So I've had some pretty great experiences.
I realized that missions are hard. Everything so far had gone pretty easily and I didn't feel like I had faced any serious hardships. Well, The Lord will test us and Satan will continue to Tempt us. I faced some pretty hard things last week but through the help of incouraging words from my dad in heaven and my dad on earth I was able to refocus. Satan will use our weakness's against us no matter what they be. With the help of the atonement... those weakness's can end up being our greatest strengths. I truly believe this. It takes hard work, but any challenge we face can be overcome. Within just one week, I feel like my weaknesses have are improving tremendously. God will never get sick of us praying for the same thing... but it is up to us to listen to his answer so that we don't NEED to pray for the same thing repeatedly. God hears our prayers and he will answer them NO MATTER WHAT! we just have to be patient sometimes.
Zone Conferences were this last tuesday. To be honest I was bummed that we wouldn't be able to go out and teach and we would just be sitting listening to instruction. It was 6 HOURS long!!! The even crazier part... I never fell asleep and I LOVED the entire thing! I can truly say that I felt the spirit so powerfully whenever my mission president talked. He is amazing! I know that I was called not only to serve in Salone, but to Serve under President Ostler! I love the happiness the spirit brings to your soul. When he talks I feel soooo happy! The best part of the entire conference however, was when Elder Despain bore his last testimony on mission. He leaves home this next week. I can tell that this Elder has changed so much, and that he gained his testimony from the scriptures. He bore the most powerful testimony on the Atonement at the exact moment that I needed to hear it! I pretty much cried... I was trying to hide it cause there were tons of missionaries there.. I cried more than Elder Despain did haha! He is my zone leader and I will miss his example very much! He has helped me so much and I have spent very little time with him.
I had some really slow days.. I think I taught lessons on thursday! It was the slowest longest day ever. Everyone we planned to teach bounced us so we found and contacted 2 people... not a very common day in salone. but the week got much better after that.
So the best day was this Saturday! We had a baptism and thankfully all 3 of our canidates showed up!! Andrew, Aisha, And Amadu. I hate to pick favorites... but Andrew (23) is the coolest guy I've met here. He lived such a crappy and hard life and he is the perfect example of someone who's life changed 100% and so did his happiness! He is the Happiest person ever!! it was his birthday sunday too so can you imagine a 5 foor 5 tall Salonian on his birthday getting confirmed and cleansed from all the sadness in his life! I have never seen someone so Jubulant (I wanted to use a big word but I realized I can't spell anymore) haha! Amadu is a 17 years old and was contacted by the missionaries 5 months ago!! Elder Chemhuru has taught this Kid from the beginning... so to see him finally realize that this is what he wants in his life was incredible to see! He took some of our pamphlets and is giving them out to his girlfriend so that she will join as well hahaha! we taught him about celestial marriage so He was pretty concerned about his girlfriend.. but now he is starting to do his own missionary work! (also he talks like such a boss, I wish you could hear the way he words things in english... it kills me) Aisha is great, she is the first person I ever taught so it was cool to baptize her. I did the baptizing for all three! There were 15 people baptized saturday.. it was mayhem. I never thought running out of baptismal clothes would be a problem... but it was!!! they were having to put on soaking wet baptismal clothes to be baptized! I even had to let one of the elders borrow my pants cause he gave his away to someone to use!
Sooo Weird stuff this week...I saw a dog fight... it was insane... I tried to capture it on my camera but I missed it... it was honestly 40 dogs going at it!! It was like every dog for themselves. They helped me understand the meaning of DOG PILE! hahaha I met the black pope, he is a boss... he lives in my area, but he is really just a drunk "pastor" he makes me laugh everytime we see him! Everyone who knows him calls him "double Punch Pope" because double punch is like the cheapest liquor you can buy here.
ALso I saw a biker gang haha! they were all peeling out doing wheely's down the road by our apartment... I have seen so many fail blog videos that I was just waiting for one of them to go down and it just turn into crazieness but it turned out ok haha! whew!
Shout out to Gary Fuller and all of my other leaders I have had! I have thought a lot about you guys this past week. It is because of leaders like you that this church works. You helped my testimony so much and you always made me feel loved! I would kill for a taco right about now haha!
Shout out to Boin Peterson... Congrats on your talk! I wish I could have seen it! You should send it to me through the pouch mail! Good luck in Russia.. you are seriously gonna need it hahaha!
Love you all
Elder Crandall the Vandal
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