Spirit does the converting

Hello Friends and Family :)

This week was super crazy and scary and cool and awesome and a lot of things happened and I forgot my journal, so I’m just going to do my best to remember it all...

Tuesday...Hands down the hardest day of my mission... The most important thing I learned from this day was recognizing my weaknesses and confronting my doubts.  This will allow God to make me stronger. My testimony of the Atonement sky rocketed as I felt God's love for these people.  Some of them believe that nobody loves them.  Well we do!!!  And I love you mom and dad :)

Wednesday... Can’t remember anything...sorry :)

Thursday...I do remember this day...Hands down one of the best days of my life. It was soooo cool. I went on divisions with Elder Lafavor, he is a stud.  He’s from home too -- graduated from Bingham in 2013.  Anyway, we had three amazing lessons. It was humbling because I realized that I have been teaching the wrong way. Helping people recognize they are feeling the Spirit makes the whole conversion process a lot easier. Let me tell ya about this lesson:

We contacted this lady on the street, and went to her house later that day. We got in her house, said a prayer, and began teaching the restauración, and like always, the Spirit came right into the room. It’s been one of the coolest things for me as a missionary, to be able to recognize when people feel the Spirit. Once we saw that she was feeling it, we helped her recognize it. We told her she was feeling the Spirit of God, and it was testifying to her that our words are true. We taught her some more, and asked her how she felt. She told us she could feel the truthfulness of our message. We told her she was going to say a simple prayer, and ask God if these things were true, and if they weren’t, he would take away those feelings that instant, and then we told her we would sit there until she has an answer. So she prayed, and then we sat there for like two minutes. These two minutes were easily the most peaceful of my life. The first words she said were simply, "The feeling is still there".  She told us she knows these things are true. We told her she was going to be baptized and she asked us how soon. We told she was going to church this Sunday and she asked where and when... Miracle investigator :)

I have a testimony that the Spirit does all the converting, and I am sooo blessed to be a witness of seeing others come unto Christ. I learned that you aren’t really living without the Spirit in your life.

The rest of the week was chalk full of other spiritual experiences, rainy nights, and running away when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. :) 

I’m actually getting pretty good at soccer. We play like an hour a day and we played for four today. It’s the only thing keeping me from getting fat from all these freakin tacos.

Love you all :) Shout out to Whit! Three more months...Don’t be lazy because you aren’t done until you give mom a hug, and then you have to find a husband. I have Elder friends that think your hot... 

Love, 

Elder Minnick

P.S. 

I've been hand washing my clothes for the past five weeks. It's super relaxing. Helps me get all that nervous energy out!

Note from Tam:  I asked Weston how safe his area was.  He said, "I am super safe. I always have the Spirit with me. I haven't been hurt or harmed.  We need to go into sketchy areas for investigadores and menos activos. We are just the only two white guys in a 100 mile radius. Most people respect us, others like our things... but I'm good and safe mama!"

As for Tuesday here is what happened:  "We walked into a huge fight at a menos activos house. Bricks were flying through windows and they were screaming and I just felt horrible for this family. Their 15 year girl ran away and the mom wanted to throw her in jail. The dad was crying and he was a mess, he just wanted to be happy and have his family togther. We taught him about charity and the atonement than fasted with him. We went back Thursday to see how it all turned around and a lot better. Power of fasting. I'm totally fine and I learned a lot. My testimony of the atonement is growing!" 

We only play with fire when we have free time. 

Don't worry mom, I've burned all my hair before -- I know what I'm doing :)

We celebrate our baptisms with tacos...
yah for baptisms and tacos!