Zarahemla Week 27

I got to go on exchanges again with Elder Torres!
We went on exchanges in Zarahemla over one year ago.
It was super cool to recap how we've changed over that past year!

We had an amazingly interesting week! After last P day we got hit with a MASSIVE snow storm. About half a meter of snow fell in less than 6 hours! It was absolutely insane! 

The snow was crazy! The picture doesn't give it justice,
but it was super bad. The busses were so slow!

Besides that, we saw many, many miracles, and the Lord taught us some unexpected lessons. We had lots of success!

About one of the unexpected lessons we learned this week… Last week we found 4 new people to teach, which was pretty good, but we knew that we could find much more this week. So, we set the goal at the beginning of the week to find 10 people. We had lots of faith that we could see miracles and find each one of those 10 people to teach, and we started out working very hard. And, in the first 4 days of the week, we found 1 person. We still knew it was possible, and we still had faith and were working hard to see those miracles, but it just didn't come for some reason. And then, on Friday, I got really sick. I felt so bad, and I just had to rest for a little bit, so I napped for about 2 hours in the middle of the day on Friday, and then on Saturday I napped for another 3 hours. I couldn't talk to anyone on the bus or metros since I felt so out of it, we just had to take it very easy. They were probably the least effective days of my whole mission. But, despite that, we saw SO many miracles. A Mexican couple (we didn't know) invited us over to eat Mole (A Mexican chicken dish), and we were able to teach both of them and a friend that they invited. We also went to pass by someone, and there were 5 Mexican people we had never met before, and they all sat down and accepted us to teach them for 40 minutes. Another Mexican family (I have no idea why we're finding so many Mexicans, but I'm not complaining!) essentially dropped out of the sky and we were able to teach them on Saturday as well. It was crazy, we were able to find 11 people. It was clear to me that the Lord was trying to teach us something. It was easy to see that this work is not ours. Although we are required to work for it, the success we see comes directly from God. He decides to bless us with success. We worked hard at the beginning of the week, and we saw nothing. We didn't work at all at the end of the week, and we saw countless miracles. Sometimes we don't understand His ways, but that's where the faith comes in. We are to work hard, regardless of what results we see. It's the Lord's harvest, not ours. (and I am feeling much better though now!)

Joji was baptized!

Other than that, we are doing great! Daniel is still progressing well, although it's hard to see him often since he works a lot. But he has lots of desire to improve, and is keeping all of the commitments we are leaving him. He's very humble! Luis, who we found a few weeks ago, is also progressing well. We were also able to visit him (when I was sick as well!) and we had an awesome lesson with him! He accepted a baptismal date! He came to church again and loved it, and is progressing very fast. Although we can only see him once a week due to his work and studies, he's progressing very fast! We're seeing so much success and lots of people are progressing toward baptism. It's harvest time in Zarahemla!

Also, I forgot to mention last week, Joji got baptized! I was able to go which was fun, he was really happy. I'll attach the picture from the baptism!

Things are going well again, as always. Missionary work is the best. It's been awesome being able to see all these miracles; the Lord is constantly reminding us to be humble and know that it's His work and that He is in control. It's awesome to be able to be a part of it!

I love you each a ton. Have a great week!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 26

One of my favorite things to do...
Hiking the huge snow mounds that are in every parking lot in Montréal.

Buenos Dias! We had another great week here in Zarahemla, and we were able to see lots of cool miracles! The work has been progressing well, and it just keeps getting better! It's been amazing to be here! We have a few people we are working with who are progressing well towards baptism. Here are some highlights! 

            Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Daniel is one of the people preparing to be baptized fairly soon. We had trouble contacting him recently, but on Sunday, he just showed up at church without any pushing! That is very rare for most of the people we are teaching! He really enjoyed it and had lots of good questions. At the end of the meeting, he came up to us and asked us to come over so we could talk about the details of his baptism. He's taking it very seriously! We saw him last night, and were able to go over what he has to do to prepare for his baptism. His friend Orlando was there, and we invited him to join us. We continued talking about baptism, and Orlando was also very interested as well in getting baptized! We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ very simply, and they felt the Spirit strongly. As Daniel prayed at the end of the lesson, he started tearing up. They're so prepared, they will be baptized soon!

We also found the coolest man this past Saturday. His name is Luis. He was originally found a while ago, but he was working too much at the time that they couldn't ever see him again. But, we felt prompted to go pass by, and he was there! He was so grateful that we came, and said that he knew that God had sent us. He came to church as well the very next day! He's very cool, and we have the faith that he will be baptized soon!

We had Zone Conference as well this past week, which was great. We talked a lot about faith. It really changed the way we've been perceiving and doing the work! It's interesting to see how having greater faith can change the work. I've seen it so much in my mission. As we have greater faith that we can be led to people who are ready, it happens! As we have faith that people will come to church, it happens! I've been learning a lot between the balance between attitude and effort recently, and it's been super interesting to see that putting in a lot of effort doesn't necessarily grant you success. You need high effort, and a high attitude! It doesn't make sense sometimes, but as we've been learning about faith, I have been reminded that the Lord's ways are not our ways. He has a much different perspective than we do!

Things are great as always. I'm loving it here in Montréal! I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder James

Montréal East Week 9

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT! We had exchanges in Québec City yesterday, and we drove back this morning during a pretty big blizzard. It was a bit scary, but super pretty! I definitely love the winter time up here in Montréal; it's spectacular.

Driving back from Québec City in a blizzard!    

We had a great week this past week! We've been pretty busy, but we were able to get a lot of work done which was great. We also were able to go on a couple of exchanges, which was fun. Yesterday I was with Elder Wilson. It was cool to see each other again—he's always been a great example to me of diligence and love! It was nice to be reunited for a while.

Exchanges with the Québec zone leaders    

We have a couple of people that are getting close to baptism! We've had some great lessons with Chris these past few weeks, he's doing great. He has been sharing the gospel with his girlfriend, and they both were able to come to church this past Sunday! They absolutely loved it, although we were a bit late taking them to the church on the metro! It was worth it though. They will definitely get baptized within the next couple of months!

We missed the snow!    

Olamilekan is also doing great! We have been seeing him as consistently as possible, and he's really been progressing well. Our relationship with him has been growing a lot! It's also been great that Taiwo, our recent convert, is one of his really good friends. He will be baptized most likely in two or three weeks. We're so excited!

Eating with Anderson and Yemi, who
were baptized with Taiwo a few weeks ago    

A closer look at more 

Semoule with Egosi soup

Well, I have a lot of pictures this week, I hope you like them! Things are doing great, the mission is an amazing place. I'm super excited for the Christmas season though! It's going to be a great one! I love you so much, have a great week!

Elder James