Taking Advantage of Every Moment

February 17th One more week down! So this week actually wasn't too eventful. We had leadership council with all the zone leaders on Tuesday and I got to see Elder Vilas Boas again, so that was pretty cool! In the office I'm just continuing to train Elder McLean. There's still a lot more to cover, but we have one more month until he needs to be ready! He's picking it up quick so I'm sure that he'll be good to go. With our investigators we're making headway. We're still teaching Leila and her daughter, and then we also have Cesar. It was funny because last week we invited Cesar to go to church, but then he didn't show up. We were pretty bummed out about that becuase we were sure he was going to go. But then after we visited him during the week he said "I went to church on Sunday". We were really confused because we waited for him and didn't see him. But what ended up happening is that he went to a different ward! Our ward starts at 8:30 with the classes and the other ward starts at 9:00 with sacrament meeting, and Cesar got to church at 8:45 and just went to the other ward! He stayed all 3 hours of church too which was pretty cool. So this week we made sure that he knows where he needs to go. But, his baptism is going to be on this Saturday! His only problem is coffee, so if he can stop with that he'll be good to go! So far he's been able to not drink it, but it's been hard for him, but I know that he can do it! Keep him in your prayers!! Something that I studied about this week was prayer. When I was trying to think of what I needed to talk about in my training with my district, I got a prompting that it needed to be about prayer. It was a really good meeting and we were all able to learn a lot together! 2 scriptures that I really like about prayer: 2 Nephi 32:8-9 and D&C 42:14. In the verse in 2 Nephi, something that really stood out to me was "ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee". We need to pray before we do anything!! It really hit me that I'm not valuing the gift of prayer as much as I should be. I've been making a more conscious effort to always say prayers before I talk to someone on the street, go into an investigators house, etc. even if it's just a quick mental prayer. I've also been trying to make my prayer more meaningful. As missionaries we pray so much that it ends up being just another part of our routine and I've noticed that lots of times i'm not as sincere as I should be. I think we forget too often that we're actually talking with Heavenly Father! I've felt a difference in my day as I've done this. Like it says in the scripture in D&C 42, prayer is how we can get the Spirit to be with us! I'm very grateful for all the experiences I'm having to grow and help other people here on the mission. As I get more and more time out here, I'm really starting to realize that this really is a one in a lifetime experience. Once I'm home, I won't be able to be a missionary like I am now ever again! But all I can do is keep learning and taking advantage of every moment I have. Until next week, love you guys!! Elder Odom