So HAPPY

Transfer week is done y'all!!

The new missionaries that came in are amazing, they have some tough shoes to fill with all the stellar missionaries that left though. I'll miss Elder Stowell!

I was reading in Mosiah this week and I learned some really good principles of prayer I thought I would share with y'all

Zeniff was a righteous king that fled with his people from a city called Zarahemla to the land of Lehi-Nephi. Zeniff and his people "(possessed the land) and began to build buildings, and to repair the walls of the city, [...] and began to till the ground"

After about 12 years the king of the Lehi-Nephi's "grew uneasy, lest by any means (Zeniff's) people should wax strong in the land, and that they (the Lamanites) could not overpower them and bring them into bondage"

To stop the growth of Zeniff's people, the Lamanites, "began to slay them, and to take off their flocks, and the corn of their fields"

So Zeniff's people fled to find protection in the walls where Zeniff lived.

It's in the following series of events where I learned these cool principles:

Zeniff "(cried) mightily to the Lord that He would deliver (them) out of the hands of (their) enemies"

- Kind of a normal thing to do in a situation like this..

What stuck out to me this time was BEFORE Zeniff "cried mightily to the Lord"

He "(Armed his people) with bows, and with arrows, with swords, and with cimeters, and with clubs, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons which (they) could invent"

AND THEN

"[...] did go forth against the Lamanites to battle"

And it was then when Zeniff did "cry unto the Lord"

AND THEN

"(in the Lords might) did go forth against the Lamanites"

(Mosiah 9:1-19)

Please note that before they even prayed they made all the necessary preparations they thought they needed. And then after the preparation they started to ACT.

After this ACTION they petitioned the Lord for strength, and He magnified their righteous desires.

If the desire is strong enough, performance is then assured.

If you really need something from the Lord, I encourage you to act, then pray, then act again. It's the pattern of an agent, not an object.

This all hit home to me because of a miracle we saw.

It was transfer week, that means we literally have 2 hours of proselyting for the whole 7 days and normally those 2 hours are filled with lessons.

We went out Sunday to find and had to stop at 6 to set up a fireside, (we didn't find anyone with interest)

We then texted some members to pick up kids we were teaching for this fireside. While the members were waiting for the kids to get ready they went and talked to a family they saw was struggling. The members come to the fireside and tell us there is a family ready for us to teach, we just have to go NOW.

Little did these members know we had been praying to achieve our goals and then this "golden family" falls into our laps.

At 8:30 at night we leave the fireside early to get to the house, and they are indeed GOLDEN. They asked, "Can a relationship with God save our marriage" we promised them yes it could. They wanted more and more and more but we had to get home for curfew. We are going by again later today :)

The pattern I saw in that experience:

Act (Find with own efforts)

Act (Text members)

Pray (for a miracle)

*answer comes*

Act again

The answers to our questions are not complete unless we pair action to it. At least that's what I've seen in my life.

Sorry for the long'n today, it's been one of my favorite weeks of the mission

Pictures!

1. When Elder Bednar came to the mission (I'm very very top right)

2. I caught a snake with the departing missionaries, it was quite the fight hence the crazy hair.

3. ELDER MEYERS! (A new Zone Leader!!) :)