First regular Sunday with the Branch

So, my companions had to go to Mission Leader Conference and I got to go with another set of missionaries: Elders Faisal and Usery. We had some good old study together and then we met with one of the people they're teaching. I loved the lesson we had. It's amazing how interested they are and how eager they are to learn. And these missionaries are English so that meant the lesson was in English as well which was quite enjoyable. So we taught about the Plan of Salvation and despite the dog running around and trying to jump all over us, it was a really spiritual lesson and definitely a highlight of the week. Afterward we went to the food bank for a solid 3 hours and I got to talk a little with a Spanish family we helped which was pretty cool and a little encouraging.

Every week, we meet with the Branch Mission Leader and this week they changed the time withought us knowing. So we arrived at 7:00 and no one was there. So we called them and they explained the situation to us and we didn't have a lesson planned (obviously) so they invited us over for dinner. The only problem was we had just finished our dinner back home. But we thought nah, it'll be fine. So we got there and for dinner they had this mexican soup thing I don't know what it's called, but it's super good. However, when they gave us our food, they gave us huge bowls of it and I just thought 'what have I gotten myself into?' And after we finished I was convinced I wouldn't have to eat the next day. 

This week I also got to have my new missionary training. I wasn't super excited for it, but it was actually really good. We got to hear from the Mission President and his wife, then we did some roleplaying with random people who wanted to come except we got to teach some of the mission office people instead, but it was still good. After lunch President Auna's son and daughter in law spoke to us. They were there visiting with their family. And at the very end, the Assistants prepared a message with videos from missionaries in the mission which was kinda unique. But learned quite a bit and got to meet a bunch of missionaries. 

Yesterday was my first regular Sunday with the Branch and one of the speakers was someone we helped put down a lawn for and he's a funny guy. I thought his talk was really good or at least the parts I understood. But then my companions were talking about it later and it turned out that at the beginning of the talk he said "in preparation, I came across this talk from General Conference and I think he just says it better than I could". He then proceeded to read the entire thing. I was just sitting there, but little did I know. But it's I'll good. I'll figure out this Spanish thing eventually.

There was a lady I met at church yesterday and she is from New York and so we were talking for a bit. And in our conversation she started telling me how every piece of our life is preparing us for something God has planned of us. We experience things as preparation for what is coming like one step at a time. It's and interesting way to look at life, rather than thinking about the difficult and complaining, think how you can take the opportunities in life to become the person you are meant to be.

Have a wonderful week everyone.