So, now there were two.. (week 3 in Michigan)

September 14, 2020

Hey guys!!

This week has been wild! I guess the biggest news is that the trio has been broken up! 😭😢. Its just me and Elder Leavitt now! We lost our dear Elder Perkes! I learned a lot from him and we will miss him dearly!

But this week had been pretty awesome otherwise. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to spend a few hours with Elder Compton before he caught his flight home. He was good to talk to, he said that although these last 6 months have been different but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

On Wednesday I got threatened by a guy on Facebook! He wanted to fight me because another guy with my name is texting his girlfriends sisters? He wanted me to drop an address and he wanted to "pull up". So I told him that I'm a missionary and that I'm not even from Michigan, but he didn't believe me so I just ended up blocking him. But after, we did some more service for the food bank, and we were able to participate in a garden project! We weeded out a lot of boxes that the city uses as like a "community" garden. Which was so much fun! I found a really cool caterpillar too. We also got a new home (pot) for Kenny and he's got a ton of space to grow and prosper now. He's looking great!

On Thursday we taught Sulaiman again! He was awesome to teach. He's incredibly friendly. We were asking him where he was planning to visit when we came to America to take his little "tour", and he just replied, "your home!". So we had to explain that he couldn't live with us 😂. But the average income in Afghanistan is only like 400 U.S. dollars in a year! The Visa alone will cost him 120 dollars. So we hope he can visit soon. He is Islamic, But he wants to read the book of mormon!!! We sent him a digital copy in Persian. We want to read the quaran too but idk if we will get around to it. I also got my drivers card for the mission! So technically I still can't drive because I'm the junior companion, but before we knew that rule I took a drive to the church which was fun!

I have also been teaching Elder Leavitt some Ju Jitzu that I picked up from my MMA days, and we have been doing some wrestling at nights for a workout! (We don't punch each other or do anything crazy, that's unholy). We just do some basic wrestling and position workouts and that has been super fun and it is an insane workout!

On Sunday we had the opportunity to tune into the stake conference for the Lansing stake. They had a new stake presidency ordained which was super cool to watch! 2 members of the quorum of the 70 spoke too!

We had another lesson with the Donnelly's last night and we taught them the message of the Restoration. Their commitment was to pray to their Father in Heaven, like Enos, with sincere intent to receive a witness that the things we have taught are true! I am so excited to hear about what they come up with! Please pray for them

I had a really awesome experience this week with Facebook finding too! I felt the impression this week that I needed to put forth a lot more effort into my Facebook finding. I wasn't sure why at the time, but I had the sudden urge to be really really good with Facebook finding. And so, at the end of every day, to be accountable to our zone, every companionship reports on how many responses we had on facebook that day. Our goal every day is 5 responses which has been pretty difficult before. But this week, I think the lowest amount of responses I got in a day, myself, was 4. I got 5 a couple of times and I got 6, and then smashes my personal best yesterday with 9 responses! Which is great but it's not what is important. But much more importantly, we set up a lesson with one woman I contacted yesterday. She had lost her son when he was 21. And yesterday was the exact day of the second anniversary of when she lost her son. She was deep in grieving. I told her that we had a message we could share that could bring her the peace and happiness that she was searching for. I told her about the plan of salvation, and she was so excited to hear about it! So we are teaching her on Wednesday! Her name is Loree.

I can testify without a doubt that I was guided to her. If I had not been super diligent, I would have never found her. The spirit told me that I needed to put forth some great effort. I listened, and I wasn't really sure why, and I know I was guided to her. I know that I had to put forth that effort to be able to make contact with her on the day that was exactly 2 years from the day she lost her son, when she was grieving and more receptive to the spirit. And at the moment I had no idea! I've been praying to have the spirit guide me in all that I do and I know that the spirit had me on that one.

The work definitely moves forward with Facebook. Many missionaries are getting so distraught and disappointed about their finding efforts. Although it is different, Facebook really is God's tool. The work moves on still.

Thank you all for your support! I love you all and I will talk to you next week!

Elder Oswald

the cool caterpillar I found