Week 13: We have made a lot of progress

Well to start we had transfers this week. I stayed in my area with Elder Cardenas and Elder West until he leaves, which will be this Thursday. Elder Cardenas is from Monterrey and doesn't speak very much English, but he's really awesome and I'm super excited to be companions with him! I should be able to get a lot better at speaking Spanish with him as my companion now. I still really struggle with small talk, I can teach a lesson fine.. somewhat.. but it's when I have to talk about random stuff that I'm at a complete loss. 

This week we had a huge suprise when our bishop was released and the second counselor was called as bishop. I'll be honest I'm super excited! He's just about one of the most humble guys I've ever met! We're assuming that church attendance is going to shoot up now, which is pretty sad, but true. The first week we arrived in this ward there were 39 in church, yesterday there were 110! So we have made a lot of progress, but there's a lot more inactive members that could be coming. 

Every Saturday we've been teaching am English class, we usually have around 10 people show up and we even have a family with 3 daughters that can get baptized! We've been teaching them and last night we set a date for them to get baptized on the 4th! But as far as the English class goes, I'm worried about next saturday because Elder West will be gone by then and my companion doesn't speak English. So I'll probably be teaching the whole thing. 

This week I studied in Alma and the story of Ammon. I love his example of confidence in the Lord. It's something that I've been striving to have more of, because it takes confidence to talk to stangers in a language that I can't speak very well. Ammon had complete confidence in that he would be protected and the Lord would create a way for him to preach the gospel. I sometimes feel like I don't fullfil my purpose as a missionary just because I let myself get in the way of the spirit. I'm still in search of how I can have more confidence in the promise in D&C 84:85 that we will be given what we need to say right in the moment when we need it. That is if we treasure of the words of life in our minds, meaning we need to study and learn about the doctrines of Christ in order to recieve this promise.

one thing that I want to mention is I don't think dearelders are really worht it. I'd rather you just send me an email and I can print it out! that way I can get stuff every week and not get things 4 weeks after you've writen them. 

Well that's about it for this week. Thank you for your support and love! I love you all so much!

Elder Twede