Ups and Downs

This week was a blast for me and my companion, we had the chance on Tuesday to go up to Lyon for a conference, where President Brown explained and shared with us his goal for before the Visit of D. Todd Christofferson, one of the twelve apostles, on March 15. He shared with us that he had really felt prompted to fix the goal to have 187 new engagés, or people who have accepted a specific baptismal date, by the time he arrives. That makes just about one new engagé per missionary, which is enormous, something I don't think has ever been done before. At first it was a little bit shocking, but the faith that President has is inspiring, and ever since that goal has been set, we've been seeing so many miracles in our zone and in our equipe.

Just this week we were able to fix a date with our ami who is Chinese, already a miracle. Before this 187 goal came out I'm almost ashamed to say I hadn't really thought to engage her anytime soon because she has no background in religion, never really having believed in God, but with this goal we went for it, and she said yes, saying she's seen how kind and nice the members are who are believing, and saying she wants that too! It was a huge testimony for me on how Heavenly Father really does inspire his leaders, and now I'm so excited to get to see this goal be realized! We had zone training later on, which went well, talked more about the goal and preparation for the conference, nothing exceptional happened, but this week has been great!

We are in more a finding stage in our work right now, with some unfortunate events that happened this week, we had a few of our Amis tell us that they were no longer interested to hear our message, and tell us goodbye. It was sad, it was very difficult to see them letting go of something that we had already seen bless their lives, something that was truly helping them progress, but we must respect everyone's right to choose, and so will not be seeing them in the near future. Otherwise we met a lot of really cool people this week while outside talking with people, lots of good potentials in our area. I was able to go on exchange down in Beziers again, and teach a member family's daughter that I had met when I served down in that branch, which was really cool, it's always fun to see the progression that has taken place during the year since I've been there. Had a really good rendezvous with our ami at a members house, we ate lunch with them and shared a spiritual thought, and our ami had a great time.

This week I think I the biggest reality that was impressed upon me was just how much this is truly the Lord's work. Me and my companion were still working just as hard as ever, and ran into quite a few things this week that were pretty discouraging. I realized that nothing is going to happen outside of the Lord's timing, He knows what is best for us here on Earth, and it is up to us to work as hard as we can, always pushing forward and trying our best, so that when the Lord's timing does arrive, we are ready and have done everything needed for His will to happen. It's so important for us to trust Him that in the end, if we do our best in everything that He has given us to do, we will be blessed in the end, and all will be well.