Down with Elder Downey

My time with Elder Downey has sadly come to a close. It's been a good six weeks my man! Before Elder Downey leaves, we went to lunch at this sushi joint they have out here. It's one of those "hole-in-the-wall" kind of place, but I was surprised; it wasn't too bad and we didn't seem to get sick. We also tried hard to solve our Rubik's cube in under a minute, Elder Downey was a little faster than me (and I taught him how to solve it), but I'm a proud Daddy :).

Our current teaching pool isn't very big, but we are working hard to get into people's homes. The one person we are trying really hard to help is Barbara, and she has just been a missionaries dream! She's about 75 years old and I love her to death! She loves the Book of Mormon, she know's Joseph Smith is a prophet, and she finds so much peace from knowing the Plan of Salvation. She wants to be baptized, but the only problem is that she has social anxiety.  It's very difficult for her to get out and attending church meetings may not easy for her either. She is very comfortable with us, so we are praying that in time she'll gain the courage to come out of her apartment.

Spiritual message of the week..

"Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear."
-Moroni 8:16

How can you gain power? Boldness+Love=Power. If we can overcome fear, we can overcome the stratagem of the devil.

The upcoming transfer Elder Downey is leaving and I will still remain as the District leader (blah), giving training's and so on.  So sorry if I don't feel up to preparing a very spiritual e-mail, I'll try to be better in the future.

Until next week.  Love,
Elder West

Pictures:

1) a funny sign we saw this week
2) my current Rubik's cube record.  53 second
3) picture of our District (the chairs indicate how many transfers each missionary has left before heading home)

Marching on!

March 5, 2018

"Yea, and I say unto you that if it were not for the prayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction; yet it would not be by flood, as were the people in the days of Noah, but it would be by famine, and by pestilence, and the sword."

"But it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the time is soon at hand except ye repent." - Alma 10:22-23

Prayers have power, they are our lifeline to God. Christ in His moments of pain and anguish in Gethsemane prayed to the father. Our influence and prayers are what keep the destruction of the wicked at bay, and the way we can get back on the covenant path is through repentance.

"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" - Hebrews 12:9

The only logical option for us is to come to God, there is no other way.

This week has been rough, mostly because I was sick for 3 days which put me out of commission  much longer than what I would've liked... But I'm better now! You really appreciate health after you've been sick.

Even though we weren't able to get out and track neighborhoods, or visit members very much, the Lord has not stayed his hand. We were still able to talk to people, find more investigators to teach (one of them will be playing basketball with us today), and prayers have been answered.

Don't forget about your friend here in the wild wild west.

Love,
Elder West

Pictures:
1) With a recent convert, his son, and a ward Missionary (can you tell which is which?) and yes I was sick in this photo. 🙁

2) Walking to a less-active home to wake them up for church. Haha (they didn't come).

3) Part of our area

March like a Lion!

First of all, I'm sorry for not writing or updating my activity as consistently as I should.   The past couple of weeks have been hectic for us, with the transfer and new area and all.  We've also had some issues with the other Elders in the area that normally give us a ride to shop and get groceries.  They have not been very compliant or willing to sacrifice their car like they should (we are on bikes)... But things should be settling down for now.

My companion Elder Downey and I are doing great! He reminds me a lot of Jonathan, we get along well. We are always having a good time and doing good things. He has been in Sierra Vista for about five months, so he probably be transferred in a few weeks.  I've only had a few companions that I've really "jelled with" and Elder Downey is a great missionary and a good guy.  I know his trainer and his trainer's trainer, they are all hard workers.

Our Ward kinda sucks, but I know their hearts are in right place.  Many of the members are very old, 70+ which is not a prime age for missionary work. There are only two or three younger families in our Ward and they are normally busy with kids. Our Ward Mission Leader has good intentions but lacks the correct direction, but he is improving (slowly with my help 😁). We only cover one Ward boundary, but it's around 9 square miles, and filled with all sorts of interesting people. There are multiple run down trailer parks (my favorite), lower class apartment complexes, and a few half decent neighborhoods. We tend to spend more of our time in the lower class area of Sierra Vista, where there are a lot of people who are willing to listen, but not ready to commit. There are a lot of high school drop outs here, people without jobs using government funding, drug users, and free loaders. These are people who have not committed to much in their lives nor have they been successful in achieving much in their life.  It's sad.  They tend to listen us and they are receptive to our message, but they are mostly not ready or willing to commit to a covenant relationship with our Heavenly Father... But we move forward.

I'm the District Leader in this region of the mission.  My District boundaries cover the town of Sierra Vista, Huachuca City and the military base. The district includes the Zone Leaders, the Sister training leaders, along with three other companionship's of Elders. I'll tell you this, preparing for missionary Training's every week and gathering numbers and reports from the companionship's twice a week is not the most fun, but I do enjoy being able to influence and help out the companionships.

Until next time.  Love everyone and thanks so much for your letters and packages!

Love, Elder West