Elder Benjamin Michael Conover Mission Blog : Week 29: Great Experiences But A super Stressful Week

Hey Everyone!

So like the subject line says, we had some amazing experiences this week, but it was also a pretty challenging week as well.

First off, we had some special transfers this week, so I got a new companion, Elder Hollis from Johnstown, Colorado. he has 20 months in the mission, but he still works hard, and he just came out of the offices so he's excited to be out.

However, this week has been super stressful since we have basically washed the area. I've been here for a couple of weeks now, but now I´ve gotta drive the area, and I just feel super insufficient, and the investigators that had baptismal dates have all but disappeared from us, so it´s like starting from square one. But all we can do is trust the Lord and do our own part!

So on Wednesday, we were contacting people, and we were about to go knock doors in one area. when Elder Hollis´s bike broke. Usually we go back to the pension to fix it then, but I just decided we´d do it later and we left the bikes at a less active person´s house, and just went on foot.

We started contacting, and we were looking for one guy´s house, so we stopped to ask for help finding it. An old woman came out, and we asked if we could just come into her house haha. I begged and begged and finally she said yes! When we went in, they accepted us well, and a woman, Alica, was there, who has just come out of the hospital, and has a lot of health problems. We had an awesome lesson, and she told us that she doesn´t feel special, and we just testified of the love that God has for her, and afterwards, she just smiled us and said ¨I won´t think that I´m not special anymore.¨ It was a huge blessing and we found 4 new investigators in that experience! The Lord really does work in mysterious ways.

Another experience we had this week was helping a couple of people stop smoking. We planned a really powerful lesson, and we were super excited to teach it. We were going to play a video to introduce it, but sadly, the video didn't work, and the investigators really kinda shot down the word of wisdom, which was difficult, but we kept pushing and working with them. Then, the lesson was going well, but then one of them mentioned falsely that we don't believe in the Virgin Mary, and then the other investigator got all worked up about that. and we had to guide the lesson back to how to stop smoking. It was an interesting experience, but they both committed to follow the word of wisdom to stop smoking, so we will be going by this week to check up on that.

Finally, we got to teach the Familia Alvarez again, and it was a good experience. Dario (the dad) is still reading the BOM, and has tons of questions. However, becuase of a few things he saw and heard in church, he has some doubts, so we were nervous about that.

The lesson was going pretty well, but then it just went awesome. Dario started talking about the changes that have been going inside of him. He said he never has been a person to sit down and read the bible, but he has a lot of interest with the Book of Mormon, and he feels really good when he reads it. He also told us that he has an increased desire to serve God, and I asked him when that started. and he told us right after we first started teaching him, and I felt the spirit so strong when he said that, it really was amazing, so we are trying as hard as we can to try to help them recognize that these changes and feelings are directly from God testifying of the truthfullness of these things. It was amazing!

Funny:

One morning, I was getting ready, and Elder Hollis called me from the back room. He had shut the door and there is no door knob, so he had no way to get out hahahaha. I had to jimmy rig the door with some scissors to try to free my companion.

A guy came by the pension to ask us if he could leave his bike (which had a popped tire) at the pension while he went shopping. Elder Hollis told him that he would fix his bike for him. Unfortunately, Elder Hollis hadn´t learned how to fix a popped tire, and he used shoe glue to fix it, and then inflated the tire, which then exploded. I laughed pretty hard knowing that I didn't have anything to do with it and therefore wouldn't have to take the blame.

A couple days ago my bike pedal fell off my bike, so we started walking, and we passed a bunch of drunk gangster guys, and they saw that we were walking and asked what happened. We explained and they then argued about how to fix it and then grabbed the tools and fixed it. Towards the end of this experience, another drunk guy came over, with a huge wad of marijuana in his mouth, and him and his friend told us they were going to come to church that week. They didn't come. Hahahaha

I Love You Guys!

Elder Conover