Elder Edholm -- week 63

 At the beginning of this week we were able to do a huge service project that helped us get to know a part of our area where we had never been before. One of the English wards in the south part of our area made some flyers that said the missionaries are looking for service projects. We were able to get a map of all the English members in that ward and we handed out flyers for a couple hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were able to ask all the English members if they knew where any Spanish speakers lived! Also this week we got to teach Andres. On Sunday night he texted us saying that he got back from his trip from Idaho and that he wanted us to teach him! He works a lot so it has been pretty hard to find him, but he loves listening to us. We got to start teaching two people this week that are really interested also, Delia and Ruby. Delia lives alone but her daughter and grandson live close by so Delia is always really busy with work and taking care of her grandson when her daughter is working. We taught her about Christ and his teachings, and also about Joseph Smith and she enjoyed the message a lot! We're going by this week to share more with her. Ruby is the wife of a member, they have one kid and she is pregnant with her second. They came to church a few months ago, but we could never get in contact with them to teach and share something. We called the husband this last week, he answered and said we could come by so we did, and we were able to teach her about the prophets in the bible and also about the experience that Joseph that had too. She really liked everything! We also shared some scriptures in the Book of Mormon and invited her to get baptized and she said she would! We asked her to pray about it to make sure it is the right decision. They also came to church yesterday! 

This week I've set the goal to finish the New Testament and also finish the Book of Mormon by the end of October, I only have 65 pages left in the New Testament, but I have 170 pages left in the Book of Mormon. Two scriptures have really jumped out to me, the first is in the Book of Mormon, in Helaman 3:35:

 "35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

In Spanish, the word that they use for yield is Entregar, which means to deliver or hand over. So that made me think, it what ways can I deliver or give my heart to God so that I can be more humble and have a firmer faith in Christ. Then I read in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22: 

"16 Rejoice evermore.

17 Pray without ceasing.

18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

19 Quench not the Spirit.

20 Despise not prophesyings.

21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

22 Abstain from all appearance of evil."

I was thinking that these things are the ways I can give my heart to God. I can pray more, and give Him thanks for the things he has blessed me with. I can live in a way that I can feel more of the Spirit. I can hold on to the things in this life that are good and that make me happy and bring me joy, and I can do my best to stay away from anything evil. 

Small blessing that I saw this week, or smelled this week. Yesterday we had an teaching appointment with a family that we are teaching, but they weren't there, so we just started walking around the apartment complex. In the complex there happened to be a huge walnut tree, like the one my family used to have in our front yard when we lived in Utah. So I picked up one of the walnuts and the smell of it reminded me of playing in the leaves in during the fall. Brought back a lot of good memories. So I took some of the walnuts with me and put them on my desk!

Also this last week I've really been hitting Spanish vocab hard, and I was able to recognize quite a bit of those new words while talking to the Spanish speakers here(like jornada and pretexto). Very slowly my Spanish is improving!

Me crossing my eyes in Elder Anderson's picture of the mountains

Robot sculpture in a part of our area

Picture of the flag and mountains while hanging out flyers

Video I made with gummy worms