The week went by super fast despite the lack of tons of lessons or projects throughout. We have been focusing a lot more of our efforts on finding the people that live in our new sector and seeing if there is anything that we can help them with, and really we have had a lot of success in finding people that are less active members of the church or investigators that need help but don`t want it haha. This always seems to be the case in the mission, there are tons of people who need help with either the spiritual, emotional, or physical apects of their lives but don`t want it; or at least not from a couple of young men in the street. I have found the only time that we have been able to help people is when we involve prayer and the Spirit in this process. As my Mission President told us in a correlation meeting a couple weeks ago, "without the Spirit, missionaries are just a couple a young men wandering through the streets." Nevertheless, we have found many people as well who do want our help and have invited us to visit them during this week.
In my studies this week I have focused a lot on learning about patience (not sure if that is spelled right or not haha Spanish is destroying my English) and how I need to apply it more in my life. I have come to find that I need a lot more patience than I`ve had in the past. But as a missionary patience is invaluable, and you need it in every situation whether it`s with your companion, the people in your mission, or yourself. The fact is that none of us are perfect and we`re all doing to best we can to find some peace and happiness in this life, and during this process there are going to be a few points that are diffivult or that we don`t fully understand. As we develope patience, we come to trust that no matter how dark and dreary our circumstances are the Lord is going to make everything fine eventually, even if it`s not going to be in this life. However, we must not confuse patience with idleness, whish would mean we sit and do nothing waiting for the Lord to fix our problems and do nothing for ourselves. Rather we must anxiously engage in finding answers to our problems and doing everything that is possible to improve our circumstances. And when we show this effort this is when the Lord will show us the way, as we continuously and patiently search for the answers to our difficulties. The blessings of patience are many, and I can promise that this attribute will bless your lives and those of many around you as we all try to develope it more.
Another aspect I would like to talk about is Hope. During my time in the mission I have found several people without hope, who don`t believe that there is ever going to be a day when things are going to get better and there is only misery in life. I love the quote, "whether you think you can or can`t you`re right." If we don`t believe things will ever get better and our countanence is always pesamistic, things will not get better. But as we exercise hope in our trials, faithfully expecting deliverance from that which drags us down and doing all we can to fight agaist it, this is when we find joy and happiness. Let us all try to hope for joy in our lives, and patiently and diligently strive each day to do a little better and work a little harder toward that which we desire.
In closing I would like to share one of my favorite quotes from the infamous Yoda of the Star Wars universe, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." No matter how dark or depressing your circumstances get do not be afriad, there is always a way out. I know at times this life is difficult and it can be hard to believe that things will get better, but I promise that they can. As we conquer our fears and allow the Lord`s will to become our own we will find that we are stronger than we thought, and there is no reason to fear. The light will always penetrate the dark, the good will always prevail against the evil, and God will always be own our side. It`s my hope and prayer that you are all well and find joy in each of your lives. Until next week!
With love, Elder Conger
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