Hey
family.
Anyways so ya
carnival is over and we got back to normal and were able to work the rest of the
week. It was fun to be here in Guayaquil this year for those festivals because
they celebrate a lot more. They all had pools outside of their houses and it's hilarious!! They'd have a little tiny street just filled with 7 or 8 plastic pools like the
one at our house with a ton of music and everyone swimming :)
My stomach
problems have gone away and I feel fine now so don't worry. And mom I'm zone leader
now so I can rest if I need to if I'm not feeling well :) and I dont have to worry too much about others taking
advantage of me now :) one of the perks of having this calling. But at the same
time it is extremely stressful sometimes; we are constantly getting calls and
having more stuff to do, and everyone looks to me for answers and help in their
areas. Also the mission president dropped in on one of our meetings this last Saturday to motivate the zone which is intimidating being the one to teach the
other missionaries and have the president sit in listening as well. But I felt
like I did a good job so no worries :)
That's sweet
about the basketball games. Never knew that the Brighton girls basketball team would be
good...
And wow I can't
believe Nathan is back!!! That is insane. I wonder if he baptized people...? Russia sounds like it would be super super hard.
It is tough to be around people
that take away from the Spirit and that's why the prophet tells us to pick good
friends and to stand in holy places. However, something that I have learned on
the mission is that sometimes you do have to have the courage to stand up and
say something, and that you have to be the one to invite the Spirit, change the
subject and sometimes reprimand others for what they do wrong. Being a zone
leader has been a little tough in that I have never been good at telling others
what they can't do. I don't like being rude or mean but sometimes with people they
don't realize what they're doing is wrong until you show them. And the Spirit can
softly guide us in the way to change their train of
thought. 3 Nephi 12:14-16
Now about my
week. It was pretty sweet. We worked hard and we have been finding some really
interesting poeple to teach. However I would like to share one specific story.
Alright so on Saturday we got a call from one of our missionaries saying that
they had found one of their investigators who was pleading them to get baptized
that day. So we went over to his house and I did the baptismal interview to see
if he was ready to get baptized and in talking to him he shared with me an amazing
story of how he wasn't a good person before. He had a ton of problems with drugs,
jail time, and his girlfriend. He was in a really bad place about 6 months ago
and one of his friends was a member of the church and started talking to him
about God and that God could help him.
So one night he prayed to God asking for
someone to invite him to the true church and later that week two brothers from
our church invited him that Sunday but he ended up saying no to them. Ironically
he said he would go when he felt the desire to go from his heart. Later that day
he realized that he had recieved the answer to his prayer and rejected it. The
following Sunday he went to church alone and after two months of investigating
suddenly that Saturday, felt the impression that he needed to be baptized. And
that's when he went and searched out the missionaries. He changed his life! He
loves the church and I had never seen someone that just lit up with light
talking about the church. He was so excited to erase his past and start over. I
was honered to be able to get to know him and see him recieve that joyful
ordinance of a baptism :)
Haha then the
funny thing, right after leaving the interview we are walking and a police guy
pulls up and a guy on the corner sees him and immediately speeds away on his
motorcycle and they both go out in a high speed chase. Then as another policeman pulls up to the same place another 12 guys all just scatter in
different directions... hahaha if the policeman hadn't came up I wouldn't have even
realized that I was completely surrounded by criminals! But I'm fine... no
worries!
Love you guys!
Elder
Lignell
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