Elder Benjamin Michael Conover Mission Blog : Week 30: What A Week

Hello Everyone,

First off, I'm gonna be completely honest....this week was really really hard.

I'm just gonna get everything off my chest and then talk about the good, building, spiritual experiences.

I have just felt super stressed since I still don't have very much time in the mission and I am basically washing the area, and all the previous investigators have all but fallen off the face of the earth, so we are starting from scratch. The bikes also were broken all week long, and we proabably spent 10 hrs this week trying to fix them, with no success, so that meant walking 30 mins to get to any groups of houses, which meant very little work, so we basically had straight 0´s for our numbers. All of this, with extreme sleep deprivation, really made for a hard week. I feel so innadequate to drive this area like this and I am so humbled to be given this assignment, and it was just a hard week.

Then, to top it all off, our best investigators, the Alvarez Family, dropped us last night, so they are not investigators anymore. But hey, all we can do is keep pushing forward.

However, with all of the hardships, the Lord still blessed me with some building experiences.

One of the days, I was feeling really sad and stressed out, and I just needed some serious help, and it was study time. I got on my knees and just begged Heavenly Father to bless me with an edifying study session. As soon as I got up, I felt prompted to grab my hymn book, and just sing for study. I was overcome. I cried the entire time, and the spirit that I found was unbelievable. God truly does answer our prayers and always has his arms extended to embrace us in times of need. I'm so grateful for that knowledge.

Yesterday, I also had a really hard time. I was just overcome, and I just felt like I couldn't keep going on. I fell to my knees bawling, begging God to help me. He blessed me with a miracle to be able to continue on and I felt so much comfort the rest of the day. So much comfort that I even felt at peace when the Familia Alvarez dropped us, it was such a huge blessing.

Funny:

On companion exchanges this week, I was with the District Leader, and he had to go to the doctor to get something checked out in his throat. The doctor wanted to put a mirror in his mouth, but he wanted to make sure it was santized of course. He then proceeded to take out a cigarette lighter and burned the mirror, felt it with his hand, then stuck it in the Elder´s mouth. #onlyinsouthamerica

We contacted a reference after walking 1 1/2 hrs to get to the house. When we got there, two men were sitting inside, watching us, we waved to them, and they ignored us. This continued for about 5 mins, and then we had an idea. Since it was a reference from the church, we had their phone number too, so we called them right there.

Him: ¨Hello¨

Me: ¨Hi we are looking for Gladis?¨

Him: ¨She´s not home, who is looking for her?¨

Me: ¨The missionaries that are waiting outside your house¨

Him: ¨Uhhhhhh.......¨

We knocked on the door of a less active member´s house at night, and he´s old, and was scared of robbers, so he opened the door, and had a 10 inch knife in his hand ready to take us down. He was pretty shocked when he saw us.

All in all, this week was very challenging, and I have felt so humbled by everything, but the Lord also helps us so much and he blessed me with strength to overcome when I didn't think I could.

I have a new saying next to my desk...¨No Effort Is Wasted¨......and I know that if we trust the Lord, no matter what happens....No Effort Is Wasted.

Have a great week everyone,

Elder Conover