Elder Takoma Lindsay: 4th of july

What up peoples!

So this week has been pretty dope. Time is starting to pick up. I feel like i have been out a couple months but now each day is starting to not drag on so much. We have gotten into a pretty set schedule so I think that has a lot to do with it. So our 4th was so great! You definitely have more American pride when you are in another country. At breakfast I was surprised how many people wore red white and blue. It was just so fun and you could tell we all felt so united. In clase we sang the Star Spangled Banner to the flag we drew on the white board. It was pretty legit. The best part though was lunch. We walked in and they put out red white and blue table clothes on all the tables. They served pulled pork sandwiches with corn on the cob, waffle fries, and pie. It was so cool of them and it made everyone so happy to finally have some american food. I cannot tell you how much i miss it! At the end we all got up and sang the Star Spangled Banner together and it was just awesome. I got crazy chills from it. Literally down my whole body. It was so fun and definitely the highlight of the day.

So this sunday was awesome of course! We fasted from lunch to lunch so it really wasnt all that bad. Preisthood meeting was good. We talked about acting under preisthood keys and how if we are trying to complete a tast under the correct priesthood athority we are promised the spirit and we will get the task done. Testimony meeting was ok. No one speaks spanish really well so everyone just said the same simple things but it was still good. Our zone leaders left the day after so they called two new ones. Elder Vargas and I were called as the new zone leaders and he leaned over and said God has a sense of humor. Ha it is going to be a way hard time filling in for our old ones. They were awesome guys! I was worried because I already have so much stuff I need and want to do and there is just no time. Now we have a ton more to do. But we are going to pray a lot and do our best. Lift where you stand right? We had a lesson from president Pratt that was really good. It was about the power vs gift of the holy ghost. Everyone has the power of the holy ghost which is what we want our investigators to feel. However, we can only get the gift of the spirit after baptism. Even though we ''recieve the holy ghost'' that doesnt mean we just have him with us. We need to desire, seek, work, listen, be worthy, etc if we want the spirit to be with us. He also talked about how everything we do in the church is to inviet the spirit. It is essential in our lives so i invite all of you to pray for and work for the spirit. I can attest to how much you need him.

Our devotional that night was from Elder Holland! He went so hard of course and it was amazing. It was all towards missionaries tho so I wont share too much. He talked about how when he went they just memorized lessons and gave them to everyone even tho everyone has different situations. They just skipped right to trying to convert the investigator. He said that they didnt have much success and that lots of missionaries were falling away when they went home because they were not beng converted. Now with preach my gospel the focus on converting the missionary first and relying on us to figure out how to help the investigator. The biggest thing is being led by the spirit but numbers have skyrocketed and with like 90,000 of us we are growing like crazy. He also talked about how if we go through with this we can never go back. It was like when christ asked peter if he would leave behind his nets and everything. We can never go back and I am so excited to take that on myself.

That night we watched the newer Joseph Smith video. Gosh that man was such a stud. I cannot believe he went through all that and continued with the work and never waivered. I am so thankful for his example and the work he did. We are so lucky to live in a time with Christ's gospel and prophets. It also hit me how amazing Emma Smith was. I never really thought to much about her before I guess but she was an incredible woman. To stand with him through all of that and not only that but help and support him. That takes an incredible woman to do all of that. But ya I loved the movie and it was very moving.

Tuesday was really good. Well all tuesdays are really good. I had a very powerful spiritual experience in the morning which was just incredible. That night we heard from Elder Neil L Andersen. He spoke on the spirit and I am not going to lie i was kinda disappointed. I thought it would be amazing and it just wasnt. I definitely learned some stuff and will apply it in my mission. But some stuff went wrong and it was very disorganized and he didnt get to say anything he wanted to and it was just hard. But it was still pretty good so ya. Yesterday i had an awesome experience! So our investigators are really teachers and they become our teachers after we are done to help us improve. It is really cool actually. But every wednesday we get real people. They can be investigators or members but it is so cool to get real people ha. Yesterday we got an actual investigator which was really scary. Peoples salvation depends on me ha. Anyway the hermanas taught him before us and they taught him to pray and a little bit about the church. They said he was really curious so me and Elder Vargas got ready to baptise this fool. Anyway we talked about what he had heard about the church and the Bom and stuff and his religious background. Then I asked why he decided to come here and he was curious about the BoM. I was like its game time. So we read some parts of the introduction and talked for awhile. Anyway it went incredible well and he got all excited to dive into it. He really wanted to read it and find out for himself if it was true. We ran downstairs and got him a copy. I sealed it with a testimony and ya. It was so exciting seeing how genuinely interested he was and i honesty think he will come into the gospel. And I placed my 1st BoM. It was just an awesome night and i am dying to get out into the the field to do that everyday. Anyway I love everyone so much and I am so thankful for all the support and emails. I am calling you out cody and tiff. I really want to hear from you guys and cody I need my sports update! Talk to you all next week.