Elder Benjamin Michael Conover Mission Blog : Week 13: Week of Miracles!

Wow. What a Week. Like always, there were some hard moments, but the Lord really showed his hand in the work this week.

This week we had a TON of missionary meetings.....usually we have 41 hrs a week to work and teach and everything, and this week we only had 26 hrs. Super small amount of time.

Anyways, Monday, we went to the Mendoza Stake Center and had an insane Asado BBQ....suuuuuper good haha.

Tuesday, Elder Ulisses Soares came to the mission to speak to all of the missionaries, and he dropped the cane on us haha. He told us a lot of things that we can improve in the mission, and especially that we need to focus hard on accomplishing all of our goals in faith. That was definitely something that we needed.

So anyways, one day, we were on the bus, and I was thinking about our investigators, who arent married, and have lived together for 40 years, and didnt understand the importance of the Law of Chastity. All of a sudden, I just got the thought to talk about how in reality, we aren´t just here to baptize them, We are here to prepare them to enter the temple as a family to be sealed for all time and eternity. So, we gave that lesson, and it was SO powerful. The Spirit guided us, and they committed to take the necessary steps to get married. The Lord definitely knows best.

Miracle #2: We didnt have very much time to work this week, but we worked hard. We had a weekly goal of 5 lessons with a member present, which we have never acheived yet. We found one member, and his son, and we gave 3 lessons with member in ONE day, and we ended up with 7 in the week. Least amount of time, and most lessons ever. We also had 6 other lessons with investigators, so 13 lessons this week!

One investigator, Juan, committed to baptism, and its amazing to see his progress. When we first met him, he was very angry and told us that he was athiest. Now, he laughs with us, makes jokes, listens intently, and told us that he feels peace during the lessons. It´s truly amazing the change of heart that the Savior´s atonement can bring upon people.`

Then, the biggest miracle of all,

So in the 7 weeks that I´ve been here, the biggest number of New Investigators that we have found in a WEEK is 4. So our weekly goal for the week was 5. Becuase of all the meetings, by Saturday, we hadnt found a single one. So, we only had one day to find 5 new people, since we had to stay in the pension all day Sunday because of the elections. Taking into account Elder Soares´ counsel to pray in faith and work to acheive all our goals, we prayed super hard to find 5 people and got to work.

Saturday morning, all of our people we had planned werent there. It was super rough, but we kept pushing. We heard that someone had a reference for us, so we went by there house, and she took us to her brother´s house. When we got there, there were 3 PEOPLE sitting there, and we gave a lesson about the love Christ has for us, since their son, (one of the 3) just got out of prison a few days ago and is on house arrest....... and they are all new investigators! It was amazing. Such a blessing.

Then, in the afternoon, we had to find 2 more people to get our goal. We were on one side of our area and decided to travel to the other side, and while we were walking, we passed an older man sitting near the street. I felt that we should talk to him, so we turned around and talked to him, and he was super nice, receptive, and we gave the lesson on the plan of salvation. NEW INVESTIGATOR! Then, we needed one more. We passed by a house, and two people were there, and we gave a little lesson, and got 2 MORE! We ended the day with 6 new investigators......the Lord blessed us SO much. It was by far our shortest, but MOST successful week of my mission thusfar. It was so amazing, and I know that through faith and hard work the Lord works MIRACLES through us.

Funny:

People keep telling me that Spanish is the hardest language in the world, and that English is super easy, haha kinda funny

This week we saw a guy riding his bike, and like 5 dogs took off trying to kill him, and he swung his leg over, and was standing on one pedal, kicking the dogs while he was riding. It was quite impressive and hilarous.

While we were teaching our investigators this week, there was a knock at the door, and we were sitting by the door. The woman opened the door, and the Testigos de Jehovah (Jehovah´s Witnesses) were there. I leaned over to see who is was, and we made eye contact. It was such an awesome moment. They just had a mixture of hatred and shock on their faces seeing ¨Los Mormones¨ in the house, and I just smiled knowing that we had the upper hand and were already sitting in the house hahaahahaha

This week was so tiring, and SO satisfying. The Lord truly guides this work and He is the head of it!

I love you guys!

Elder Conover