Time to Write! (WEEK 16) 11/3/14

Alright so I finally have time to write to you guys!!!

hmmmm

where do I begin?

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Ok so first my companion Elder Alvarez is amazing! I feel extremely blessed to be his companion! Although we´ve had arquitectura 1 and 2 under our watch we´ve been working diligently and fervantly every day! We almost always teach with unity which brings the spirit. Then we always support eachother to keep eachother excited and full of faith and hope in the work!

We´ve had tons and tons of work every single day its been great! The lord has blessed us significantly as long as we´ve put him first! 

The work with the ward has been significantly improved. Working very closely with the ward council in order to support and uplift. With their approval we´ve been changing the ward mission plan, which has been helping everyone to be more excited. Then when we have the lessons its almost always guided by the spirit and the members have been a huge blessing for us on that part! Sharing experiences and testimonies to support these amazing people that we´re teaching. Which all in all helps the whole attitude of the ward to increase! 

Still not sure but its very likely that they´ll put more missionaries in the ward again, however talking to ward council they only want to have 2 missionaries in the ward, the reason being we´ve been working hard and now the membersdont think of the ward split in two, having to work with two different companionships. So we´ll see what happens!

We were about to have two baptisms this past week, but some things came up during the lesson and we felt they werent completely prepared, to which the investigators agreed. All was going well until the family of Mari came in to "visit" them and they convinced her to not be baptised, to which her husband Santos followed as well. So right now we have stopped teaching them, but I don´t feel its over, only that they need some time to think avout all this. During this time the bishop will be working very closely with them. I have faith that things will work out! 

So our tremendous progression had really slown down this week and I could not figure out why. Wednesday this week we had divisions and the zone leader Elder Nuñez came and joined us both. We had a pretty good day with spirit in the lessons and lots of excitement. Before he left however, he left me with the assignment to read D&C 121:34-46. I read it and at first I felt offended that he would think that I would need to read these things. I then realized that that was my problem. Those feelings were there because of the pride I had, and it was that pride that was slowing the process of the work. Ofcourse I was thankful for all the things the lord was doing, but the thoughts were coming of "look how good our numbers are!" and lots of boasting on different levels. I´m thankful for that call to repentance! Because after I had repented we hit the ground running, with the hand of the lord incredibly strong throughout that day. Totaling in 12 new investigators not including their families! Now that is motivation to fight off pride! 

I´m going to keep working on that front in order to not be prideful, because for me, I think thats one of the hardest attributes to fight off. With time and experience and the lords help anythings possible!

Love you all!

Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Thompson IV

P.S. I invite all priesthood holders to read D&C 121:34-46!

P.S.S. I also invite everyone else to read this!