Wow what a spectacular week! This week was truly amazing! On Monday morning we received a call from a member telling us we had to come and teach the "first discussion" with their friend! We went and it was so awesome! We taught the member's son's girlfriend, her name is Jayla! It was an amazing lesson and she seems genuinely interested! We gave her a Book of Mormon and will be teaching her again tonight! We are so very excited! Miracles happen when members are involved!
Transfers were on Tuesday so that was a bitter sweet moment saying goodbye to Elder Hill, but I am also so excited for this next transfer with Elder Honda! We started teaching right away and I know already that miracles are going to happen this transfer! He is from Fruta Colorado, and only has a few months left before he goes home! So there is much for me to learn!
The members are taking good care of us! Brother Sanders took us the Turtle Shack which is a small little diner along the beach and we had some of the greatest burgers I have ever had! They were so tasty!
Friday was such a wonderful Birthday! It was totally, fantastically, splendid! I got many emails, 6 phone calls from other missionaries and President Clark, 2 ties from Elder Honda, 1 tie from Elder Acevado, 9 blue cupcakes and a trophy saying "you deserve an award" on it, and zebra cakes and cosmic brownies from Elder Honda! The family package came on Saturday, and I can't thank everyone enough for the birthday wishes, gifts, and letters! It was truly amazing and miracles happened but of all things, the greatest birthday present was the amazing lessons we had with Sarah and the amazing lesson we had with Bubba! So, it's Friday and we went to a district leader meeting. We came back and had breakfast tacos that Elder Acevado made for us! Drove back did some weekly planing for about 3 hours! We then went and had one of the best lessons we have ever had with Sarah! A sweet sister in the ward came with us and it was so cool! We asked some inspired questions and just talked about God and how to receive revelation! We watched the mormon message: Patterns of Light! The spirit was strong and it really helped her! The sister with us, Elder Honda, and I, all shared our conversion stories and she explained how it was really nice to know that we all had to go through a similar process! Elder Honda gave Sarah some homework to do, exploring more about revelation, and then having faith! We hurried from there over to the Zimmerle's for dinner! We had some of the best BBQ chicken, corn bread, baked beans and then banana pudding! We are going to have gator when their kids aren't there. I played a little pool with the kids before dinner which was fun. Then we taught them all the Plan of Salvation! This was the best birthday present of the day! We then put Bubba on date for October 22 and will work with him to get that to point. His son wade isn't a member either and we are going to try to get him baptized too! We are super excited for their family!!! This was the greatest birthday present of all! We gave Book of Mormons to the two little kids, Alyssa and Wade and they both love us and can't wait to see us at church! We are so pumped for them! We flew home as quick as we could because we have exchanges that night with the Zone Leaders! I was with Elder Goff! We made a little birthday cake and ate some junk, talked, set goals, and got ready for our sick day Saturday! I am so excited!
I had never planned out a day so well before in my entire life! There wasn't a second I wasn't doing something! It was super cool though we taught 10 lessons on Sunday, found a new super solid investigator, and I committed someone to baptism! It was so cool to see God's hand guiding us to where we needed to be! It was such a miracle filled day but it took every ounce of energy out of me! Oh how I love the feeling of giving everything you can to God and his work!
Sunday was also filled with miracles! Sacrament meeting was super powerful! Oh and Alyssa (the child of Lacie and Bubba Zimmerle) saw me as she walked in and then left her family and came and sat by me the entire meeting! Hahah It was such a tender moment! Hahaha it was cool though because I got to explain the sacrament to her and several other things about the Book of Mormon! It was one of my favorite moments so far! The meetings were all focused on families and teaching children, and then we went and taught the primary children about the blessing of missions! I think Heavenly Father wanted me to learn a lesson about the importance of teaching children to love the gospel! The rest of the day was super great! We taught a few lessons and ate dinner with Bishop's Family and the Sister Missionaries! They fed us well and stuck a candle in a scope of ice cream and sang me happy birthday! They are all super sweet! So something really cool happened that night! We do accounting each Sunday night! It's where district leaders call those in the district, zone leaders to the district leaders, and so on up to President Clark! We account our goals and progress for the week and set new goals! Anyway, we were at the church and Elder Honda was accounting with those in our district and the phone died! Which is kinda bad! So we got in the car sped as quickly as the car restriction monitor allows you, got to the apartment ran up to our place, stuck the phone in let it charge a little and it wasn't turning on... We waited 10-15 minutes and it still didn't have enough battery to work, which is very unusual, so I said hey we should say a prayer closing the day, and then prayed asking God to make it work! So I prayed and asked in much faith that He would turn the phone on and give it enough battery to finish out accounting! We finished the prayer went to the phone, tried to turn it on and nothing, sort of bummed out Elder Honda set it down and plugged it back into the wall! I picked it up and tried it again and boom it turned on with nearly full battery! Like what in the world? I know it was the hand of the Lord! We were able to finish the calls and set goals with the Zone Leaders! It was a huge testimony builder to me! Faith and prayer work, but only through action! If our efforts don't work at first maybe it's God testing us on how much faith we actually have? Are we going to give up on God and lose our faith if we don't get our answer right away? Don't give up! Keep the faith always! If you have the faith and it is a good desire God will grant it unto you! I know this with all heart to be true! I love this gospel and all the miracles I experience every single day! Thank you all again for the birthday wishes! Never ever forget how much I love this gospel! I encourage you to share your love of the gospel to those you love! It is way too amazing not to share! Well until next week!
Your faith and love powered missionary,
Elder Tracy
