Transfer 7 Week 4

Hello My lovely family!!!!

So as I was writing my President I thought, 'Hey this is pretty good. I'll just copy it and send it out to my family too. This is how I feel.' So here is another excerpt from my letter to my President, who by the way is so fantastic. I want you all to meet him and love him too. His wife is also amazing and brilliant. 

"We have been working hard. I am still praying for a 'big miracle'. We learn everyday. We are improving how we teach. We, as a companionship, are getting better at talking with EVERYONE. We add to our miracle wall each day. And yet I have nothing huge, big or momentous to report. Sometimes I look at my week and think, 'Golly, no one got translated, no beam of lights, no angelic appearances. I'm not sure what to write president.' I do go out and expect miracles and do things that show I am acting in faith and often I feel as if there is no fruit. We talked about small and simple things to bring great things to pass. I feel like a continuation of that would be, 'sometimes the great things that occur come about by stacking many small and simple things together.' I feel like this describes my mission. At times I feel like a slacker missionary because of the lack of baptisms under my belt. But then I shake off the thoughts that Satan slips in and remember, as preach my Gospel puts it, 'Our success as a missionary is measured by our commitment...' I love this work so much! And yet, despite our commitment level some weeks we may feel like we didn't make a difference and other weeks we feel avalanched by miracles. I have been trying to focus on the small and simple things that are coming to pass as a result of our consistent effort. I was looking at our numbers for this transfer and compared them to last transfer. I was so pleased to see a consistent improvement in every area. Some other small and simple blessings have been more energy to deal with grumpy people. An optimistic attitude when appointments cancel. Being able to laugh. Feeling a deep and abiding love for missionary work. Seeing my knowledge increase about the gospel. Feeling my capacity increase to follow the spirit. Seeing the growth in my companion. One thing in specific stands out for this week in particular, I've felt a need to have more heartfelt, specific and meaningful prayers. As I have made an effort in my prayers I have received little golden nuggets of how to improve in little ways that have really helped. God is good. He listens. He is aware. He loves us all so much and I love feeling how much he loves his children here in Oregon."

Also a quote that Rylie sent me. I really want to share it cause I like it.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
C.S Lewis

I love you all so much!