"Pray like everything depended on the Lord, and work like everything depended on us."

With the Longhorns shirt I gave him! Hook 'em!

Goodbyes to Elder Menendez :(

 

Goodbye to roommate Elder Mosqueira who got called to be a secretary in the office.

Baptism of Ana Maria

Comp study! Practicing with the new Elder Silverio from Brazil, learning Spanish from Elder Dean! haha

Hola mi querida familia! ¿Como me les va?

Wow time is flyiiing by! Tanner is already home?! Didn't even see that coming... Since when?? haha. Well my comp left today, that was just super sad. It was the hardest goodbye from a companion I have had yet on my mission. He really helped me out a lot. He is a born leader and was kind enough to share some things with me that I can hopefully put into practice! He will be greatly missed! 

Well what can I say... the BYU app really took up a little bit of time but I will try to get a quick letter out with some pictures...

This week we had a lot of people to work with finally. When the week ended we were expecting more than 18 investigators to show up at church! Well, that didn't end up happening but it was great to have a ton of people to teach! We found success using the recent converts like Juan David, Ana Maria and Mabel to have us present some friends and relatives cleverly using the Home Activity as a great tool. It is like a Family Night but with the main objective being missionary work! And we found like 6 new people who we really think are going to progress! We are also working pretty hard in that new area I told you about. 

 

We found a returned sister missionary inactive that lives there and we have been working with her and her family for some time now. We had a great Home Activity there where we also found some new people to teach! It is always great to find investigators through the members, it always starts out the conversion process on the right foot! 

My new companion gets here Wednesday, his name is Elder Joglar from Argentina. He is the first comp I have had with less time in the mission than me since I trained! He just now got the call as a ZL so I am really excited to train a new ZL. He is known in the mission as a really hard worker who likes to get things done. He should bring a great excitement to the branch and the zone. 

I learned something this last week that helped me out a lot! Sometimes as we get time in the mission we have old ways of doing things and the newness of ideas stop coming. I feel like I have tried everything you can try! But there is something untangible that defines our success as missionaries, our ability to just make things happen. If we aren't careful we get stuck in a routine without stretching oursleves, and when that happens our effectiveness goes way down. 

 

The Lord said "For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." 

We just need to make the determination that we want to make something happen, and we do it. There is no other secret. And Christ hath said, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." 

Faith is action and when we commit ourselves to a cause expedient in Him, we cannot fail! There is no limit to what we can do! We need to make the decision, pray like everything depended on the Lord, and work like everything depended on us. Then we see miracles before our eyes and humbly look back realizing where the power we have comes from. Great lesson for anyone to put into practice. Just like Nike: Just Do It!

Well I look for a great week ahead with a new comp! Time is flying before my eyes, someone please tell it to slowww down! 

Thanks for everything!

Elder Eliason