My brothers and sisters!!!! How are you doing? I am doing so good!!! The other elders and I started our running to day and we woke up early and went and did a little 5k and that was the best thing! We are doing 3 days a week now!! Let's go!
The work is going awesome. We are talking to roughly a hundred people a day on the streets and giving a quick minute or two message about the gospel and asking if they are interested. I will not lie to you most of them are not. But!! The Lord is preparing his children! I am a firm believer that if we plan out our day by the spirit and have places to go, then the Lord will put his prepared children in our path from point A to point B. But if we have no direction and just go wherever then we put things in our hands and guessing and it is so much harder for the Lord to put his children in our path.
So in my area right now we have about 320 less actives that we are trying to visit, work with, and check on which is hard. So we stop and talk to everyone on the way. That is our main focus. Housing is not really a thing in this mission at all (knocking door to door). I have gone two times so far my whole mission. But, also we had a really cool thing happen last week. We have an investigator who is approaching his baptismal date on the 19th of this month and we just set his "second baptismal date" to go to baptisms for the dead on April 16th! We are allowed to go with him for his first time. But we want it to be a Ward effort to go with us and we have all the young men and some of the YSA's coming with us to the temple on that day too. We are pushing our ward and working with them to all get names and go together. It is really exciting and such an awesome opportunity to go do it. Get to the mountain of he Lord! And bring any and all with you that you can. Such a cool week.
Talking to 100 people day and getting rejected 99 times is hard, but we do it for the one. We found a man at around 8:55 right before going home last week. The last one on the street. He looked Japanese and I stopped him and started speaking to him in Japanese and he just goes, "Hey man I am from Australia. You can speak English." Haha so good. But he is a Chinese man from Australia and his in his 20's and he is soo cool. He is Christian which is so rare for us. We talked about the restoration a little bit, gave him the Restoration pamphlet and asked if we could meet again to share our message and he said absolutely. We are meeting tonight at the Church! So awesome!
One thing that I held onto this week though came from our finding efforts. When you get rejected so many times it can be discouraging, when you wonder what impact you are making in these people's lives. But I love D&C 64:33.
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great!"
We will never know the impact of the things we do on the people around us. Do not give up! You never know the good you do! There are few people who do know though, and that is God and Jesus Christ, but just as equally, Satan knows. He knows the good you are doing and wants nothing more than to deter you in your efforts. He wants you to give up and give in. Something my older brother Brock always told me was when life is so hard and we are about to give up, that just means that something so great is about to come around the corner! Satan knows it so he works extra hard to bring you down in that time of trial so you will not see through the clouds and see the sun shining on the other side. Never give up! Sometimes we are burdened down with grief, but we never, ever, bear these burdens alone. We never will. But, never forget, how many trials we face or don't face is not a measure of who we are and the success in our lives. Our success is never measured by how strongly we are tempted but by how faithfully we respond. Give it all. Total surrender to His will is total victory. Give it all to the Lord and see what he is waiting to give to you. Give all, but never give up. Do not quit!! Hold strong. Let us stand together in these last days. This is a gospel of change, second chances, and endless opportunities. It is hope. It is literally the epitome of hope. Hold to the rod. We have no reason not to be happy! Do we not have a loving Savior who redeemed us all? Are we not a part of the truest church on earth, and subsequently the great work on earth? Rejoice and lift up your hearts!
I love you all. Thank you for all you have done for me. You likewise willnever know how much you have done for me. I testify that example you set, the things you do, and the trials you face, never go unnoticed,
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Trevor Aiken
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