Week 9

Yes, I actually had a blast playing football, and our team won!

This week has been a whole jumble of things, including my very first exchange, an awesome stake conference in which a member of the Seventy attended, and an incident where my companion got t-boned on his bike. Ultimately, the week has flown by, and I just cannot believe it's P-day again!

Starting off the week, as I previously said we had my first zone-wide exchange. Basically how an exchange works is our zone, leaders choose one elder or sister from every companionship, and exchange them with another companionship in another area. This provides not only a brief and fun change of scenery, but it also gives us a chance to see how other missionaries work, and certain ways that they go about their day, that you might implement to your own area and companionship. For the exchange, I ended up spending the day with Elder Bester in the Riverside Park area, Spanish-speaking. Our zone leaders thought it would be good for me to spend some time in a Spanish-speaking area, as Portuguese and Spanish are somewhat similar languages. Although I had a hard time speaking, I actually found that understanding Spanish wasn't too hard! We ended up having a jam-packed day of several lessons, an amazing dinner with a part-member family, and a Book of Mormon study class at night. The dinner we had was with a nice family, and we had some amazing rice, chicken, and sweet potatoes. In this family, the wife was a member of the church, but her husband and nephew who had been staying with them weren't members. Although I kind of just sat there and listened, I tried my best to understand and pick up on what was being said, and for the most part, I could! After a few contacts and visits with some friends, we then went to a Book of Mormon study for about 40 minutes. It was quite interesting because the study was on 3rd Nephi 17, when Jesus was visiting the Nephites and teaching them, and I swear after 40 minutes of study they had only covered about 7 verses of the whole chapter! It was a very in-depth study session, in which about 8 other members were in attendance, one of which came with a bag of candy who inevitably won my respect... for his testimony! Not just the candy...maybe. But anyway, it was fun sitting in on the study. Then, following this session we zoomed on over to another part-member family to have a lesson. Turns out the husband was the non-member who had many strange questions and concerns about the church, which were hard to answer. Nonetheless, it was a good discussion, and at the end the husband insisted on taking a picture with me, as I apparently look exactly like one of his friends back home. In the morning, I was informed that the apartment complex that the elders of the Riverside Park Ward lived in had a nice gym that they were allowed to use, so we went and used that at around 6:00 AM. Then, at around 11:00 we returned to our normal areas, and so for me, I returned to Elder Hansen in Cypress Creek.

The rest of the week went by so quickly, even though it was still eventful. By Thursday, we had only found one new friend, and so we set out this weekend to find new friends in order to hit the Standards of Excellence that our mission has in place for us. Unfortunately, even though we dedicated a lot of time, we just didn't seem to have any luck. No one was interested in hearing more from us, or meeting again, and the ones who were interested either lived just outside of our area and were visiting family, or preferred to speak Spanish or Creole, which meant we had to refer them to other elders and sisters. The one tender mercy that I found concerning finding this week, however, has really changed my perspective on the matter. There were about 3 people this week that we met with and had AMAZING conversations with. These people were all faithful church goers, two of them attending local baptist churches, and one attending a Catholic church nearby. The first guy that we talked with was named Jussepi or something like that (his actual name being like 4 times as long), and he was very impressed with just how much we do as missionaries of our church, how we dedicate ourselves to the work. We also helped clear up a major misconception that he had: that we didn't really believe that Jesus was the Christ. It is crazy to me to hear someone think that since our church is literally called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nevertheless, we informed him that we believe Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer, and that he truly is the reason for everything we do. From there he asked a lot about our day-to-day as missionaries, as well as a few other things about our faith, and to him we asked likewise. He was super elect, and had a ton of strong faith, and it made me think just how good I have it. I mean I was born into the church that contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, I still had to accept certain things for myself and build my faith accordingly, but for my whole life I have had Christ in my life, and I have had the fullness of truth. This man was so faithful, and so pure, and yet he didn't grow up in any church, let alone the restored church of Jesus Christ in latter days. It was a humbling experience, and it made me think just how amazing it would be to have such a faithful man in our congregation. We hope to meet with him again and to slowly teach him about our church, but ultimately I know he is in a good place, and is doing a lot of good for the world and for his family. Another man we met named Joseph was similar in that he is a good man, and has great faith in Jesus Christ. We talked a lot with him about our purpose, and about the importance of the scriptures and the Savior in our lives. Finally we met a guy named Danny, just on Sunday afternoon, and man, was he knowledgeable about the Bible! To be honest, it was almost like a Bible-bash experience, except it wasn't contentious or anything. Danny was just as concerned for our welfare as we were for him. So we exchanged beliefs, both parties, and then we invited him to read the Book of Mormon. We promised him that if he would read it with an open heart and with real intent, that he would come to know of its truthfulness. Danny wanted us to provide prominent physical evidence that the Book of Mormon is true, that it wasn't just made up or written. We ultimately left him with this response, that no number of physical evidence would truly convince him that it was true unless he first exercised faith, seeking to know through faith if it was true. And so that was that, we left him with Moroni's promise and a fresh Book of Mormon that I had been carrying around in my hands that day just for him.

We had another super profound experience this week that ties back to my very first day out here in Florida. On that first day we had a lesson with our friend Carl, who was on date for baptism at the time for February 8th. Carl is such an amazing guy who has been super accepting and receptive of the Gospel, but had been unable to attend church due to medical issues with his kidneys. For months, he was in and out of the hospital, having tests done, and surgery performed trying to get him up and healthy again. At this first lesson that I had, we taught Carl about the Priesthood power, and the ordinances and things it can do to bless others. Then we offered to give Carl a priesthood blessing, and he gladly accepted. After the blessing was over, Carl said that the area around his kidneys, where all the problems had arose felt hot all of the sudden during the blessing. Flash forward 3 weeks and Carl had a checkup with the doctors, and they were amazed, even dumb-founded. His dormant kidney was up and working again, as if nothing ever happened. It was truly a miracle, and a testament that Priesthood power is real, and can bless people and even heal them, just as it did in times of old. It also testified of the great faith that Carl has, as blessings and healing can only be brought to pass according to the faith of those being blessed. It was the same when Jesus healed the sick and the lame. They were healed by the power of God, but only through their great faith and belief that they could in fact be healed. This was truly a miraculous experience that I am sure I will share for the rest of my life!!

This weekend, we also had Stake Conference which was a blast! On Saturday night, we were invited to bring a friend to the adult session of conference, as it was to be somewhat tailored to investigators and new members of the church. Before the actual session started, they had a dinner for all the members that would be attending, and they had salad, pizza, and a DONUT TRUCK!! Yep, apparently, one of the members of the stake owns a mini donut truck, which they brought to the conference, and they made hundreds of delicious and fresh mini donuts that were absolutely amazing. Elder Hansen and I may or may not have had like 3 trays each of those donuts...😋 Anyway, then we had the adult session, and although our friend Carl couldn't make it after all, we were pleased to hear from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Clayton. His talk was amazing, and he has such a special way of stating things simply with a great spirit, and a strong testimony. He also made the meeting interactive, asking the members of the congregation what thoughts they had on things. He also at one point had all the missionaries come up to the stand, and had us sing "I Am a Child of God" (all 3 verses), which was most definitely unplanned, and then had 2 missionaries bare their testimonies. Then, on Sunday during the actual Stake Conference, Elder Clayton had another amazing talk, and afterwards invited all the friends and new members of the church to join him for a short special meeting to welcome them, and to invite them to continue to seek out the truth of the gospel. The Spirit was strong that day, and I really think that Carl felt it as well.

Some other things that happened this week included trying a favorite drink of one of our members who fed us, which was mixing half-and-half, orange Fanta soda, and Coca-Cola, and it was surprisingly really good, playing our Coral Springs Bowl, or a football game with all of the missionaries from our zone, in which my team won (not to brag or anything, pshhh), and getting my bike replaced with another ragtag bike that worked well enough for me to use it. It turned out that when we had exchanges, the missionary that ended up with my companion Elder Hansen, who was Elder Agulera, broke my bike... I'm sure that if I was in his position the same thing would have happened, but while he was riding my bike, he shifted gears, and the whole derailer just bent and then broke off. So yeah, I had to get a new bike, but it was funny nonetheless, and to be honest I kind of prefer my new bike. It has squeaky brakes, but it's a little easier to go fast on it, which is nice.

Overall, this week has been amazing, and I am absolutely loving it out here in Florida, and on this mission! This week I also managed to finish the Book of Mormon cover to cover, as I had started when I first came into the MTC, and after I had finished I prayed to know again, for a surety, if the Book of Mormon is true, if it is the word of God, and I can tell you that I felt so much peace, and was reassured that it is in fact the word of God, and a true testament of Jesus Christ, a book that can draw men nearer to God unlike any other book or writing. I invite all that don't have a sure testimony of the Book of Mormon to read it, and to pray, in sincerity, if it is true, and I can promise that you will receive a witness that it is in fact true. And even to those that have read the Book of Mormon already, I invite you to read it again, maybe with a question in mind, and I can also promise that you will discover things you never noticed before, and comprehend things that previously were a mystery.

Thank you all for your support! I love you all!!

-Until Next time,

Elder Lightheart