Monday, February 26, 2018

Faith: Week #81

Hey Mom!

I can’t believe that my friend Kaitlyn (Heaton) is going on a mission already, it seems crazy to me. (She's going to Brazil next week) It’s weird when the friends you grow up with go their separate ways to serve the Lord. It’s hard because you can’t see them for a long period of time, but it's so good because you know that they are doing the same work you are doing. The harvesting of souls :) 

We had some good things happen this week for the missionary work in the area. Some part member families are starting to open up to us missionaries AND we are finding MORE part member families to teach! We are also going out with members more and they are introducing us to their less-active families that they home teach. There are so many in these wards unfortunately. These are the lost sheep that sometimes just need a kind hand to reach out and pull them back into the fold. 

Saturday morning we helped out with the Phoenix-Mesa Marathon. Our job was to hand out cups of water and Gatorade. There were a lot of missionaries and only so many of them could do that, so the rest of us cheered everyone on coming through our area. We were at the 9 mile marker and it was really fun😂 There was a funny dude in a huge dinosaur costume that was running the race...I’ll attach a video of it😝

We had a few cool experiences with finding, one in particular I would like to share. We were biking through an apartment building one evening when one of the apartments caught our eye. There wasn’t anything special about it, we just had the impression to knock. We knocked on the door and a younger woman opened. Her name was Lauren. She had previously gone to church with her Mormon friends when she was a kid. She never had the opportunity to sit down with the missionaries and talk, but now she wants too! We are meeting with her this week! It was a small yet powerful experience of following the promptings of the Spirit. It’s really easy to miss promptings of the Spirit because they are so subtle sometimes. 9 times out of 10, the Spirit comes to me in thoughts. Do this, do that, say this, go there, talk to that guy. Really it could be anything. But what I’ve learned is that by acting on every good thought that comes to me, something good has happened. Sometimes that’s how the spirit works, it's different for everyone, but that’s how it works for me😊

This week was actually very trying for me. Mentally, physically, emotionally, the whole package. I think we all have our hard days though. It’s miraculous that we have someone who knows exactly how we feel. Jesus Christ has been there. He has felt it all, every bit of pain that we all have felt. Not sure how He did it, but He did, and He did it for everyone. He even did it for those who won’t accept it. He paid the price for them as well. That’s the unconditional love He has for all of us. Knowing that strengthens me in my trials. 

That’s really all I have to say this week. I love serving in Mesa and I love the Gospel. Have a good week! Love you!
Love, Elder Findlay

It was so cold this week! So we
 turned old socks into gloves :)


Random pic of me in front of our house

 This weeks car pic #1

Car pic #2

And here is a funny video of
 the marathon running dinosaur: