Awesome Assen: Take 5

This week has been great. It's always good to start the transfer off well. Sister Andersen and I have been doing really well so far and seeing lots of miracles. The biggest of those miracles is our baptismal date. He is so willing and ready to make the changes in his life necessary. We had a lesson with him about the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday and basically we just told him what it is and he accepted it! He is a smoker now, but when we told him that smoking is against the Word of Wisdom he just said, "Okay, I'll stop." Then yesterday during onderzoekers class he had a question about tithing because he'd heard it being discussed during priesthood and we told him and he just accepted it. He's having a lot of trials right now, so he's really stressed, but we ran into him accidentally the other day and he told us that he's stressed, but also reading, and it helps! That's a miracle in and of itself because reading the scriptures tends to be hard for him. He reads it all two or three times so that he can understand it better! He also said that he wants to go through the lessons twice before getting baptized, which is really cool. The branch loves him and is friendshipping him so well, and we're really excited about it all. Also, we got ahold of some other investigators who have been gone for a long time, and set up an appointment. They were really positive before, so I'm really excited to be able to teach them again.

I learned a lot about diligence this week. We’re doing a Book of Mormon reading as a mission, focusing on a Christlike attribute each week, and this week’s was diligence. One way that I worked on enduring with opposition is by trying to just keep working and looking for the reason. We had a lot of appointments fall through this past week, but we were still able to get a lot done because we always had back-ups and tried to find a reason for why something didn't happen. For example, we were able to set up that appointment with the other investigators (mentioned above) because one of our appointments fell through. It's good to be realistic about your situation, but the best way to do that is to recognize that this is the Lord's work and if something happens outside of our control, it's because He has a good reason for it. Work hard, work smart, and share the gospel.

Also remember that you are a child of God and that He wants to hear from you!