Week 81: Looking Back

As I look back on this week and what we accomplished - number wise - I cringe.   Yet, if I look at the number of people we saw and spoke with (60+) it wasn’t so bad - and we managed to find one new investigator.   So, I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks and you decide if it was productive or not.

I was recently doing some study and pondering on something Grandpa Collingwood once told me.  He said, “Just because you are working hard in your area, exercising faith to find people and are coming up short doesn't mean your efforts are wasted.  The Lord blesses any amount of work, but it might not be in your area.”  So, while we are struggling here, who knows, maybe our faith is affecting others in different areas.  That thought makes all the rejection a little more bearable. 

Saturday was rough!  We woke up and did some service and it was hot. Even with drinking a gallon of water, I still managed to get tagged with a degree of heat exhaustion.  I ended up with a pretty bad upset stomach and head ache – so, that was fun.

We also saw a cool miracle for the Butterfield Ward.  The Butterfield Ward hasn't had a solid investigator in month, but today a guy who has recently returned to activity invited us to teach his non-member wife the lessons.  It’s a big deal for the Butterfield ward and I'm just shocked.  We are like, “Is this really happening?”  We have an appointment to meet with her and start the lessons on Thursday.  Hopefully it will be successful.

This week we also had a lot of Zone meetings.  The Zone focus is on improving the weekly Ward Correlation, Missionary meetings, Ward Councils for each ward.  We also had our interviews with the Present.  So, that took up a lot of time as well.

My interviews with the mission president went really well.  We were talking about how this coming transfer will end my time in the River Crossing and Butterfield Wards.  While it’s always sad to say goodbyes, I am excited to hopefully finish my mission in a rural area out in the boonies. But who knows, I could end up transferring to the next ward over. But luckily there is no need to stress about that for another 3 weeks or so.

Friday:  We had the unique opportunity to Skype into A__'s baptism in Virginia.  He is from Virginia and came to Tucson to visit his mom.  After his visit, his mom is now taking the lessons here in Tucson from us.  It all happened because A__ inspired her with his testimony, while he was still taking the lessons.  While teaching A__’s mom, we also got to teach A___ the last lesson he needed before being baptized.  So, we got to watch the talk portion of his baptism with his Mom.  It was a wonderful and neat experience, knowing I helped teach him also.

This week we also ended up going through area book and cleaning it up.  We visited the people listed in our area book (prior investigators taught by prior missionaries in the past) and decided whether to stop teaching them or to continue.

We also taught the O__ family about enduring trails by sharing conference talks and a Mormon Message titled ‘Mountains to Climb.’  Every time I endure a loss or am down in the dumps, I watch it.  I'd like to invite everyone to watch this short 5 minute message when you are feeling the same way.

This week I have been studying in 1Nephi chapters 17-18.  It is where Nephi breaks his bow and builds the ship.  I look at all the persecution and faith defying trials he went through in just a short amount of time.  While I was reading about all of his Nephi’s trials, Philip. 4:13 came to mind -here it says:

"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."

So whenever the ‘you-know-what’ hits the fan - remember that.

So, like I said in the beginning of the email - If there is one thing I have learned this week it is that no effort is wasted.  That doesn't apply to just missionary work.  See how it can apply in your own life and I promise you will find more comfort in doing so. 

This is my simple testimony for the week.  While it was kind of scattered around a bit, I hope it made sense. I had an alright week and hoping for a better one to come.

 I love you all.  Keep the faith

Love, 

Elder Connor William Dickinson