Blindfolded Teachers of the Gospel...Sort of

This last week has been really good! And some really fun stuff happened! So now let me tell you about it!

First off, we had a chance to go and do some service as a district. And that was really good. We were helping to move and organize some supplies at a foster care facility, and it went well. I always love it when I have the chance to go and do some service for someone else!

missionaries being funny at the service project

The rest of that day was really spent on exchanges, which was really good...but it was one of the weirdest exchanges I have ever been on, because a lot of it was spent in the car dropping other missionaries off at one place or another. Eventually we had some time to do some good ol' fashioned missionary work though, and it was really good. I like working with other missionaries on occasion, just to see different ways that missionaries do things. It's kind of fun for me. But then after exchanges I was really glad to get my regular companion back.

 lunch with some other Elders one day

We exchanged back at our District Meeting, and that was really good. We had a training at one point where we tried to find our "investigator's" (a missionary acting as an investigator actually) concern....but both missionary companions were blindfolded. It made it a bit more difficult to teach together, because we weren't able to use nonverbal cues to signal the other missionary to teach, but it was really cool because it really helped us practice truly listening to not only our companion, but also to the investigator. And it really helped with listening, because we couldn't be distracted by things we see in the room. Overall it was a really cool training.

Then this last Sunday was Stake Conference for us here in San Marcos and Escondido. And that was a really good meeting! The messages that were shared there were awesome. Some of the best were one about charity, one about how the Atonement not only heals us spiritually but also heals all other aspects of our lives, and a talk by President Kendrick about being ready to give an answer at any time we are called upon to talk about the Gospel. In the end, it was an awesome meeting.

 One character in the Book of Mormon that I really like is Zeezrom, possibly because that is one of the big characters I have been reading about at the time. But anyways. I really like how Alma and Amulek are teaching those in Ammonihah, and Zeezrom, as well as the other lawyers, start contending with them. Over the course of chapters 11 and 12 of Alma, Zeezrom goes from trying to trick and deceive them, to beginning, "to inquire of them diligently, that he might know more concerning the kingdom of God." And then Zeezrom believes their words, and eventually gets baptized in a later chapter. And I really like this story because it really shows how the Spirit can soften even the hardest of hearts, and help convert even the most cunning and deceiving of people.

That's all for this week! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Wixom