The Lone Misionero

September 12. 2016

I swear each week you look at and think "this should be a normal
average week" and by the end it's not. I had some awesome
opportunities to go on some exchanges with some awesome missionaries
this week. I brought Elder Hribar to my area and we were running all
day just teaching and doing work! We got to teach Taiwan and Ashley on
the exchange, who are a family we started working with. They read 7
chapters of the Book of Mormon and told us the story better than I
could have! On an exchange with Elder Davenport (shoutout to his
homeland of Toronto) I got to do a baptismal interview for a guy who
only spoke Spanish! Sadly I didn't have an awesome gift of youngest
experience, but we had a translator and the spirit was so strong! He
was so excited to be baptized!

Elder Winstanley and I had the opportunity to give zone training this
week. We have such an awesome zone and we just wanted to make them
feel uplifted and ready to go out and work. There were 6 baptisms in
the zone this week! I'd say that was probably the best zone training
me and Elder Winstanley will ever give because he got transferred mid
week:( he got a call from President to be the new Assistant so just
like that I'm without a companion haha. I had the opportunity to be in
a trio with a set of Spanish elders, Elder Beebe and Mcallister, but
even on my area book app it says I'm the only missionary serving in
Bethlehem. It was pretty gnarly being with Spanish elders for most my
week because I have no idea what anyone was saying to me but it's all
good! I set up a split for me to go with our recent convert Trey
Saturday night, which was way fun! He joked that they should let him
be my companion and let "extremely converted" new members like him go
on missions early. He's he best

Church was crazy being the only one in both the wards we serve in.
Since I can go on splits wherever there is a male member over 18, I
went to ward council and sacrament all by myself haha it was crazy
trying to talk to all the people I needed to talk to after sacrament.
The highlight of this week was that we had the baptism for Paola and
Kelly! Of course it didn't come without any difficulties! We had a
child of record baptism with our two convert baptisms so we needed 6
jumpsuits for the baptism and we had he hardest time getting it all
situated, but after running around and fitting everyone to a jumpsuit
or white pants, we finally got the baptism started. A perk to this
baptism was that Paola and Kelly had a member who couldn't go on a
mission due to medical issues and a newly reactivated member of the
baptisms. The reactivated member was scared to death but gave Paola
the most heartfelt blessing after he confirmed her. There was so much
support and I'm so happy for them!

This week will be another crazy one, first of all the Philadelphia
temple will be dedicated this Sunday, which is so exciting! On top of
that I picked up a new companion today, Elder Chapman, but he finishes
his mission in a week so once again I'll be in some sort of a trio
soon and I'll get another new companion. Although I've been a lone
misionero out in the Spanish world this week, I never have to feel
alone. I always remember if you love yourself just know you'll never
be alone and if you love the savior you'll be even better off. Hope
you all have a great week!

1) the Lehigh valley!
2) Paola and Kelly's baptism!