Hi everyone!
So transfer calls were just yesterday and after 9 months of being in Eagan, Elder Baker will be transferred to a singles ward in the Rochester zone. He was such an amazing companion who has taught me sooo many valuable lessons that i can apply both on my mission and for everything that i do for the rest of my life. He will be missed alot! my new companion will be Elder black. I only know a few things about him so far. I know that he is VERY tall (about 6'5), he snores sound like Darth Vader (i may need some earplugs. haha), and he is a good missionary. He is just reaching his year mark. I am excited to take over the Eagan area and learn more about leadership.
So here is the update of missionary work in Eagan: unfortunately none of our referrals have contacted us yet. We will keep on trying and I'll let you all know when we do. Our ward missionary efforts are thankfully improving. Although we only had 2 lessons this week, all of them were one with a member present. That makes me very happy! Elder Baker and I were working so hard to get the ward members excited about missionary work. Things with the ward mission leader are looking good because now we have a solid plan to update him with all of our missionary efforts. I couldn't be happier with the ward. There is always room for improvement though. We still need more missionaries. So wherever you are, ALWAYS look for those opportunities to preach the gospel to friends, family, co workers, etc. You may need to say something that they need to hear. I saw that in both of our lessons. We briefly taught Victor last Wednesday with a member. Like I said before he is unemployed and has been for 2 months. He is really struggling. He applied for a job and the interviews went very smooth and he thinks he did well. Instead, the employers said quite the opposite and said they are pursuing someone else. He was devastated. We showed him this video titled Hope Ya Know, We've Had a Hard Time (it is on http://mormon.org/videos/). The member now wants to play some NFL Madden with him and also help him find a job. Its a miracle! This member HAD to be there. It was inspired for him to be there. Last friday, we taught Monika and Ravi. Before one instance, they were very receptive and we actually brought 2 converts from Hinduism to help us out. Monika and Ravi has 2 kids. They are a Hindu family with beliefs that are VERY parallel to Christianity and with even our own faith. Unfortunately, they asked us the Churches standpoint on eating animals and that was tough to answer. Elder Baker responded: "well that's a very good question. I don't really know that Churches standpoint on this but I personally enjoy eating meat." Then Monika totally lost it and got emotional in defending animals. I think it is safe to say that she was VERY offended. Thankfully we had these 2 members with us because they understood her and they calmed her down. But we can meet with them again. We did commit them to come to church in a few weeks as they are busy for a while. They said that they would come. We found out last Thursday that Sister Briggs (LA) has word of wisdom issues. So we made an addiction recovery plan and set a temple date with her to go to the temple. But it needs to be approved by the bishop since she is a member. But we call her every night to see how she is doing now. She is making LOTS of progress. We are so proud of her and the long way she has come.
Here is my spiritual thought of the week. Just last Saturday we were tracting in the middle of nowhere and we came to this lady's house. She suffered from a stroke so she was barely able to speak to us clearly. I had no idea what she was saying at first. But I prayed for understanding of what she was saying to me. Next thing I knew, I was able to get a general idea of almost every sentence that she was saying. In 1 Corinthians 14:1-4, it reads: " Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church." Just because I am an English speaking missionary, I KNOW that i am still entitled to receive the gift of tongues whenever I need it to prophesy of Jesus Christ. I know that as we strive to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel, we can be entitled to all spiritual gifts of the Spirit to assist in the building of God's kingdom here on earth. Thank you so much for all you do! The church is ALWAYS true!
Love Elder Mower
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