January 16, 2017 The Mission Has Changed My Life

This week has been a really good one! I swear that the weeks keep getting faster and faster. There's something about staying busy that just makes the time fly! Me and Elder Bybee are having a blast together! We get along so well and we only have about two weeks left till the transfer is over. :( I would say that the highlights of the week were finding a couple of new investigators to teach and seeing Joe M come to church and his desire to start coming out every week! Brings joy to my heart to hear that! We received an unexpected text from a guy who said that he was wanting to learn more about our church! He was asking some great questions about prophets as well! So we set up a time to meet him at the church to teach him more! Me and Elder Carroll the AP was on exchanges with me and we were able to teach him! It can be hard to teach with somebody that you have never really known and know what their teaching skills are like but everything was just so smooth and the lesson was powerful! He was asking the most sincere questions ever and was really engaged in the lesson it was great! He has a family of 3 daughters that are really young as well! The Lord blessed us with a family! Thank you!! Invited him to be baptized and he said yes with no hesitation! Gotta love it! 

Everything just seemed to go well this week! We taught a lot of great lessons this week to people we've been working with! People are coming out to church! The branch is loving it! The branch is doing really well! I was able to really express my gratitude as I gave a talk yesterday about how much I appreciated them, so hopefully they believe us! The branch has been feeding us a ton more than what they were at the beginning of us being there! So that's good!

Ebe came to church yesterday! Man I love that guy so much! We really have grown a strong relationship these past couple of weeks. He's one that I will stay in contact with the rest of my life. I just wish he could come to BYU-I with me! He's moving slowly but surely! We are going to follow up on what he's been doing so far about The Book of Mormon and praying and such!

I've been doing really well! I don't think I talk a lot about me but I'm loving life! I can't believe I have such a little time left on my mission! I was talking to Elder Bybee about this the other and I was expressing how I still feel like I've been out for like 5 months and I'm just so used to Older missionaries saying that they only have such a little time left... and now I'm one of those older missionaries. It doesn't seem real. But at the same time I still have 7 months so I'm happy! It's interesting to see as Zone Leader where missionaries desires are. You could easily pick out those who have a desire to work and those who don't. Those who actually care about the people they teach and those who care more about what they are eating for dinner that night. It's sad to see... and you can only hope and pray that they aren't like that after the mission.

I gave a talk yesterday about the personal relationship we should have with Jesus Christ and how he can really relate to us all and what we are going through! I shared two experiences to really paint the picture. One was my 8th grade experience moving and feeling so alone! And the other was seeing investigators fall short of baptism after working so much with them and seeing them progress! These are two experiences I've had that have really helped me gain knowledge and understanding of what Jesus Christ went through. Those were tough times in my life but I was able to have someone relate to me and help me through it! As well as my family of course! The mission has changed my life ladies and gentleman, it's changed me! And I owe it all to Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!!! hahaha

Love you all dearly and I think about you all often! Not joking!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Beds, Coco, Jojinator

Ebe