Monday, July 15, 2013

Sullana! What a Zone... Email from June 17, 2013

Well...this week has honestly been a huge blessing for us here in Sullana! I don´t think I´ve ever seen so much success in a zone, in all of my time here in the mission. It´s really inspiring to see the efforts of the missionaries, and I really hope that it continues!

This week we taught 102 lessons with members! To give you an idea of what that means, last week we taught 72, which is also a high number!!! Way to go Zone Sullana!!! I am really excited about it, and just hope that we can continue to have high numbers. Also, we baptised one other person this week, bringing our total to 8 baptisms! We have 5 scheduled for this weekend as well!!! I feel great about the work that is going on here, and just hope that we can keep the missionaries focused on doing things the Lord´s way.

As for our area, things are going great! We have received some great references and are really feeling blessed by the Lord. We have at least 5 people that really could be baptised within the next two months! Seriously, things are going great. One of them, however, is a young woman that is 17 years old. She is a reference from another investigator in a neighboring ward. Yuli, the young woman, came to church this Sunday! She even told the teacher that she would like to be baptized, even though we´ve only taught her once! The big problem there is that her mother doesn´t want her to be baptised...we´re going to have to overcome that hurdle for her, but I have faith!

The investigator that we´re really focusing on right now is Jank. He´s 19 years old, and really is a great guy. He has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month. However, we´re going to have to help him make some big changes before then! He drinks, and we also had a scare a week ago when he thought his girlfriend was pregnant...so obviously the law of Chastity will be a challenge as well. However, I feel confident. He is reading the Book of Mormon, he´s got a lot of good friends there to support him, and I know that he´s willing to put those things behind him. If you get a chance, a prayer could really do him some good!

We also had a very funny thing happen this week...we knocked a door, and a lady answered who just said, oh elders! Come in quickly! She then went to the back and shouted for her sister and nephew that actually live there telling them, ´Your salvation just knocked on your door!´ Haha, it was pretty cool. :) We tuaght them a bit of the Restoration, and were hoping that they would come Sunday, but they ended up heading out for Father´s Day.

Another family we´re working with is a single mother with two deacon aged sons. It was kind of interesting how we ran into them. We were talking to an old investigator when they came up playing football. I kind of casually made conversation with them, and then handed them some little pass along cards and invited them to listen to us the next day, not really thinking they would accept. However, to our suprise, they came! We then met their mother, and it seems like things will go great!

Our ward mission leader, who I have to say yet again is the BEST, was accompanying us one afternoon when we went to visit this young men. It was kinda funny because come to find out, their uncle is our ward mission leader´s cousin!! Small world. We´re also going to begin teaching him and his wife this Tuesday.

So many things are happening right now, it´s kind of crazy. Last week I went on two work visits! I was able to go with Elder Rice again! He was my second companion in the CCM, so it was cool to be with him again. We also visited with Elder Martinez and Elder Boror. Things are going great with them! It honestly was one of my best work visits, Elder Boror and I had a lot of success together, and found some great investigators.

I think that I am learning here how important obedience is. Elder Vargas and I are really focusing on being obedient, and it´s paying off!

The other thing that I´m learning to do right now is how to set goals and fulfill them! The whole mission, I´ve set goals every single day. However, now we´re really focusing on reaching those goals and doing our absolute best every day. It really is turning out tow be one of my best areas, and I hope to see some baptisms soon!!!

In my studies I have really kept a focus on the Book of Mormon. I feel like I´m discovering it all over again!! It´s amazing how many times I can read it and how much I still love it. For instance, this last week I finished reading it for the 7th time! I am just that much more excited to read it again!!! This time I´m going to be looking for how the power of the Atonement can really work wonders in our hearts, and change our very desires.

Oh, just a quick shout out too...I LOVE PINE SOL. This week I saw it in the grocery store and we definitely bought it. I´m pretty sure that today is the first time in over 5 or 6 months that our room has actually been CLEANED. It is amazing. :) ´Lemony fresh....´ Seriously, I miss having a clean room...(haha, Mom, can you believe I said that?) But really, being a missionary doesn´t give you a lot of time to do it, and if you really aren´t that excited about doing it, your room simply doesn´t get cleaned! However, this week it is. :)

Well...I´m kinda running out of things to say. I hope all of you know how much I love you. People are starting to talk to me a lot about how little time is left in my mission...it honestly scares me! Haha, I am so used to life as a missionary. Our ward mission leader was telling us how it took him 2 months to adjust. It may take me longer! Only four months left...it´s crazy. Time has flown by. I´m doing my absolute best to stay focused and make every single second be the most important in my mission. Hopefully I can do miracles in these last couple of months. It´s really my goal to be able to do that!

Well...love you all! Take care of yourselves and HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!!!

Elder Schofield

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