This week was pretty awesome! The week started off nice and normal. We exchanged with the Randolph Elders on Monday night. I was with Elder McCormick for his last two days in Randolph. So we went to a few members and investigators homes and it was sad seeing him say goodbye. Some of the people were saying goodbye to me too. I only served there for 3 weeks, and I'm not leaving Colebrook though. Anyways we had a good time.
OK Tuesday we were also informed that there was an emergency mission conference down in Manchester on Thursday. To prepare for Thursday the mission participated in something called War Cry Wednesday. It was basically a day of extreme finding. We went out finding as many people as possible. It was awesome. Even the Blairs and some of the mission Presidency participated. It was great, but we had to cut our night short and drive to Lebanon to stay the night. It was an intense day though. Especially because people were updating their progress in a group chat in our zone. We found out later in the mission conference that we had found 174 new investigators as a mission that day. (which is a lot for northern New England)
On Thursday we got to the mission conference, and we walked into the chapel in Manchester. I sat next to Elder Stegeman, with Elder Spice in front of me. It was good seeing a lot of good friends. We studied for a few minutes and the Blairs walked in with Elder Bennet and his wife. Elder Bennet is another member of the Seventy, but he is also in charge of the North America Northeast area. So it was awesome to be there with him. He came with no notes and was led by the Spirit in teaching us. He taught us how to teach with love, and lots of other random things. He taught us about optimism, and pessimism. He said that the Lord is perfectly optimistic because he sees everything how it could be. He also told us all pessimistic thoughts are from the devil. His reasoning was the devil hates all of us, and he will send discouraging thoughts our way. Which makes sense. When he discourages you from sharing the gospel, not only does he make you feel like garbage, but it prohibits more children from hearing the gospel. He gets a double whammy. Then we had a q and a with him for about 3 hours with things pertaining missionary work. Then he went off on us and asked us "why do you think the Lord has sent you two general authorities in a week's time and an Apostle a few months back?" some sister was like "we aren't learning something we should be?" and he was like "No! That's pessimistic!" he told us that the Lord is leading them here because there are miracles that are about to happen here in New England, and that they want us to be as prepared as possible to make them come forth. So the conference was pretty awesome. The biggest thing I took from it though was how important the constant influence of the spirit really is. The Spirit can direct you in almost all moments. One of my favorite things he told us, is that when you're praying for guidance on something and you receive no answer; that is one of the best answers you can receive. He told us that means the Lord trusts you, and knows that you'll make the right decision without Him having to use the spirit to tell you.
The last part of the week was pretty relaxing. At least compared to the craziness from earlier in the week. My butt is still sore from all of the driving though.😩I thought I'd get a break when I stopped double covering areas. Just like most of my assumptions, I was wrong.
Our investigators are doing awesome. Randy is growing some green beans and he's like a master Gardner or something, because on Sunday they were still beneath the ground, and as of yesterday they were like ginormous😂 I gave another talk in church yesterday and it was on member missionary work, talks are a lot easier to give for some reason when you're on a mission. I'd never thought I'd be one of those people that go over the time when speaking, but I was one of those people. It was all good though.
Anyways I hope y'all had a good week, and are learning new things every chance you get. I hit 11 months tomorrow which is insane to me. The mission goes by way too fast. I also find it hard to believe that I've been here in Colebrook almost as long as Rockland. Sorry for the long email, but it was an exciting week. See ya next week!
(This is the house Elder Clifford and his companion live in.)
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