Wow, Mom, that was quite an email about the 11th anniversary of Grannie's death. What an awful idea for a new line of cards: "Death anniversary". I can see it already, "Your husband has been dead for 10 years.... Congratulations?" What an incredibly depressing thought, mother. Not to mention you invested enough time to calculate a statistic relating to Grannie's death. Nothing but sunshine and rainbows on your end, huh?
Moving right along.....I went on exchanges with my zone leader, Elder Contla this week. We had way more fun than we should've. Elder Contla and Elder Francom are the first Spanish zone leaders I've had, so it's a little different than I'm used to. While we were on exchanges, we contacted a lot of Mexicans, which is the norm here since I'm in Napa, but this time we could actually talk to them - Elder Contla speaks Spanish! I'm a little envious of Spanish missionaries, because when we contact people in English, a lot of them give us the "no English..." routine. But the look on their faces when Elder Contla would go off in Spanish. Priceless! He also taught me some taught me some Spanish, which will be incredibly useful here. We also had Zone meeting this week and it was a really good one. We received many new goals, like the challenge for everyone in the zone to get 20 contacts at day for a week straight. So far the whole zone has been getting the 20 so far. On Wednesday Elder Chan and I talked to 65 people, taught 5 lessons, and invited 5 people to be baptized. I'm really proud of us because we went SUPER hard and talked to EVERYONE we saw.
I believe Elder Chan and I can be likened unto Moses and Aaron. Elder Chan is so full of knowledge and wisdom but sometimes can't always convey his message. So that's where his Aaron comes in and helps the translation along. Having a foreign companion is always entertaining.
Alright, I'm all fired up and ticked because no one came to church this past Sunday! We frequently remind and invite people throughout the week to come to church. We also took the initiative to go early in the morning and knock on a less active's door, the Medina's, who are trying to get more active. We asked them to come to church and also give a ride to their neighbor who's investigating. They said they would. Then we went and knocked on their neighbor's door, and the 16 year old daughter answered and we told her she had a ride to church and to tell them when she was ready. She said she would. And we even called a new investigator on our way back to church and told him to come to church and he said he would. Despite our best efforts NO ONE CAME TO CHURCH! Are you kidding me, people?! It's really frustrating to try to help a person do something that's so simple, but will benefit them so much, and more often than not, it's so simple that they don't do it. I can't imagine how immensely irritating it must have been for Moses when he made the brazen serpent for the children of Israel. "Okay guys, you were all just bitten by random flaming snakes, which, if unattended, will kill you dead. But check it out, the Lord said all you have to do is literally just look at this brass snake on a pole I made and you'll totally be fine. How easy is that?" "Nah, thanks anyway, Moses, but I think I'll look everywhere except at that pole." What!? Are you serious? Just look at the snake! Just come to church! It's the little things that matter! Alma 37:6 "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." Prayer, reading scriptures, church attendance - all these things our Heavenly Father has told us to do. They are small tasks, not because they lack in importance, but because Heavenly Father knows he can't give us some outstanding job if we don't even crack our scriptures open. Okay, I'm done venting. This wisdom was brought to you by Elder Ellis.
Love, Elder Hayden Ellis.
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