What a wonderful work!

 I feel so happy, grateful, lucky, and blessed to be in the Lord's service! This is an incredible work, and we see miracles every day out here as we work to invite people to come unto Christ. A few of those:

Juan got a baptismal date! He's not grown up believing in Christ, and he's so excited to now center his life on that, and he is so motivated by wanting those blessings for his daughter as well. Where his daughter is at, there aren't missionaries, so the responsibility of teaching her about Christ and the Church has kind of fallen to him, as we're teaching him those same things. God works in mysterious ways, and He finds ways to work miracles for His children, no matter what part of the world they may be in. 

This week we had an incredible mission-wide multi-zone. I was very impressed about how we need to treat Facebook as sacred ground when it's used for missionary work. We were helped on how to work more effectively through social media and to contact our referrals promptly; it's exciting to see how the work is going to continue to progress through more and more exciting methods. That multi-zone also included some rule adjustments that I think will be very helpful for our missionaries to stay more consecrated and focused on the work. 

We had a visit with Travis this week, and I think the guy might be the most humble and repentant person I've ever met. His family are all diligent, very active members, but he's been a little bit off-track for a few years. He's now preparing to get his patriarchal blessing, get the Melchizedek Priesthood, and get out on a mission, and hearing just how strongly he wants to turn his life around gave me new understanding about the Savior's power to change lives. He's there for us, and no matter how far we've gone, His grace is sufficient for us to turn it around. I know that's true. 

Stake Conference was yesterday! It was absolutely wonderful. The visiting Area Seventy at one point, completely impromptu, had the entire two zones of missionaries present go up to the front and sing Called to Serve, and the Spirit was palpable. I got to play the piano for the missionaries-only session of Conference, which was incredible in its own right. My testimony of the power of my calling and the importance of this work has been fortified immensely. I'm so grateful to be here.

I've been studying humility this week, and I've definitely been called to repentance; it's been awesome. Here's one interesting insight: We should never think of how good we need to be as a bar to clear. If there was a bar, the only one to clear it would be our Savior, and if we ever are thinking about how we've done "enough," our thoughts aren't focused in the right direction. Rather, what the Lord asks of us is our absolute everything, and our thoughts ought always to be focused on how we can give Him more. This doesn't mean we should be dissatisfied though. We can be overwhelmingly happy and content if we are progressing, instead of being impatient with our imperfections. 

It snowed like 2 inches, and the entire city is shut down, and we aren't allowed to drive . 

I love my life! Emails are very appreciated, can read them whenever during the week :) 

Happy, grateful, lucky, and blessed, 

Elder Child

Consecration, little by little

Today I want to testify about the power of consecration. As missionaries and as disciples of Christ, if we strive and give our best, our will can be brought more in line with God's every day. That's been something I've seen repeatedly this week. With several specific items, as I've prayed for help, I'm becoming more and more the missionary I want to be and more the one that God wants me to be. I know that God changes us if we're willing to work for it.

Couple miracles! Oscarin was this random guy we called that had been taught a long time ago by missionaries. He had moved but had been wanting to get back to the Church, but didnt know how to get in touch with the missionaries in his new area. We called him, and he's so excited! He's now meeting with the sister missionaries somewhere in South Houston. Also we didn't get covid, or if we did we didn't get sick! Huge miracle since we were definitely exposed, but our quarantine just ended.

Love you all! Sorry I didn't get to most emails this week, pday got way busy. I'm so so grateful to be a missionary! I know this is God's work :) 

Until next week, 

Elder Child

Charity and Consecration

I love my life! I'm so grateful and lucky to be a missionary. This is the work of the Lord, and we're helping people progress towards eternal happiness. That I know to be true. 

A few highlights from this week: I've been studying charity, among a lot of other things, and I learned a lot. Some impressions have been the importance of praying, as Mormon counsels us, with all the energy of heart that we possess so that we can be filled with that love. I also learned a lot about how Christ demonstrated charity; one of the favorite ponder bits was Christ's counsel of, "greater man hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," compared with how He gave His life for even His bitterest enemies. It's also so important to have charity with ourselves. Sometimes we can be so much more negative and hard on ourselves than we ever would be on our loved ones; love thy neighbor as thyself" has two parts. 

Aside from that, we could really use prayers so that we can find more people to teach! We're struggling with that right now. I'd also love to hear any insights from your scripture study, general life updates, or cool ideas for videos that could be used to do missionary work you have. 

Love you all! Thank you for your prayers; they're very felt, and thank you for however you're participating in missionary work, wherever you're at. Open your mouth, and it will be filled. This is the Church of Jesus Christ! The house of Israel is being gathered. 

With charity, 

Elder Child