Week 18 - Miracles Come From Diligence

Hey everyone, I hope everything is going well back home.  Sorry I didn't write yesterday, they randomly switched our P-Day to Wednesday because we had a visit from Elder Ringwood of the Seventy yesterday.  That wasn't my favorite, kinda ruined my email plans :/  But aside from that fact it was a great visit.  Elder Ringwood talked a lot about keeping all of our many commandments and we had a great discussion as a group of missionaries.  It got really heartfelt at times and I'm sure all of us in the room were tearing up near the end.  He truly cared about us, I could tell by the spirit he brought.

The last topic of discussion was brought up by Elder Atkinson.  We were discussing with Elder Ringwood and we had been reading Moroni 7 where it talks about the miracles we get if we have strong enough faith.  He said that he didn't always see miracles, even if he was diligent, so that he felt like he needed to do better in some way, and wanted to know how.  Elder Ringwood said, we've been reading about all the promised blessings that we receive if we are faithful and diligent and do all we can do.  God always keeps his promises.  If we are diligent, at the end of the day you can pray and say, "Heavenly Father, we've done absolutely everything that we could think of to find people today.  We've talked to everyone and made all the visits we could fit into our schedule.  I know, that a miracle happened today...And I don't care if I ever see it."

We don't always see the miracles that come from our diligence.  Some take years to be completed.  But because we know that our Heavenly Father does not break his promises, if we do our part, we know that there was a miracle.  It may not have been a full completed miracle, but we know that we started one somewhere.  We need to have the faith that a miracle did happen.   We need to have faith to not care if we ever see the end result of it or not.  He put it much better, but I just thought I'd share it because it was really heartfelt and made me tear up.

Anyway, the week went great.  We were able to teach more lessons and I'm finally getting used to being District Leader.  We went out to lunch with another companionship in our District.  We ate at Angie's and we flipped two lids and cleaned the sink.  I'll attach some photos of the two lids we devoured, but I don't have a picture of the sink, so I'll go ahead and explain that part of it.  They bring out a kitchen sink that is filled with ice cream, bananas and all sorts of toppings and it's huge.  The ice cream is at least a foot tall and maybe a foot and a half in length.  Massive....We prayed in the middle of the meal that we would be able to finish, and miraculously, we did.  I'm proud, yet not proud at the same time...

Wendell is Awesome!  He's so solid.  He's the investigator that just moved into our area.  He is a football coach and his baptism is set for the 21st of November. His two brothers have basically shunned him and have told him he's a disgrace to the family by joining with those white Mormons, and so he spent a lot of time crying and we didn't get to the lesson, but we were able to console him.  He said it doesn't change his decision, he can't go against the answer he got from God, he just wishes that his family would support him.  But anyway, he's going to have the entire football team sing Army of Helaman at his baptism, the non-member players say they'll do it too.  And the entire cheerleading team will be there.  Not to mention all the ward members that will be there.  We won't be able to fit them all in the relief society room.  It's awesome.  I'm so happy for him!

So yeah, I've had a great week, my testimony is growing so much.  I love you all and I hope things are going well for all of you.  You're in my prayers.

Elder Walker