You Reap What You Sow (Field Week 1)

Hey all!  

So its been quite some time since I emailed! Since I left the MTC last Tuesday I didn't get a chance to email on Thursday! But fear not its Monday surely enough and now I get to update you all on my first week in the Nampa Idaho Mission! 

My area I have been assigned to is in the Meridian East Stake and I cover the Cloverdale and U-Stick Wards! For the time being we are on foot which is kinda hard since our area is so big but I should get a bike soon! The blisters on my feet are a mere sacrifice I'll make to bring one person to the knowledge of the gospel that has given me such great hope and comfort! 

I came in at a very unique time because this past Sunday was stake conference, but they were actually calling a new stake presidency to lead this stake so Elder Lawrence of the Seventy and M Derk Chrystal of the Seventy both came and presided at the meeting and it was a wonderful experience to shake their hands and meet them. It showed me how special it is to have revelation in our lives as well as in the Church to call new leaders and receive answers to the questions we have in our lives! 

My trainer/ Companion is Elder Candland! He is quite a bit taller than me and is from North Carolina and is a really great missionary that wants to try his hardest and sprint through the finish of his mission. He has been out for about a year now so he actually got to go to the temple last Thursday. So on my first day in the mission we got an urgent call to go to the local hospital ICU and give a priesthood blessing to bless him with the things we felt impressed he stood in need for. I could really feel the love when we entered that room. You could feel this man's faith as he could barely mumble his own name for us to give him the blessing and you could see the tears in his eyes with gratitude for being able to come and give that to him. It was a great experience to witness and take part in assisting him. I also cleaned our apartment. Mom would be so proud.. lets just say the apartment was the grossest thing ever and I know that the Spirit can't dwell in unclean places so as soon as I could, I let my janitorial years go to town on that place and let me tell you it really does feel different in there! We still have to get the living room, bedroom, and bathroom today but the kitchen is glorious ahah 

On my second day here I went on exchanges since my companion left for the temple so that was fun to do on the second day which usually isn't that common to happen but we had a super great day and I got to know the stake boundaries as well as build some great relationships with the other two elders, Elder Mata and Elder Westover.

 I would just like to bare my testimony on Alma 31:34-35 and the simplicity that God does guide us in ways that we don't understand at first but when looking back you can see He was helping from the beginning. We were able to meet some incredible people that unlike the other people we would talk to that day are sincerely interested about hearing the gospel. Yesterday we were walking along the side of the road when I saw a man inside a gated storage unit packing some things in his car, and I felt like since service is a good thing I'll ask him if he would like help! From the gated fence I called out to him 50 ft away to see if he would like help.... no response... so I called out to him again for him to only look at us blow some cigarette smoke out and say no. Turning around I just muttered to myself well you reap what you sow in the mission field so if you don't ask you would never have gotten to do the service in the first place! As we continued to walk to our next appointment we stopped to talk to another man but he only spoke Chinese so thats too bad.. should have taken Chinese in high school! But it was after talking to him we were walking alongside the road when a PT Cruiser pulls up and this lady asks us if we wanted a ride.. Because we walk every where we were definitely all for a ride! It was then we realized that this was the man at the storage unit and that his wife was there we just didn't see her! But she knew we were missionaries, because who else would actually ask if they could help pack or unpack a storage unit haha but they gave us a ride and dropped us off; however, Elder Candland got the addresses mixed up so we weren't in the right place! But we walked around the apartment complex said hello to a few people outside when a lady named Terssa came out to throw something away and I talked to her and she actually used to be a member but circumstances in her life made it so she became inactive and she really didn't go to any church anymore. But after talking to her she was interested in temples and what they look like inside and what goes on in them. Because she was very interested and we told her that the Meridian temple was going to be finished next summer and she could walk through one then, but she was very interested in reading the Book of Mormon again! It was awesome and this was one of the three instances where we were lead by the Spirit to run into people perfectly! 

Anyways I would encourage everyone to let the Spirit guide you in everything you do.. But this means in our prayers ask questions but allow Heavenly Father to talk back to you through the Holy Ghost, and if you don't get discouraged it takes time.. the Lord's time. But we are promised that He will be there for us so don't lose your trust in Him! Have a great week!!

Elder Gerrard and Elder Candland