although it seems like there is more bad than good at times I'm sure Heavenly Father has got a plan and something in store we can't see.

Sunday night we had a fireside called "why I believe." It was awesome. Missionaries from multiple zones/stakes came up here to Erie. So about 50 missionaries and President and Sister Johnson gave little talks about why they believe. Then a recent convert shared his testimony too. All of us missionaries sang three awesome songs. The spirit was in abundance while we sang. Our investigator nick went to it and he said he felt something special, like he was "at home."

I've learned from being here that being bold is good as long as you follow the spirit. I asked someone this week why they stopped coming to church and why they haven't come back. Just straight up asked it like that. And she told us and know we know how to help here! It was awesome. She has a testimony but just got offended or stressed or whatever. But we know how to help her now. Anyways. That's the week in a wrap.  It's starting to get a little chilly the past couple day

s.

Transfers - and I am going to..... Oh No.... 9/12/16 Post

So I am leaving somerset. So sad. I just loved the people here. Going to miss teaching them and I'm going to miss the members. I will
defiantly have somerset members as a priority to visit. It is really emotional. Somehow I have been able to not cry saying goodbye so that is good haha. I'll miss em.
However, I am going to...... Erie! Erie second Ward. And I'm also going to be a district leader there. The district will have 4 companionships so it's one of the bigger districts in the mission. So I am going from Junior companion to senior companion and district
leader while going to a new area. I don't know what the Lord is thinking having me do this but he will pick up my slack.



One of our investigators with a baptismal date is having a bunch of
doubts. He was asking all these questions to me and I would answer
them and he would then just keep going. So I wrote down his questions.
Went home and studied them and found a BUNCH of scriptures. I was
going to throw with the scriptures. But I thought about it and that
wouldn't be so,etching that would help him progress and gain a
testimony. Only by reading the BOM praying and living the gospel can
we gain a testimony. No matter how constructed or detailed or whatever
your argument is, the only thing that will help someone gain a
testimony is by helping them live the gospel. So, read the BOM, pray,
go to church, and live the gospel, because that is the only way we can
gain, keep, and strengthen our testimonies.
Not a whole lot happened this week except saying goodbyes.  This
branch will never know how much they have helped me and impacted me.
And that's the story with everyone. You never know how much you are
going to impact someone. So just do your best and emulate Christ.

Broken Ankles for Days! - Post from 9/5/16

Unbelievable. So ridiculous. On Wednesday, 2 weeks exactly after
spraining my ankle, we were out tracking walking in grass. There was a
whole I didn't see and.... Snap. There goes my ankle again. I was like
"oh no..." (Which now the whole district makes fun of me for saying oh
no the way I did haha because elder neighting told everyone.) and I
was like we need to go back haha. So we walked back and then elder
neighting started talking to these people on the street. So we taught
them a lesson for 20 mins or so and my ankle swelled up so much in
those 20 minutes of not moving. So I walked so slow. It took us like
an hour to walk back to the apartment which is usually a 20 min walk.
Haha.  I don't think you can tell in the photo but my ankle is a weird
yellow green color. So that happened .....again. So I called sister
Johnson and told her this time and she said to not really do anything
for a while. So lately we have been just chill in in the apartment.


Other than that this week was good. We had a good lesson with the
Allgoods. They are awesome.
We gave sister Boden (the lady that tells us she likes me a lot more
than Montgomery) a blessing. When we asked her who wanted to give the
anointing and sealing she spwanted me to do them both. Haha so I just
did the sealing part. she texted us and said "THANKS FOR THE BLESSING
GUYS! IT WORKED!" Haha. She's funny.

But this week was hard and good. Hard because sometimes it's just
hard. But good because people are starting to understand and gain a
testimony. Yesterday after church we had a lesson with someone. It was
probably the best lesson I've had on my mission. Let me explain. We
planned to teach about church. But we didn't we talked about temples
and faith. So the spirit was directing every single word we said it
was awesome. He said he believes temple are the house of the lord. He
went to the open house in phili. He said you can just tell its sacred
there. It was an amazing lesson. He said he is going to set a date for
his baptism. In his prayer he said "I know this is your church. I know
it's true." Before he had been struggling and had a lot of doubts. But
now after some trials he's faced with his parents he had broke down
the wall and is truly starting to feel instead of think! It's awesome!
There are no words to describe how awesome the lesson was. It's funny
how these people don't even know how much of an impact they have on
you and your mission. They will probably never know how much they
changed you by their conversion.
But yea. I love it. It's awesome to see people change.

I love it. Agh. No words to describe.
Oh I shared my testimony about missions. And I compared it to a
basketball shot. And said that "MJ said you miss 100% of the shots you
don't take. So take the shot of going on a mission." And I explained
how when you shoot in bball sometimes you just know it's going in.
Like steph curry, sometimes he shoots and while the ball is in the air
he'll turn around because he knows it's going in. Then it goes in. And
that because the shot looks right and feels right, and the mission
defiantly feels right so it's a good thing. Then Sharon, who we've
been teaching about missionary work went up and shared her testimony
about missionary work! Yes!!!! Awesome!
Anyways love you guys. Hope gypsy is doing good.

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