Week 45

What a week.

Nothing has gone according to plan this week. We had a few days where we couldn't work. Satan has been hard at work. In our district we have had probably 8-10 flat tires, and only 6 missionaries, some broken rims, a shattered car window, sickness, tension, everything. It's awesome! we love afflictions and trials in the Goodyear Beautiful district.

On Wednesday our car was not in working condition, so we decided to use our bikes. Let me tell you, I have been in a car my entire mission! I am coming up on 11 months out, and I am NOT in biking shape! Not only is our area a huge area, but we live TEN MILES OUTSIDE OF IT! I wish I brought my camera so I could show pictures of when we left, how you can see some mountains very far off in the distance. We rode right up to those mountains. We actually didn't quite make it. We made it 9 miles, and my tire went flat. So we started walking. But its okay cause someone saw us and gave us a ride. Not only was it a difficult bike ride cause I'm out of shape, but I am convinced that Satan controls the wind! In fact there is a scripture that indicates that is true. We start our journey by heading south, the wind is in our face. We then head north (we went to our apartment and then back the same way) and the wind was in our face! We turn and head west, and the wind is in our face. No joke. The second we entered into our area, the wind picked up intensely, and nearly stopped our progress, we could barely move forward, but we pressed on for the next 4 miles. We taught a lesson, and then had to head back. Thankfully we got a ride back, and even dinner out of it!

Saturday we went to our good friends the Gibsons, and their grandson was there, we had dinner, and then taught him a lesson! it was not expected, but it was great. I have been here 10 months and I realized that I haven't met everyone on the roster, so it is my goal to make sure I at least go to every single persons house before I leave. I divided our area into 6 sectors, and we knocked out one of them almost completely on Saturday. We have met a lot of nice people, and some not so nice people, but its been good.

I love missionary work, and I love the gospel, there is nothing quite like sharing the gospel with others. We just found someone from tracting that came to church, and so many of the members of the ward knew them! It was a sad testament, none of them had invited them to church, none had invited them to activities, God had to intervene and tell us to specifically tract their street in order to find them. That's happened a couple of times, one the family who knew the people said "We didn't think they were ready, we feel bad now" If you have friends, invite them. Love them, I love missionary work so much, and I know that it will go on whether we do our part or not.

Elder Martin