January 11, 2016

Hey everyone,
So I've now been in Mesa for almost a month now, and I really am
enjoying it. I still want to go to New Caledonia, but I'm definitely
going to miss serving here, I've already made a lot of friends.
This past week it rained nearly every day. It was worst on Monday, and
we got to bike in it. We got positively soaked and dirty, but it was
fun. Everything about missionary work is fun if you just have a good
attitude and see anything bad as just a trial to show your faith in
God. Basically, being a missionary can be one of the best times of
your life, if you decide it is. This past week has been pretty great,
aside from the rain. On Monday I tried my hand at actually cooking for
the first time here on the mission, and I made penne Alfredo. It was
really good, and I fed the whole apartment. Then we went out and biked
in the rain. Like real missionaries. I feel bad for the missionaries
in cars, I think they have much less fun.
On Tuesday I got the iPad that I'm currently emailing you from. This
one is just a loaner, but it sure is nice to have our entire area
book, daily planner, and a map right here. We also had a meeting that
was a perfectly timed pick-me-up. It's been hard in this area, the
work has been pretty stagnant, until just recently. More on that
later.
Wednesday I got to go to the Mesa temple. That temple is really
beautiful, inside and out. I felt very privileged to get to go the
temple again on my mission, because I highly doubt that I'll be able
to in New Caledonia. I had a wonderful experience there. We also
taught one of our progressing investigators a lesson. She wants to get
sealed, and so we read 2 Nephi 31 and talked about baptism opening the
gate to greater blessings, and we invited her to get baptized next
month, but she's adamant about waiting until December because of the
opposition she's experiencing from her family. We want so badly for
her to get these blessings, but we'll just have to keep working with
her and she'll have to decide on her own time.
Thursday was district meeting. I got asked to teach something from my
time in the MTC, and it was a little weird to be training missionaries
much older than me, but I enjoyed it. It rained pretty hard again that
day, and we spent a lot of time trying to contact referrals we had
received from members.
Friday was great, we finally contacted some investigators the previous
missionaries had been teaching, and found out that one of them was
baptized in another ward. Our plan now is to teach her the new member
lessons and teach her mom the lessons at the same time. We also met a
woman named Tamica. She's a super happy Christian who was so happy to
talk to us and eagerly accepted a future lesson. Even though the air
was cold that night, I was so full of the Spirit from getting to
testify so much that night that I barely noticed. I love actually
talking to people, and having the, accept our message.
Saturday was my first time on exchanges. Our district leader came to
our area to train my companion, so I went to his area. We were asked
by a Bishop to attend two funerals, and we were able to help serve the
families there. We also taught a lesson to a couple of recent
converts. It was tough because their kids were going crazy the whole
time, but we still were able to help them learn from the scriptures.
These converts were also Navajo, and they had a Navajo Book of Mormon
and bible, which I thought was way cool. In a way, I taught some
Lamanites. Yesterday was ward conference for the Three Fountains ward.
We had a number of cool meetings with stake leaders. We the spent the
evening trying to contact less active members. A lot of them had
actually moved away, but that helps us too because we can clean up the
area book a little.
That sums it up. It's been oddly cold here in Mesa recently, not sure
why. All the natives are freezing, but Elder Doman and I have been
fine. I'm also going to try and give something cool about Mesa, (or
wherever I'm serving) each email. I don't know if I've already
mentioned this or not, but I'm going to share it anyway. Here it is,
Mesa really loves pre-planned communities. There are so many here,
it's a little ridiculous. It can be frustrating too because they only
have one entrance, so we often have to ride way farther to get to a
house than if we could just go through the area like a normal
neighborhood.
Remember everyone, God loves you and has given you the easy way
through this life. Just follow the Gospel.
See you in two,
Elder Miner