Another Transfer down, another one coming up. Still haven't received a
call from the AP's yet, so my guess is I am staying here. To be safe
though I think that until I can know for sure that any mail you send
this week should go to the mission office in-case I do get transferred.
Miracles are happening, the work is moving forward. This week
has been a week of what people would call "coincidences", but I'd call
it the hand of God. This week has been a really interesting week, but I
actually don't have too much time to tell everything that has happened. I
will try and share as many as I can.
This week we had a very good District Meeting. Probably one of the
most spiritual ones I have ever had. The Zone Leaders came to my
District Meeting this week. They came to report the numbers of the zone.
During their report I had the strongest feeling that I needed to
completely change what I had planned for District Meeting. I originally
planned to encourage my missionaries to work with the Elder's Quorum to
find a way to get them more involved with missionary work. I had a
feeling that we needed to read the last chapter of John and discuss it
together as a District. So that's what we did. This chapter is the one
where Jesus Christ asks Peter if he loves Him. We probably all know the
story pretty well after listening to Elder Holland's last conference
talk. I felt inspired to share this chapter of scripture because I was
beginning to fear that missionaries are losing their focus of why they
came to do missionary work. I am scared that missionaries are doing the
work to gain an accolade, a number to their name. When that is not the
purpose of missionary work whatsoever. We should be doing missionary
work because we love Jesus Christ, and we want to feed and gather his
sheep. If we are doing the work for any other reason, we need to correct
our intentions. During the discussion I was so emotional I could barely
speak. It was sort of embarrassing but it was something that I felt
very strongly about. I fear pride. I am scared of the effect that if can
have on missionaries as well as the investigator. It is something that
even the best missionaries can get caught up in. In fact, it is probably
easier for the best missionaries to fall into pride. It is what
destroyed the Nephites, it is what brought down civilizations, and I
don't want it to bring down me or the missionaries in this mission.
Our investigators are doing pretty well. We had three amazing
investigators at Church this week. Ward, Beth, and Marcus. I can't quite
explain the joy that I feel when I see someone we taught come to
Church. It is one of the best feelings ever. I have told you a bit about
Beth and Marcus, so I think I'll focus on Ward.
Ward is a man that Elder Armenta and I tracked into awhile back. We
had a prayer with him on his front door step and prayed for his
daughter who was having chronic headaches. We had that prayer with Ward
and were on our way. After Elder Armenta was transferred Elder Greene
and I were visiting a member that lived on the corner of the area,
fairly far away from Ward. While leaving this member's home I had a
feeling that we needed to go visit ward. It was a strange thought
because we haven't seen ward for about a month and a half and he lived
far away. When we got in the car I drove straight to his house instead
of home for Lunch. When we knocked on the door Ward answered and I
barely recognized him. He had a scruffy beard and his head was totally
shaved. He seemed very despondent, a totally different person than
before. The first question I asked him before even saying hello was,
"Ward, is everything alright." My first thought was that his daughter
passed away due to something from the headaches, but it turned out not
to be that. Ward struggles with a few things and has had a pretty tough
life. It turns out that right before us knocking on his door again that
things seemed to get a bit more complicated. I won't go into detail,
because it isn't needed. We sat in Wards home and talked with him and
told him that we are here for him and that our message is going to
change his life. I told him that it was no coincidence that we knocked
on his door. I know that God sent us there especially for him. I asked
him about his daughter's headaches and his eyes got bright and said,
"You know what? They're gone. It's a miracle. No medication, no doctors
appointments. They just disappeared. After you guys said that prayer,
they just left." I told him that God is real, and that he really answers
prayers. Ward came to Church this week and loved it. He loves the
members and the members love him. I am so excited for Ward and I can't
wait to see the Gospel take even more of an effect in his life.
I had a pretty good Birthday on Friday. It was really weird
being away from home for my birthday. The members really tried to make
it a great day. A member in our ward passed away this week and his
viewing was on the night of my birthday. So things had to kind of get
moved around. The Asper's were planning a get together with some of the
ward members and the investigators for me, but because of the viewing it
got moved to tomorrow. I am very excited to take lots of pictures and
share them with you guys.
That is about all that I have for this week, well all that I have time to share. I love you all so much.
-Elder Ryan Romero
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