Week Of Challenges

Hey Everyone,

Well...this was a tough week. It's been one of those you hear about as you prepare to serve and now it has happened. It was a long, hard, trying week. We've worked very hard this week. We've tried and followed through with every thought and prompting we've had, but still didn't have a lot of success. Tough times. Every time I pray I ask that we find the smallest spec of wheat amongst the chaff. 

#PRAYFOREIGHTUPDATE:

JENNIFER: Her grandfather passed away. We shared scriptures with her filled with comfort and peace. The next day she text both my companion and myself and asked that we no longer come around. She said she was done learning about the gospel. It was a huge shock. We are unsure of what happened and where her daughter ALEXUS stands. We are being respectful during this time and will move on. 

CARROLL: We are on pause with her as she continues to work out some personal issues that need to be taken care of before we move forward. 

BOOMATAYS: The mom is feeling a bit better and we were able to teach a lesson to their family this week. It will be a slower process. 

CHRISTY: She was a referral. We had a Zoom call with her on how to pray more effectively. We also stopped by her home and once there she opened the door two inches, saw it was us and shut the door. We continued on with our day. 

FLO: We found her but she asked that we wait to share a message until next week when her schedule slows down.   

Everyone else we have removed from our teaching books. This is a tough area. Everyone told us that it was and we have been working very diligently and will continue to do so. 

We had lunch with a family in our area and as we were talking with them I said the word "LOKI" and that was it. The rest of the time their son and I talked MARVEL. Coincidentally, the End Credit scene for the VENOM movie and the HAWKEYE trailer were both shown on the TV while we were there. Then, the "It Smells Like Teen Spirit" song by Nirvana was played on the radio. Sometimes some families just continue on with life when the missionaries are there. LOL. 

We love the Ramierez family in our ward and had dinner with them again. They have great, active kids. This week we played catch with them, football with them, and also played "Monkey in the Middle" in their living room. I had a video of our experience and it's too large to add to this email letter but you would have loved it. Those kiddos are great. 

Elder Montoya has enjoyed playing pranks on his greenie son and this week I just barely found out about a prank he's played on me since I've been out about backing up cars in the mission. Haha!

This week we had interviews with the mission president and those went well. It is one of the greatest parts of the mission to meet with President Ames and share how things are going. It's a cool experience. 

We've created a Google spreadsheet survey for all families in our ward. We are curious where they each stand on missionary work and how we can best help them. When we have dinner with ward families we share and discuss the survey and make a plan with them. We are hopeful this will encourage families to share the gospel to their friends and neighbors. 

This week we had two sweet tender mercies. We went to eat lunch at Chick Fil A and a nice couple was there eating and they paid for our lunch. And, then this morning as we were at Walmart checking out with our cart full of weekly groceries, a gentleman from Tulsa who was in town to play in a golf tournament paid for all of our groceries. Both were so kind and generous. We love and appreciate great people. 

Elder Mortensen

Picture this week of our lunch outing at Chick Fil A