Transferred!!! Kind of...

Members from P!  

The new Assistant to the President Elder B

Hey all!

   So, this letter´s going to be really quick!  Anyhow, here´s what´s up!  I´ll continue as Assistant, but now I´ve got a new Junior companion named Elder O.  He´s got 10 months on the mission and I´m really excited to work with him!  He´s a great missionary, very dedicated to the work!  The new Assistant is Elder B.  I sent a picture with him.  He´s got 1 year on the mission, and as well is an excellent missionary!  He´s very excited for the new assignment and is full of new ideas to help the mission grow!  

   We´re also going to a different area, and I think that I´m officially breaking a mission record!  I´m going back the G. Ward!!!  This is the third time that I´ve been assigned to work in this ward, so there´s probably someone there that the Lord wants me to find, but that I didn´t find the first two times he put me there!  So, I´ve got 6 weeks to do a miracle there and find this person! 

   We´re going to be doing a lot of divisions, so actually I´m going to have more time out of my own area this transfer than in it.  This week we´ve got the leadership meeting, and after that we´re going to R.  on a division and then we´re going to have a Zone Conference there with President B.!  It´s going to be a lot of fun!

   Saying goodbye to everyone in P. was difficult.  This has been another one of those areas where I really put my soul into the work.  Although we didn´t see many results, many great seeds have been planted.  P, a young man that we found several months ago, passed through a phase of doubt, but just a few days ago told us that he was absolutely certain that everything that we´ve taught is true, and that he wanted to be baptized.  Unfortunately, his parents are against the baptism and he´ll have to wait until he´s 18.  But I feel that he´s well on the way to true conversion, and will likely be baptized a few years from now.  Z. is also very solid in her resolve to live the gospel.  She cried when we said bye to her and her son G. yesterday, but said that she´s extremely grateful to the Lord for having led us to her to help her come to a knowledge of the fulness of the gospel, and she also promised us that she´ll persevere until the end, and do everything necessary to be baptized.  I´m sure that the Lord has great plans in mind for her and her son G!

I´ve got to go now, but I love each of you a ton!  Thank you so much for your prayers!

Love,

Elder Sweet

Bridges and Miracles

Hey there, Family!

 I took this video as we were travelling with President B. and his family and President S.  

It´s right as we crossed over a bridge.  Does it ring a bell?

   First, I want to express my sorrow for our loss of Uncle Jack.  He has been a key figure in my childhood, one of the people that I remember as having most taken an interest in me.  He´s a man that I truly love, and I hope and pray that we might all be part of an eternal family!

   What a great blessing our Father in Heaven has given us.  Knowing that families can be eternal brings a great sense of meaning and purpose to my life.  For this I am truly grateful.

   This week I decided to apply something that Elder Bednar said in the "Face-to-Face" several months back.  When asked how was his experience being an apostle, he replied that the work that he undertakes in the holy apostleship is largely about helping "ones," individuals that are needing to be help.  The Lord is fully willing, he said, to send an apostle half-way around the world just to help a recent convert who is struggling with the word of wisdom.  President B. told us something similar several days ago.  He said that when Elder Z. and I travel to a different area for a division, many times the Lord will have put us there to help someone who is needing to hear our testimony.  I woke up everyday this week eager to find these opportunities and fulfill the will of the Lord for these individuals in need.  And what miracles resulted! 

   The experiences that I had this week were simple in their nature, but the spirit was there with a presence so strong to testify to me that my companion and I were being used as the conduit for the tender mercies of the Lord to one of his children.

   I´ll describe just a few of these experiences right now.  One was a recent convert in U.  He was baptized about 8 months ago, but has already begun to fall away and question his testimony.  I went there with one of the Zone Leaders to help answer some of his doubts about the Book of Mormon.  After a bit of conversing, I asked him if he had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true.  "I won´t lie to you," he said, "I never have."  I was honestly baffled that he was even baptized without ever having read the Book of Mormon, but grateful that he had been honest with me.  I felt in that moment that we should all kneel down together, and that he should pray and ask the Lord if the Book of Mormon is true.  So we did.  I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and I pray that he might gain and nourish a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon.

   Another was a woman named E.  When we contacted her on the streets of P, she said "you can teach me but you ought to know that I will not change my religion."  We sat in the front of her house and began to teach the Restoration.  At the moment of the first vision, when the spirit is usually most evident, I asked her what she was feeling.  She responded that she was feeling normal, even though my companion and I could feel the presence of the spirit.  We finished the lesson, and I testified to her with all my might that our families can be together forever, and that this message is true.  Still nothing.  We then invited her to say the closing prayer.  I helped her through it, but right at the end she stopped and started to cry.  We knew that she was feeling the spirit in a way that she never had before, testifying that we are servants of Jesus Christ.  I earnestly pray that she will act upon that feeling.

   There were several other individuals that we found in need of hearing our testimonies, including a less active family who´s father has a fantastic testimony, a missionary passing through a difficult time in his mission, and many others.  Simply seeking for opportunities to share my testimony with all my heart to touch the lives of my brothers and sisters has made this week one of the most miracle filled weeks of my mission.  I know that Jesus Christ is our savior, and that he died for us!  Let us all take advantage of this gift in our lives and share with all the world!

I love you all so much!  Have a great week!

Elder Sweet

Carry On!

"God Be With You Till We Meet Again..."
Photo credit: Elder A's Blog

"Carry On..."
Photo Credit Elder A's Blog

A picture of me with Elder M. at a Zone conference last week!  
He´s currently serving in one of the farthest areas in the mission!

A member of the ward sent us pizza from his Pizzaria!  It was great!  Pepperoni with cream cheese and cream cheese stuffed crust! (I forgot to take a picture of the pizza, sorry!)

Hey there, 

I´m doing great!  The mission really is 100 times better than I ever thought that it could be!

President B. is truly incredible, he´ll certainly be able to continue the work that President K. has started!  

Elder Z. is here for two more weeks, then he´s going home.  We´re leaving at noon today to tour half the mission!  

I love you two a ton!  I´ve got to go now, but we´ll talk later!  Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Sweet