May 25th 2014

Wow, what a long week. I can testify that I would rather sit and teach all week than walk around and look for people, a trail of the patient and the faith. 

We had the bapitism two weeks okay with the couple that goit married and then the husband was baptized, and the wife will be baptized this neek week. So that was good, but now there isnt anyone to teach, having more than 4 months in a small sector has showed that just about everyone knows me by name haha and I now tha majority of them by name.. That being said that task came up to find new people this past week, through refreeals and knocking the doors. 45 doors knowcked, and not much. 8 Referrals, not much. We still are strugglin to find people. So it looks like we will be switching sectors this week withthe sister missionaries to try out thier sector and they will be wroking in our sector. We will see how that goes! As far as the district goes, we had people in the other sector but for a lack of teaching a few things none of these people are going to progress because they arent going to church, so we are back to square one with that as well. The life of a missionary :) 

The family that got married is now super strong and preparing for the temple next year. The husband recieved the preisthood and will soon be getting a call in the ward. Super great family and are intruducing us to all their friends and family memebers to teach, so hopefully we can see some progress in some of their friends! Seeing families together is amazing. The hope and light in their eyes bring the changes in their lives! :) 

Enduring to the end. The challenges of life. The things we all go through. Thats the real trick. How we deal with the winds of life. Just like Presidente Monson said, we cant control the wind, but we can adjust the sails. Could that be anymore true? We cant control the way is. Its life, thats the way it is. But the way that we control oursleves and our attitude to the cicumstances, well that makes all the difference, and with the help our daily prayer, scripute study and weekly church attendance, makes the whirlwinds of life mangable as we adjust the sails. I wish you all a great week and hope you can adjust the sails to the circumstances of life.

Elder Strang

May 5th 2014

Transfers have come. Elder Rincon left, and my new companion is n his way here in a bus and should be here by 4. so right now i am with the zone leader following their normal daily routine. Time with Elder Rincon was great, but sadly came to an end. Hes a good friend and will be missed. 

This past week I learned a lot about enduring, enduring and enduring. There really is no way to describe it but other than the scriptures 3 Nephi 21:16 says: And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved. We have struggled a bit to find and teach this past week. I look at it 2 ways. Number 1, you can have your feet hurt from walking around all day or number 2 you can have your butt checks hurt from teaching all day. We just need more people to teach! We have been looking so hopefully that this week we will be able to find some more. Long suffering and enduring to the end are attributes of Christ that we all need to learn. The stresses and daily challenges that we go through are small tests of how we endure. Remember that how big or how small of thing you are going through Christ has been there before. 

This past week we also had a zone conference with the Mission President. There was 4 Zones there. President talked about 3 things in specific, the law of Chasity, 2 daily followups, and 3 about families. It cool to see how he takes the situations that are in the mission and applies them to the mission and then how he applies them to us. There was about 60 missionaries there and president would assign talks to give, 5 minutes each but you wouldn't know if you were going to get called on or not, super crazy! I didn't get called on for a talk but i did for a practice round, which went really well! 

Love the mission, love the people, love the Lord and love you all! Thanks for the support! 

Elder Strang