Elder Cook Week Eighty

Familia,

Alright I´ll tell you a little about Sunday.  We were super pumped in the morning to bring people to church because we had an upcoming baptism and we had just found a little miracle family Saturday that promised to go the next day, and a couple others as well were all super committed to going.  So we woke up early Sunday and headed out to the Altos.  We went to several houses of different investigators and no one was able to go, some were out running errands, another was making tortillas, and one seemed to have disappeared from Honduras completely. Then the bus came about an hour late. So we arrived at church a little discouraged but still hopeful that the miracle family we had found would still come. Then we got a call a little into church saying that they won’t be able to go because the dad has to work.  At that point, I was about ready to break down.  It was crazy how many things had gone wrong before it even hit 10 o’clock.  It was rough and I kept thinking what more we could have done for Heavenly Father’s help.  We got through church and ate lunch, and with a very heartfelt prayer headed out to work.  And that´s when our day turned into one of the best days ever!  Every door we touched, we got into.  We taught investigators, found two new families, talked to people on the street, contacted the contacts we had, and everything just went perfect!  

FLASHBACK: With one of the families we found, we had taught the wife one time and the son one time, never being able to meet the dad.  We passed by a couple times to find him but he was always at a church.  When we went with the son about a week ago, we were teaching about the Book of Mormon. We ended with a prayer saying we´d come back another time.  After walking a ways away, E Torres realizes he forgot his umbrella there. We were in between going back or not for a couple minutes, then just decided to go back anyways. We knocked on the door and finally met the dad!!  He gave us the umbrella and was super nice and asked us when we could come back to teach him!  So we said Sunday.  

FLASHFORWARD:  So we went with that family, that night.  We talked a while and they were all awesome people.  The mom said her family had gotten baptized when she was a kid and they had accepted the missionaries a lot since then.  The dad said about a year ago he started going to a church and gave up drinking.  This family was prepared way before we got there!  We went right in on the Law of Chastity and baptism, and challenged them to both. That night we were so grateful to God for everything that had happened.  

But it got me thinking, why? What did we do different or better to get so many blessings? I didn’t think we tried harder or less hard at any point, so why such a huge difference from the morning to night? Then I thought of a couple things. One factor was the peoples´ agency, and that we can´t control. Another thing that kind of hit me was the way that Heavenly Father helps us in life. His blessings that He gives us are real, inside and out of missionary work. He loves His children. But He also wants us to work for them. He can´t just give us everything and make everything go perfect for us in life, no matter how much He wants to. That ruins life´s purpose. He never wants to see us struggle or have problems. But I think sometimes He lets things happen, even when we´re trying our best, because He trusts us and hopes we learn and grow from it. And a lot of it has to do with what you were saying Dad, where a situation doesn´t matter as much as our reaction to the situation. My companion and I could have given up and gotten mad or sad and not tried as hard that night, but we didn´t. We humbled up a little bit, prayed a little bit harder, and put a lot more confidence in God.  And we were blessed from it! We can´t always understand why things happen, but if we just try to learn from it, we´ll see at some point. That´s why we´re here. So really, we should accept problems and challenges in life with gratitude to God, because what it actually means is that He thinks we have prepared enough and we´re ready enough to handle the next step in our growth process to become like Him! When it comes down to it, we just need to trust in our Heavenly Father a little more.  He´s been at all this for a while now, so He knows what He´s doing. And the best part is, He already wrote up the plan! It´s right there in the scriptures. If you want to know more about the plan that He has for us, why you´re here, and why it´s hard, read the word of God. He´ll let you know.

Love ya,

Elder Cook