The Train is Leaving the Station

Wow...I can't believe it's already September. It's insane to think that three months ago I was at home, and yet it feels like a lot less than that...

Anyways. This last week was pretty exciting for me. And the reason for the title is that Elder Bird described the work in the area as a "train that is leaving the station. Slow at first, but once it picks up speed it will be impossible to stop."

The main reason for my excitement is that this last week Elder Bird and I have gotten a new investigator! After all the excitement of the three baptisms in July, and then the slow period in August, things are finally starting to pick up again! Our investigator is named Belinda, and she was a former investigator of the area, and she said to us that when she was taught before she didn't feel ready to make the commitments needed to progress, but now she is ready to re-kindle that desire to learn of the Gospel and change her life around for the better. So I am really excited about this!

Also, I had my first zone conference this last week, which was really exciting! It was a really good meeting, and there was a lot that I learned in the trainings from the Assistants to the President, and President and Sister Kendrick. After that Elder Bird and I got to team up with one of the Assistants, an Elder by the name of Elder Petersen. It was a really good experience sharing this time and learning from this more experienced missionary. I feel like I picked up a lot that will help me out as I progress in my mission.

The rest of the work here is starting to pick up (as I'm sure you all guessed with the train reference). Elder Bird and I have found lots of potential and former investigators that we think could have great desires to learn more about the Gospel. And the members here are as wonderful as ever when it comes to helping us out. In fact, one of our potential investigators came about when one of the members here took us out on an unplanned team-up, and then proceeded to take us to a non-member friend of his and ask her if she wanted to take the lessons. She agreed, so he said he would set that up. That was really cool for Elder Bird and I.

From this last week a scripture that really stood out to me was D&C 29: 34-35. I'll let you look it up and read it, but in a nutshell it says that no commandment that God has ever given to mankind has been "temporal" or physical. But every single commandment has been set to help us grow spiritually. Even commandments like the Word of Wisdom, where the commandment itself is a law of health that is telling us what we should and should not put in our bodies still is a "spiritual" commandment. Because in the case of the W.o.W., those things that it commands will either help us feel the Spirit more as we obey it's words, or cause us to be numb to the Spirit as we disobey. Recently in a Gospel Principles lesson on the W.o.W., someone in the class suggested that those things we are commanded to not put in our bodies "mimic" the feelings of the Spirit, thus dulling our senses to what the Spirit actually feels like. So even commandments such as the W.o.W. are still spiritual by nature. This doesn't really have anything to do with what has been happening this last week. But I just thought it was cool to think about.

Well, that's about all I have for this week. I'm really excited to see where the work here is going, and I feel really blessed to be a part of it!

Love,

Elder Wixom