Exchanges and Lessons

 Hola a todos! I hope everyone is doing well. This last week has absolutely flown by for me. Winchester, Virginia is possibly one of the best areas in the entire mission, and no one knows it. We have seen more miracles than I can count at this point. 

     As we move into August, the weather has been pretty warm, but I am enjoying every second that I can before we head back into the freezing cold of the East Coast. My companion, Elder Nelson, has been a ton of fun to be with. His Spanish is improving so fast. It will be exciting to see what kind of success we can produce together. 

     We started the week with exchanges with the zone leaders. They're awesome and I have loved learning from them so far this transfer. I was with Elder Wait for our exchanges on Wednesday. Something I learned from him is the importance of being able to ask skilled and precise questions. Elder Wait has an ability to do two things through his questions. 1) He can make the person being taught recognize how the gospel of Jesus Christ can solve their need. And 2) He can make the person being taught address concerns and doubts during the lesson that they didn't even know they had. The importance of asking inspired questions can be the difference between progression and lack thereof. 

     Happy fast Sunday! I wanted to share how my testimony of fasting has grown over the last 24 hours. Our mission president in an email asked us to do a fast of faith and to fast specifically for certain things and then to expect them. Well, I figured I'd hold my mission president to that statement so my companion and I fasted with faith for success in the work and for certain people to come to church. Within the span of our 24 hour fast, we found a family who was very interested in what we had to say (Saturday evening) who then proceeded to come to church THE NEXT DAY. They loved church as well and want to learn more. All of these events happened within the 24 hours that we went without food or water. The more I look, the more I recognize that God is real. He loves us. And He has restored his true church on the Earth again. It is this knowledge that drives me out of bed every morning and motivates me to work harder than I ever have in my life. 

     Luke 18:22 says "come, follow me." As authorized representatives of Jesus Christ we extend the same invitation. "Come, follow me" to the church, to the scriptures, to baptism, and to a better life. The ONLY true and lasting happiness will come from our disposition to receive and follow this invitation from the Lord. I bear testimony that as we come and follow Him we will experience an inexplicable and incomparable joy. Have a good week.