Training and Exchange

This week we had a training with President Freestone on Tuesday. As always it was a spiritual feast and also a nutrition feast. We enjoyed great food prepared for us by the senior couples. During the training we spoke a lot about our mission plan and the action plan we have to achieve our mission goals. It was really good, because we'd all worked together on these goals and actions that we wished to take. So everyone was in agreement about them and wanted to do these things. It seemed to me that the statement by Elder David E. Bednar "Revelation is scattered among us" is really true. We also watched a driving safety movie that we're supposed to see every year. It was quite amusing. Though, I'm not sure how effective it was. Athens traffic is just quite different from anything you can imagine. :)

Elder Rahal and I relaxing after training in the Dungeon (Elder Jensen's and my abode).

We had a few experiences this week where I felt the hand of the Lord in my life. The two experiences that stick out to me this week happened both during the exchange we had this Saturday-Sunday.
During my exchange with Elder Dale we worked for about 5h in Nikaia doing contacting and some tracting. We were about two hours in to contacting and we'd been rejected quite a bit and I was feeling a little discouraged by that time, when we turned into a small park which included a playground with a fair amount of families on it. As we walked in I suggested we go past the playground first and walk up to the man sitting on the bench on the far side first and then work our way back. As we approached the man on the bench he started berating us for trying to change people and started pontificating about something or another (I tuned him out fairly quickly). We wrapped up that dead-end conversation and zeroed in on the playground. The first family: cold rejection! The second family waved us away too. We were about to leave the playground when Elder Dale spoke to a mother and two girls (one late teens and one around 10). The mother was super friendly and spoke with us and accepted a Book of Mormon. She didn't really want to meet to learn more at the time but she was just so friendly and upbeat, that I was again encouraged to continue and we were again enthusiastic about the work.

Another experience of how the Lord guides and helps us was a little more indirect. Elder Jensen and I have been thinking about transfers and we had figured out a transfer board which we felt pretty good about the evening before the exchange. Then we had the exchange and we worked hard with our exchange partners and then on Sunday afternoon when Elder Jensen and I drove up to the office from the church after finishing the exchange, Elder Jensen turned to me and said we have to change the transfers. I was relieved because I felt exactly the same way. So, we were very glad for the Lord making sure that we scheduled our exchanges like we did, for this gave us the information that lead to the inspiration to change the transfers again.

I'm glad that we always can rely on the Lord to help us perform His work. It isn't always easy the Lord's way but it always is possible. I've found that He lets you struggle just enough for you to learn and grow but never for you to fail in what is really important.

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