23 November 2015 - Another Week of Hard Work

This week has been good. Lots of good hard work. Despite the area being small, it is interesting to see how we are still managing to stay quite busy. I have noticed that in larger areas missionaries can tend to think that they have more work to do in their areas. However I would like to say that this mind-set is not a bit faulty. In a smaller area you focus more on the individuals, realizing that we have to work with these people despite maybe thinking that there are others that we could go find and see. You focus much more on their needs. If you see some of the same people walking on the street, what do you do? Keep talking with them. Just because you have spoken with them before does not mean that you have nothing meaningful to share with them today. I love trying to figure out creative and different ways to talk with people. It is great to have a laugh with them on the street to show them that we are normal people as well.

This week though, we have been working with a lot of Less-Actives, it has been great. If we don't have any appointments, we are always looking for someone to teach and assist in their journey back to their Father in Heaven. We taught this one Less-Active young man named Sid. He was about 15 or so. We taught him outside on the grass because there was no one home old enough for us to go in. We had a great lesson on prayer. We asked him questions about how he was doing personally. He said that he was only praying every so often. Nothing to consistent. It was great to explain to him how important it really is to pray and talk with our Heavenly Father. We did a little demonstration or visual with our ties. You either end of the tie in each hand and then try to put a not in it. It seems impossible however if you fold your arms like you are to pray and then grab the tie and then unfold them, you make a not in the tie. He really enjoyed the small demonstration to go along with the lesson. We where thinking of a commitment that we could leave with him. I didn't want it to be boring or meaningless. Like giving him something to read. It is not to appealing for a young boy. With a stroke of inspiration (it was the Spirit that gave us the inspiration) we invited him to go teach his Brothers and show him what we showed with him.

When we followed up with him and we where elated to hear that he had shown his Brothers and also shared with them about prayer to. Very often we come back and they don't do it. We had another lesson, this time more centred on the scriptures, and learned about Lehi's Vision. We showed him a picture and explained it to him and how important and meaningful it is for us. He really enjoyed it. Once again we gave the picture book to him and challenged him to read 1 Nephi Chapter 8 and then share it with his family. He also expressed a desire to pray as a family, and we encouraged him to continue working with his family. He is a great kid!

Congrats Stuart on getting the Melchezidek Priesthood that must have been a real surprise for sure. Look forwards to hearing about your call and also doing some training when I get back. Have you watched those videos I sent a link to? That would be really good for you to. I will keep following up for sure!

Love you all heaps!
Love,
Elder Ward

The picture is with one of my favourite missionaries. Elder Schetzel is in the Zone and it is great to be with him again. He was actually serving for a while in Niue, for a bit. He loved it out there. He has some awesome stories!