Week 26 - A Little Down, but Not Out

  Well, unfortunately, Elder Schaff had a rough week and was feeling down when he emailed home yesterday. Nothing serious, just little frustrations here and there that all added up to a difficult week. Such is life though. There will always be ups and downs, especially as a missionary. It's hard to find people to teach, difficult to keep lessons going and on schedule, hard to teach around work schedules and family commitments, etc. I had no idea that Hayden was feeling so down, but I spent a long time Monday morning typing to him and I ended up sharing a lot of the lesson I had had at church on optimism and staying positive, so that was inspired. He said he really needed to hear everything that I shared and had already printed it out to study further, so that was fortunate. Hopefully, this week will be a little easier for him. This is what he had to share-
 
  "Hello family!  I don't know what to write about this week. I was struggling a bit, but Joel and Nathaniel's emails cheered me up, so it's good to have friends!

  This week A LOT of appointments didn't happen, so we spent several hours on the pavement finding people. We've got a planner full of potentials and 6 new investigators this week, but not many lessons. My studies just feel slacking and lesser than before. I've been very happy when working, but I'm just not feeling the in the mood when when we're doing other things. It's just the moment, I'll shake it off. But being honest, not the greatest week. What is good is that our companionship studies have been real effective recently and we've been improving our teaching skills. 

  Here is an update on the baptism I mentioned before- Maria H. was baptized last week in Echo 3, she was taught by the sister missionaries. She had the majority of her family attend. The service was held in Spanish, but some family members only spoke English, as well as some attendants. Our Zone Leaders even came with an investigator, and although they didn't understand, they all testified of the language of the Spirit and that they felt a witness of the truth though! President Clark actually attended the baptism as well. Elder Lopez and I were put in charge of teaching something while the people were changing into dry clothes. We elected to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and focus on repentance through His Atonement. We weren't confident in how effective our teaching was, but at the end of the service, everyone was telling us how they felt the Spirit testify so strongly to them that our words were true. Even President said we had done a nice job. So that was a good day. Maria paid her tithing the next day, the moment sacrament meeting ended. Investigators don't get more solid than that. So kudos to the sisters.

   The family we have been teaching accepted baptism, but we only had one visit with them last week, the schedules just didn't work out. They accepted baptism with the lesson we taught them, but did not make it to church. Maybe next week! 

  This week we had a lot of appointments cancel. We had a great day on Thursday that was loaded with lessons and that was definitely the highlight of the week. Other days we had a whole lot of nothing to get done when it came to visits, so we hit the pavement and talked with people whenever we could. This resulted in 6 new investigators, which was especially impressive, considering last week we had 9, but 6 of those were from a single family. We have thus planted many seeds and are teaching many people. We have over 25 investigators, but most of these people can only visit once or twice a week. So, this area of Echo 2 has come a long way from the 4 investigators we had when I started here in September. Essentially, we have a giant teaching pool now, but we need people to progress!

    (A) and (J) and their 5 kids did come to church yesterday, but had to leave after sacrament meeting because their 1-year-old was screaming with all of her might. It was an important step for them though.

  I've run out of time...hopefully that covers it!!! More next week!

--Elder Schaff