Waving Flag

Hi friends!

This was a super fun week! We've been working hard, though things have not gone according to what I planned. This week, in preparation for the arrival of my replacement, I buckled down and tried to finish up what I could to prepare everything for him. But... several last minute emergencies and many technical difficulties later, my replacement arrived and we couldn't even use any computer! Some context: we got a random shipment of new computers, and several weeks ago I called someone to come and set them up. On the day of the arrival the man showed up and started changing the computers, but couldn't set them up. He's going to come back and finish the job, but for the moment we've set up the old computers again and are working with them still.  

This week we visited Miguel to continue helping him prepare for his baptism.  He is so excited! When we teach them the commandments he readily accepts them and commits to following them, and his prayers for help to follow them are so sincere. While he thinks that his relation with God is far, I can feel just how close God is when he prays for forgiveness and help to improve. He's doing awesome and I'm so excited to see him progressing. I hope he accomplishes being baptized on the 9th, so please pretty please keep him in your prayers. This week I also did divisions with the zone leaders and got to try out calling referrals for the first time ever. What I mean is that the ZLs are the referral secretaries, so their job is to call all the referrals in the mission and assign them to the right missionaries. I got to do some of that, and I had the joy of helping 3 people feel excited to learn more about the gospel and connecting them to the proper missionaries. Finally, we had a special FHE with some members so we talked about fasting (friendly reminder that tomorrow is fast sunday). One of the members of the family, that just barely came back from their mission shared that every time she fasted for someone they failed to get baptized, but after one of those experiences she learned that fasting wasn't about making someone change, but about giving your all for a righteous cause. That all includes giving up what keeps you alive for a time, because you believe the reward it will give. I think she explained it much better than I can, but hopefully you get an idea of what she means. Anyways, I invite you guys to make time to have a deliberate and sincere fast. Look for something in specific that you want to improve in yourself - something you can commit to working on, and then fast over it. I promise that if you do so, then gates of heaven will open to rain the blessings of God's power over you to help you accomplish your goal.

Thanks for everything you do guys! My new companion, and my replacement in the office is Elder Ensign, hence the title! It's weird to be wrapping up in the office - the time has gone by too fast.

- Élder Grant