Inspired Chaos (Hopefully)

Good Morning!

It is safe to say that this has been one of the weirdest weeks of my missionary service. Nothing necessarily went wrong, but everything happened differently than I'd anticipated. 

I would like to focus on some positives. I learned more about the spiritual progress of two of my friends who I helped baptize. First, Tori (from back in Salina) is sealed and has already started her little family! Her and McCoy moved back to Beaver to be closer to home, so I got the opportunity to drop in and see how they're doing. Second, Aaliyah (from Utah Tech campus) is heading to the San Antonio, Texas Mission! She has been endowed and chose to serve a mission, and I am so proud of her decision. And I'm especially proud that she gets to go to the second best mission in the world! 

As a note regarding successes, we found a new friend named Richard last week. He told us he wanted to be baptized, then got sick, but after a week we were able to meet again! Now we have consistent lessons scheduled before his baptism on March 30th. He even came to church on Sunday. We also have found a few new friends to teach, and hopefully a couple more tonight! Life as a missionary is indeed exciting. 

We had a three day windstorm with 40mph gusts of wind. It was absolutely hectic and definitely an interesting experience. We are doing more walking, and so naturally it starts to rain, hail, or snow sideways whenever we're outside. Luckily the storm has passed and we got a solid 2 (maybe) inches of snow. It hasn't lasted very well. This is a much more mild Winter than last year! 

On Saturday we had our best adventures. We (in the wind) went tracting to only members, on complete accident. Then we drove to Adamsville and got told we were wrong by someone who didn't back up any of their statements or acknowledge ours. That part isn't so unusual. In order to save miles we took the road to the West of Minersville Reservoir in our Volkswagen Tiguan. The only catch was it isn't a real road, it's an ATV trail. We also almost drove into the lake. We visited a diner to catch one of the workers and got free milkshakes because the entire system shut down. I've never been slammed by the wind more than the entrance to that diner too! Lastly, we go to our dinner appointment we'd set up the day before and turns out they had nothing prepared, weren't expecting us, and had completely forgotten we were coming. We also stood barely out of the hail for 10 minutes before they came to the door. It sounds like we were persistent; really we just didn't want to walk back to the car in the hail. 

That was Saturday. It was a good day, that's when we set Richard on-plan and began teaching another new friend, Braxton. Keep in mind that though things can be rough, that doesn't mean we can't find joy. I found plenty that day, especially by keeping a positive, focused attitude with my companion. 

After working through all this, I'm super curious what the rest of the week will bring. I hope it's more blessings, even if they come in the form of challenges. That's how we grow, even when we don't want to. Another reason this has been an interesting week is because I've received a fair portion of revelation, in preparation for our Mission Conference this Saturday. There's lots of exciting news around the corner, I am eager for this coming week to begin! 

Jesus Christ is our source of peace and joy. He lives and He strengthens us to endure our challenges. 

- Elder Williams

Pictures:

1. In Milford, sometimes there are cats on the roofs. Add that to the list of weird things. 

2. An old, Parowan church building getting some touch ups.

3. This is the Little Salt Lake.

4. I took this picture trying to highlight how windy it was. You still can't tell. 

5. Elder Olsen!

6. This is the flats, by Milford.

7. This is the West end of the Minersville Reservoir.

8. District Council!