This week, I had a lot of things that, earlier on in my mission, would have distracted my focus and made it hard to be successful. Predictably, when we kept working hard after every one of those experiences, something amazing happened. It’s helping me to see that our trials come to test our faith, but that if we keep on course, the Lord will bless us immensely.

We started teaching a woman named Eilen. She is a young woman with two little kids. Her boyfriend is from another church, and he really doesn’t like it when we come around. When we knocked her door on Wednesday (I think) she said “Hi do you guys want to come in and sit down?” It was a little startling to be honest, but we accepted and went on in.

Eilen told us that about a year ago she’d been crying and praying to know which “path God had in mind for her.” A couple of days later the missionaries showed up. She really liked what they shared, but her boyfriend told her that he would kick her out of the house if she kept receiving the lessons. Reluctantly, she told the missionaries not to come back. Together, we decided that it would be best if we could come back when her boyfriend was at home to try and talk together and reach an understanding.

When we showed up yesterday to talk with the family, her boyfriend didn’t want to talk to us very much. He said that he was busy working on something out back. Then he startled us by saying “I just want you guys to respect my religion and I’ll respect yours.” We asked if that meant he was okay with us teaching his girlfriend, and he said yes.

During the lesson, it seems that he changed his mind, because he came back to the window and said that he wanted to “talk” to us when we finished. By his tone it was fairly obvious that it wasn’t going to be a friendly conversation. We finished the lesson, and asked Eilen to offer the prayer to close. She said that she didn’t want to because she was nervous about her boyfriend. I felt so bad for her. We felt inspired to teach her that when someone is nervous is when they most need to pray. She agreed and after the prayer was over went to go call her boyfriend. Miraculously, his anger had passed and he declined his opportunity to talk with us. It’s amazing how the Lord answers our prayers.

Happy New Year's!

When I was thinking about what to set as my resolutions, I kept going back to the Conference talk by D. Todd Christofferson about a consecrated life and what he said about time. My biggest Resolution is to plan every day this year, even after I finish with my mission. That way, I make full use of the resources that God has given me.

My other goal is to apply what I’ve learned on the mission to my living/studying habits. I’m too old to stay up late at night, and to dedicate hours a day to leisure activities. I want to get up early and go to bed late, and get perfect, or nearly perfect grades. That’s all though

This Sunday, I had a very weird experience. I blessed a baby in Sacrament meeting. He is the son of an investigator named Alejandra. She’s really excited about the gospel, and her husband came to church, which was really cool because he got to see the blessing. I couldn’t think of a better way to start off. We still haven’t had a lesson with him, but hopefully that experience will have prepared him to receive the gospel.

This week we had transfers, and Elder Hyde went to Resistencia. Elder Francis, from Arizona came to our branch. He comes straight from the mission office, which means that he’s really excited to be working with us. He’s a good friend of mine, so I was really excited when he got here.

Other than that there’s not a whole lot of news. This week we have the Baptism of a Kid named Paolo. This is take two, because the first time he left us with the font full and everything. I feel a lot better about this time though. He’s really cool and I think that He’s going to be a very good priesthood holder. He’s also 21 years old, so if we’re lucky he’ll decide to serve a mission. One of the best feelings that a missionary can have is when a convert goes and serves a mission himself. If she does her papers as soon as possible, I have one that’s planning on leaving this summer. The only thing that could be better is having a family get sealed in the temple.