Exchanges And Losing An Hour Of Sleep

Hey everyone hope you've all had a great week! For me the week has been pretty good. We had lots of meetings, lessons, and outside time. Restrictions are opening up this week and we can meet up to 6 which will be so nice! We have the opportunity to do more service now and meet people for lessons in gardens, parks, etc. Also this coming week is Conference so I'm so stoked for that! We also had daylight savings and lost an hour of sleep. Our mission President said that we could sleep in til 7:30, but we had a meeting early in the morning anyways so we couldn't enjoy that luxury. 

This week we went on 2 exchanges. Due to rules prior we could only be in groups of 2 so we split off and walk with the other elder. I think it was for them because they're stuck together 24/7 and get no contact with other missionaries. I was able to meet with my trainnee again, Elder Menzel. We walked down memory lane and had lots of laughs.

We had 2 good lessons with friends this week. We had a solid lesson with Vijay and invited him to read the book of Mormon and pray about it. Thankfully we have been able to teach him and he has been able to understand despite the broken english. Prayers for a spiritual witness for Vijay would be highly appreciated! We also had a great Bible study with our friend Elijah. We read Matthew 25:14-30 this is the parable of the talents and it's a great one! We had some members join on and they were great and getting to know him. Elijah is quite reserved but he seemed to talk more this time. Afterward he texted us telling us he appreciated the study very much. We are hoping in the next couple weeks to introduce the Book of Mormon to him so we will see when the time comes.

Interesting Story : So one night at around 1 am my phone starts ringing and I jump out of bed because it's super loud and I look at who's calling and its just a random number so I just turn it off and go back to sleep. Then my phone rings again and so I check it and Elder Hancock asks who it is and I had no idea. So I decide answer it and it's this guy named steve. Immediately my thoughts race to one of the guys we handed a Book of Mormon to and it was him. Steve starts telling us that hes stuck and hes in trouble. Hes wanting to stop smoking and drinking and says that hes using his moms phone because his is broken and like 5 seconds later it sounded like someone took it and hung up. I was so confused so I set my phone on the floor next to my bed and went back to sleep. 10 minutes later he calls again and starts explaining how he wants to turn his life around and be happy. We talked with him for a bit and said a prayer with him. He told us he would call us again the next day but he never did. We haven't been able to get ahold of him since. 

Prayers go out to my friend steve I hope all is well with him.

Spiritual thought:

A Matter of A Few Degrees ~President Deiter F. Uchtdorf

"Our willingness to repent shows our gratitude for God’s gift and for the Savior’s love and sacrifice on our behalf. Commandments and priesthood covenants provide a test of faith, obedience, and love for God and Jesus Christ, but even more importantly, they offer an opportunity to experience love from God and to receive a full measure of joy both in this life and in the life to come."

I love this talk and highly recommend it! 

Have a great week and a happy Easter. Remember His Sacrifice and the reality of His  resurrection! Thank you for the support love ya! 

1. District training

2. Abbey park

3. Walk with Elder Hancock