Thursday, March 12, 2015

Lost in the work


Dear friends and family,
I could not choose any other place in the world right now that I would rather be than right here. Life is so great! Marvin J Ashton once said, "you cannot give a crust to the Lord without receiving a loaf in return". This is a concept I have been personally experiencing and learning throughout my mission experience but right now, it seems especially true. Highs and Lows come, but i cant help but thank the Lord for the High im on right now. Enjoying it while its this good, i have a feeling real life cant be this great! haha
Tuesday my apartment enjoyed a powerful district meeting in which I led a discussion and we all shared our testimonies of the prophet Joseph Smith. If you ever need a topic to discuss in bring the spirit into the meeting, just begin talking about the goodness of God in bringing forth the restoration and the wonderful heritage of saint that we have to learn from in this dispensation. How blessed we are! And of course, what great examples of faith we have in all of holy writ. I hope to be as strong a saint as brethren like Alma or Helaman, Ammon and Amulek. I love such BOM heros! Tuesday's district meeting on the calling of Joseph Smith was a powerful reminder of why im here and how to help others know why im here.
I just was contacted by a brother interested in meeting with us here in the cafe. The Lord leads us to them or them to us! woot!
A noteworthy experience with a sister we contacted 2 weeks ago i would like to share. We met her in the middle of a hot afternoon after a number of failed appointments, contacted her house. she expressed interest in learning more, she had seen LDS missionaries before but hadn't ever had chance to learn with them very much. This week in our follow up visit, we discovered her son was sick with a severe skin rash which covered his entire body and caused his skin to flake off. it was pretty intimidating actually, looked like a leper if you asked me. He asked if we could administer to him which we did. It was the first time for elder Bond to administer to a sick brother, so it was a special experience for us. I cannot begin to describe the wonderful, marvelous and overwhelming feeling of the Spirit filling your heart and mind with words to speak every time I am called to give a blessing. A blessing of complete and total healing was pronounced. Two days later sister V. reported by phone that her son was healed. She attended church with us this Sunday as a result. Although i think she was a bit uncomfortable during the service, we look forward to our visits this week.
It is such a sweet opportunity to go about doing what Christ would do. we were led to another brother this week by "accident" while contacting. We passed his house and then both turned around feeling that we should speak to this brother who was washing on his front porch. Upon greeting him and introducing ourselves as missionaries, he offered us a seat and come to find out, he is a member! baptized about a year ago! but hasnt been to church for a few months. It is such a miracle how the Lord works, leading us to a brother who no one from the Ward knows nor where he lives, so he leads us to contact him!  We took him out to translate for us last week and are trying to get him to attend church with us this coming week. Its a miracle!
Elder Bond and I have our fair share of fun out contacting and proselyting. We have made some cool friends with some of our investigators, two nigerian brothers who are hustling for a career in the music business. We were pretty impressed with the work they are doing in their homemade studio. Its pretty impressive the beats they make and the raps they put together. We are working with one recent Nigerian  convert who is helping us get them to church, pray nothing happens this sunday! last sunday his front tire went flat and prevented them from coming.
We also are having fun with one brother Emmanuel, who we throw on our bike and take to lessons far away. cant waste time walkin no more! there are souls to save! check out my pic of him on elder bond's bike. its pretty entertaining biking on these roads, almost the x-games!
Last thought before time is up. Sunday we had a ward conference and guess what, we had refreshments after the 3 hour block!? meat pies and a local drink called sobolo. it was the first time i have ever walked away from church NOT hungry. LIFE IS GOOD! why dont we do that every suinday? haha just made me excited for home potluck firesides and whatnot. too easy.
Missionary Life is at times challenging, but how can i not be grateful for these blessings and so many others not shared. Life is good! and if we will but thrust in our sickle with our might, we can never fail in helping the work move forward. Im a witness! So enjoy the small and simple opportunities the lord will give us this week to help in whatever way we can wherever we are. Till next week! love,
Elder Fairwell

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