continuing the work

September 23rd

I had a good week! It was probably one of the most laid back weeks I've had here in the office actually. This week President did all of the interviews in the other cities here in the mission, so he was traveling the whole week. It was also nice that we didn't have a lot of missionaries coming in and out of the office everyday so I was able to get a lot of stuff done.

Something that's a bit different though is that we have Elder Santana living with us now. He's an Elder that I lived with when I was in my last area in the Pinhares ward in Franca, so I already know him really good. His companion went home last week and he had nobody to stay with so president put him with us. It's always a bummer to see missionaries go home early. But this week I was able to get pretty much everything ready for the next transfer as we enter the last week of this one.

This morning we all played volleyball. We had the 5 secretaries (one is being trained right now), the assistants, and President came too! It was a blast! Basketball is really fun to play too, but volleyball is a bit more competitive so that what we've been playing recently. Not sure if I've mentioned it yet but President also bought us a nice volleyball and football to play with. He's awesome! 

With our field work, we're just going. We're still following up with our 2 main invastigators, Elisangela and Claudio, and focusing a lot on getting them ready to be baptized. They're great, they've been going to church every week for the past 8 weeks. They just need to be a bit more consistant with reading the book of mormon. Claudio is also still trying to stop smoking as well. I've really learned how addicting cigarettes are on the mission. Pretty much everyone here smokes and it's just sooo hard to stop for people. Elisangela and Claudio already stopped drinking coffee and Claudio is really close to stop drinking. But as soon as he stops smoking, I really feel like they'll be prepared to be baptized. 

This week I thought about trials in our lives and why we have them. One of the most common questions we get as missionaries is "Why is life so hard? Why do I have so many problems?" A scripture that I really like in Mosiah 23 says that "the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith." The people in this part of the Book of Mormon we're following the commandments and being righteous, but still had these problems. We learn that the Lord gives us trials on purpose! I know that every single trial or difficulty in our lives has a reason, and the Lord wants us to learn something from them, but we have to actively look for the things to be learned in these trials. It's all about attitude. In the next chapter, Mosiah 24, verses 13-16 it talks about what happened to these people, and how the Lord is always here to help us in all of our times of need. We'll have lots of problems throughout our lives but we can always be happy in any circumstance, like President Nelson said last general conference. I've been really trying to be grateful and positive during hard times. It's for sure not always easy, but I can feel the influence of the Lord helping me along whenever I look for and ask for it.

But that's my week. Have a good one, love you guys! 

Elder Odom