Thursday, August 7, 2014

Short Hills week 12; Mission week 54



Hey Family,     August 4, 2014

So I am not too sure how to say all this but....
Yesterday we were in West Orange again and we were just trying our last person for the night. It was a long day, nobody was letting us in or being super interested to listen. We even had our only appointment for the day cancel. Kinda rough night, but at 8:30 PM I got a call from President Taggart and... yeah I am a zone leader now.... What in the world am I doing? Ha ..... So I'm trying to relax my last p-day before I start to lose my mind. No I'm messing- its all good. But me? a zone leader? Ha this is going to be fun. I am actually pretty pumped for it. No idea what is going to happen the next few days. My responsibilities are about to quadruple. But I am confident in the Lord's confidence and trust in me, and the trust President Taggart has in me as well. I feel like I have a billion weaknesses and am not qualified to lead so many people, but my focus is on learning and loving and using my strengths and gifts to help out these missionaries the best I can. I will give you more details next week. I am feeling good about the calling. Nervous, but excited to learn and serve. Luckily we have the best missionaries in the world here so I'm not too worried.  I will be getting transferred as well. 

So goodbye to Short Hills... Wow I feel like I was just living the good life here. Its probably one of the nicest parts of New Jersey. I have the best companion, Elder Lopez. I can't even say how many times we were laughing and smiling. He is such an awesome missionary. Only been out 3 transfers and he is the best teacher I have ever taught with. I learned a lot from him. The branch here I will always remember. They are just the happiest people and so nice and loving. So solid in the Gospel too. I have never seen such a solid ward council meeting. The area is awesome as well. Definitely a hard working area. We did some work here and I am going to miss the streets we walked down everyday. We are going to be running around tonight trying to say goodbye to a few people before I head out. Transfers are tomorrow and after that its pure zone leader responsibilities for a few months. Most zone leaders are there for 6 months, so it is going to be an adventure.

Anyways this week we had one of our less active members just completely flip around. A month ago she was yelling and just so exhausted with her life. She was baptized about a year and a half ago. She is from Costa Rica, and has the strongest personality ever. Her name is Ni---. She became inactive when some of the missionaries left. She is super solid bust just needed a testimony boost. She felt like her life got so much harder after she was baptized and she didn't see any of the blessing she had gained. So she stopped going to church. But we have been helping her come back and one of her visiting teachers is absolutely amazing and has been bringing her to church. Oh my goodness... Ni--- is like a new person now. She had to move houses. Her old house was filled with a bunch of her old friends who had some bad habits of drinking. So she moved away from them and started living with just her daughters. She is so happy now. I think just coming to church and getting away from her old friends and temptations just changed her life. She is someone I will never forget. 

This last transfer I probably learned the most from my zone leaders. They were just super good friends with me and I got to go on a few exchanges with them and they just taught me so much about leadership, confidence, and just finding fun along the journey. That is probably what I learned most this transfer. One sister missionary put it the best this last week: Have fun in your trials. It has helped me just have more fun everyday instead of trying to wait until the end of the trials. Oh it has been the best transfer of my mission so far. I just love being a missionary. It is hard as ever sometimes, but there are always happy moments along the way.

Happy 16 birthday Sam! Just a few more days. Get that Eagle than you will be driving in no time.

I am using all my energy from sleep, and from food, so I started just running off energy from the sun (Son)... either way you look at it... Ha I am just in the clouds right now.

Here we gooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Sumsion

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