This week has been super enjoyable for me and my new comp, it was really busy with all of the meetings that we were required to go to. Thankfully they were all pretty good! And not to mention all of the miracles we had! Transfers were on Tuesday at 3 but the new missionaries didn’t get to Mesa until 7:30 so me and Elder Orse(who is also training) went on splits until then. We had two dinners just before we got our new companions and that wasn’t a good idea😂 I almost lost my stomach but kept it down haha. That night President announced who our companions would be and my new companion is Elder Burningham! When we met each other he said that he knew I would be his trainer because when he searched Mesa Arizona Mission in google my blog came up😂 He had read some of it. Literally we connected instantly and we are good friends now. He is from Kaysville Utah, and is my second companion from Utah! He went to Davis High School so we are pretty aware of each other. He is actually a reassignment missionary from Brazil. He served in Brazil for almost two months but needed to come home for medical reasons. He was home for 9 months and then came straight out to Mesa. He’s fresh from the real world! He loves Mesa though, compared to Brazil this is paradise. He loves rugby and football and Hammocking!😱 So you could say we are bros!😂
We had a bunch of training meetings that took up a big chunk of time during the week. Our first day together we basically got him settled in, introduced to the area, got him a bike, and attempted to go shopping although his card wasn’t working. After some trial and error we got that working too. Elder Burningham’s group are the first missionaries to come out with smartphones, so we are figuring out the bugs in that as well. It’s pretty nice already.
The first couple of nights I was nervous to be training 😂 But now I’m fine, it’s still the same missionary work. If anything having a trainee has motivated me to work harder and longer. It’s been really good for me. We do a 12 week training program for new missionaries and doing it has actually helped me a lot as well. It’s helped me refocus on my missionary purpose and why we do what we do. It’s kind of hard to keep up with because there is never enough time haha, but it will be solid in the end. It’s fun having a son😂
We had a few miracles this week, we found a new investigator named Melanie! She is super open and came to church this week! We actually had a lot of people come to church this week, mostly less actives. It’s been good to see them at church, a big portion of our work is with these less actives. Another miracle this week was that we had good contact with all of our investigators throughout the whole week! That’s really a miracle because a lot of people here are kind of flakey on keeping contact.
Being on bike again has actually been super fun, I love it. But it got really cold😂 We hiked to the church this morning and it was 40 degrees, I felt like I was in Utah again. I’ve been double layering when we bike at night, it gets kind of nippy. It even rained for a while. Sure it never rains while I’m in a car for 7 months, the minute I go back to bike it rains....soaking wet😂
I can’t really thing of much else that happen except this one last experience. We were biking home and it was windy and cold when I saw two homeless guys working on some bikes. We stopped and talked to them, one guy had chained his bike up against a post earlier that day so he could walk to the walmart up the street. When he came back his tires were slashed and the seat was stolen. You could see that this bike was all this guy had, and someone had basically destroyed it. The other homeless gentlemen saw what happened and actually walked to the walmart, bough new tires, found a new bike seat, and brought them back to this poor mans bike. When we arrived they were about finished fixing up and putting it back in order. I could tell that the man who bought the new stuff didn’t have much either, he was just as helpless as the other guy. I was so touched by this experience, I saw the Savior in that man who helped another struggling man even when he didn’t have enough to provide for himself. There are still good people in this world. There are Good Samaritans all around us. We can all contribute to helping others a little more willingly, if that man could help, we can all help. We take upon ourselves the name of Christ and follow his example, I know that this is the way to share the light of Christ in the world today.
I love my mission, I love the people, I love the Gospel, and I love Jesus Christ. His light is real and will always be shining on us if we let it. Have a great week Momma! I love you soooo much! You're amazing!
Sorry I didn’t take too many pictures, I will get more this week.
love, Elder Findlay
 |
| My "son" Elder Burningham and I |
 |
| Actual clouds. Rarely seen in Mesa ;) |
