(: :)

We taught Tay twice this week.

Our "quads" are buff ;)

When we went to teach Tay this week we walked in and found a brand new full standard works quad laying on the table! She had ordered one online and had been studying from it answering the extended study questions from one of the pamphlets. It is always so exciting to see your investigators interested in gospel related things. She was able to get work off again and so she came to church on Sunday! We have been blessed to have over 20 different people help us teach her and the ward again just enveloped her. We didn't sit next to her in sacrament meeting, we didn't take her to the classes. I honestly only spoke to her once because the ward was already helping her the whole time. So fantastic to see members taking the initiative. 

Some things learned:

In Mark, Jesus Christ takes a blind man out of the city to heal him of his infirmities. Well He lays hands on the man and when the man opens his eyes he told Jesus that he still couldn't see fully and so then Christ finishes the healing and the man leaves. Well I thought for a moment about why the Savior healed by "degrees" or "stages". I feel that this is often how we are healed spiritually. Spiritual renewal is not an instantaneous thing. It takes consistent trust in the Lord. First he leads him out of the city(we may become impatient). Then he applies saliva to his eyes and lays hands on him only to find that he still cannot fully see (when full healing doesn't take place immediately we can harden our hearts and believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a false teaching). Then Christ again touches the mans eyes and he experiences full healing. If we are patient when working with the Lord and trust in his timing then we can rest assured that full healing will be reached. Do we have faith to endure to then end and continue trying always? 

40 Day Fast

Well since the 40 day fast has started in our ward we have seen a lot of excitement about missionary work! On Sunday we passed out a missionary banana bread recipe in RS and invited each person to make a batch to share with a neighbor with a pass along card. We will be visiting one auxiliary a week and giving them a missionary idea to try. Hopefully they will show the faith they have and put the ideas into action.

Elder Blake and I carpooled on Wednesday with Elder Taylor and Elder Conley to MLC. They only live about ten minutes south of us. We went and said hello to Patrick Murphy and then buckled down in the mission home for our 8 hour meeting. I seriously love the MLC meeting. The Spirit is always strong and I see a lot of things I need to repent of. 

Wednesday night we had our usual visit with Ivan and his family. Sister Diaz had work off that day and she made a FEAST. Seriously a feast. There were two pizzas, tamales, taquitos, shrimp tacos fruit salad. It was SO good. All of it made by hand from scratch. American cooking just does not compare. It was all completely fresh.

Feasting with Ivan and his family

Friday was Zone training and Elder Blake and I felt like it turned out pretty good. I trained on D&C 20:37. A very important verse I wish I would have been using throughout my mission to teach investigators and missionaries. You should all read it before you take the sacrament this next Sunday!

Zone Training

Saturday was exchanges with Elder Tuala. I served around him early in my mission and I was excited for exchanges again. While we were out we set a goal to have 10 unplanned contacts and to ask for 10 referrals which is very hard for us usually. By the end of the day we had 17 unplanned contacts and 16 referrals asked for. To say the least we were super pumped the whole day. We actually hit our goal of ten before noon even hit. A mission record for myself. I've been trying to get in a better habit of seeking referrals and that exchange helped immensely. 

I know that Heavenly Father lives. And wants us to be close with Him. If we feel lonely, or sad, or frustrated... just pray! He is listening! I know we all have the ability to rely on Christ so we can accomplish what God has in store; we must simply choose to!

Love you all

• E. Kelly

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