Hey all!
We had changes this week! My companion left, and
so I stay here in Yuscarán my 5th change. I´ve been here forever! But
it´s alright here, I´ll survive it here in my second area... My new
companion is one of my friends from my MTC district, so
we have the exact same time in the mission. He´s from Spanish Fork,
Utah. It´s weird being with a gringo again and always talking english.
Also, one of the other elders from the other area left this change to be
a ZL, so we have a new Elder from Guatemala here training. So we still
have 3 gringos and a guatemalan in this area, we´ve had that pattern for
a few changes now. So we´ve been showing the new Elders around here
this week and showing them how to do stuff with the branch.
We´ve been doing fellowshiping nights here in the branch every
friday night, and this week we had over 20 people show up, which was
cool, we even had some investigators and quite a few less active
members. Yesterday in church we almost had 20 members, but we had our
investigator come to church, so that was good. It´s been a while since
we´ve had an investigator come from either area. So it was good to have
people come this week and have a little bit more success here than the
last few weeks.
I am enjoying being able to learn new things in this area and
always see new things and meet new people and being able to serve the
people here. Even though it is hard in this area and we have plenty of
problems, I still know that I need to be here a little longer to help
more people learn about the gospel and to help the branch here grow
however I can. I know that each of the parts of this gospel are all
interrelated, the missionary work, the temple work, the ordinances and
blessings that come from the priesthood, each of the classes and
meetings that the church has are for the same eternal purpose: the
salvation of many souls. Each of us has been called to do our little
part in the work of salvation, which will help us gain our own salvation
if we serve faithfully. I have a testimony of this gospel and the many
opportunities that we have to progress are a sign of God´s love for each
of us. It doesn´t matter where we start, as long as we do start, on our
journey to progress. I know that everything that this church teaches is
true, and that the church is perfect, even when the people in the
church are not. I know that studying the scriptures, especially the Book
of Mormon, will change our lives profoundly if we strive to apply what
the spirit testifies to our individual lives. I am grateful for the
testimonies of all of you and for your love and support that helps me to
be out here on my mission. I love you all and hope that you will feel
God´s love and a desire to serve Him.
Love,
Elder Matthew Ward
Mom,
Sorry, we couldn´t write yesterday because when
we got back from Tegus the power was out from 2 in the afternoon until
11 this morning, so we just barely got on to write to everyone.
This
week was good. We had changes which I explained in my other email, but
yeah, it was a good week. Yesterday we bought a ton of food from Tegus
in bulk. We got 2 bags of 10 lbs each of pancake mix and 2 big things of
syrup and 4 cake mixes that I have to make before I leave this area and
don´t have an oven anymore. I´ll send a picture of all of it.
I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love,
Elder Ward
