So, time is short, so this will be too. Things were pretty hard this week. We had a mission tour with Elder Curtis on Tuesday, which was really great. I'll go over that more next week; he mostly focused on companionship unity and preparing our investigators for the rumors they're going to hear after we meet them (that might've been Pres. Judd, actually... I'll have to look at my notebook; haha). It was nice. The hard part was that we didn't get back from it until 1630, and we had Coordination at 1800 and PEC at 1900, which meant only 2 hours of proselyting time (PEC finished at 2000).
That made things hard, but it got harder when people failed their appointments. We had a lot of that this week; it was kinda ridiculous. We also had a hard time contacting people; for some reason, people weren't around, and those that were didn't have much interest in talking to us. It really hurt our key indicators, and I wasn't all that happy with how it went. We did our best though, I do feel that, and that's all God asks of us. It's still hard, but we press forward regardless and pray for a better tomorrow.
One thing that went well was we got 7 people at Sacrament! It was cool. Unfortunately, those who needed to come to be baptized this month didn't, with the exception of Michael. But I was very happy to see Michael there, and he's still participating! Hopefully he'll be baptized this month. Kwami came with Peter, which was great. Afterwards, we went to their house to watch the Joseph Smith movie (I got it at the Distribution Center for about $0.50; pretty awesome; haha). Unfortunately, their DVD player is spoiled, so we couldn't watch it. We did get to eat some great Fufu with Bro. Kwami, which he was really happy to do. That's Ghana for you; they're happy to have you over to eat. Oh! We were able to meet with Peter during the week, when his dad was at work, and taught him about prophets and the priesthood with his mom. His mom eventually came out that she thought the Church was a lodge (basically, a cult that does weird, secretive stuff) so she didn't want anything to do with us. But now that we taught her about Joseph Smith and prophets and priesthood and everything, she's happy and realizes how the rumors were false, and now she's happy to have us over during the week, even when her husband isn't home. She's promised to come this Sunday, so we'll see how that works out. I pray that family, sooner or later, all gets baptized. On a side note, Bro. Kwami really liked the lesson in Elder's Quorum where they taught about Work and Personal Responsibility (Gospel Principles, Ch 27). He liked how we discussed how it's the parents' responsibility to raise the children in the Gospel and to teach them the things they need to know, both temporal and spiritual. As soon as he or one of his children can read, he'll be baptized; haha. He's getting glasses soon, so hopefully that will help speed things up.
One thing that was nice was that E. and Sis. Paige (couple missionaries assigned to the ward) gave talks on Sunday about faith. Sis. Paige spoke about having faith to go to God first instead of people, and used some king in 2 Chronicles who went to the King of Syria or something instead of God to help fight, so God left him to his own arm. She related that to us, how we need to be faithful and willing to trust the Lord to fight our battles, and stop trying to replace God with people in our lives.
E. Paige then kinda expounded on that, talking about what we can do to bring God more into our lives. The main things he talked about was we need to have faith to do the small things that we feel have no importance. We need to have faith enough to read the scriptures, even when we feel we get nothing out of them. We need to have faith enough to pray night and day, even when we feel they aren't answered. We need to have faith enough to hold Family Home Evening, even when we feel they're a disaster. We need to have faith enough to do Home Teaching, even when we feel that the families we're teaching don't care or aren't interested or benefited from our visits. We need to have faith to do the small things, so that the Lord can use them to build up great things.
I know this is true. I know we need to do the small, tiny details of the Gospel if we want to receive all the blessings God has in store for us. "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" (Alma 37:6). If we do the small and simple things the Lord asks of us, whether we understand them or not, whether we see the benefit of them or not, whether we want to or not, we will be blessed. And in due time, we will understand them, we will see the benefit of them, and we will want to do them. For, as the Lord said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:17).
I know these things are true. We are blessed when we read, pray, teach, and perform the works of the Lord that He has commanded us. If we do them with full sincerity of heart, He will bless us in His own time and His own way.
I love you all! Take care!
--Elder Collings
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