The weeks are rolling by faster than ever. I can hardly believe how fast June has gone already. Elder Mitchell and I have been up to our usual service this week, as well as our typical finding. There were also unfortunately some big down points during our week... We had to drop both Lisa and Aris as investigators. Without a few weeks of contact (and an email to other missionaries sent behind our back gelling them how rude we are for just stopping by...), we've had no choice but to start off on a blank canvas. It was tough to say the least...However, that isn't to say we didn't have any good spiritual highlights as well;
We've continued our contacting of less-active Priesthood-aged men in our Branch with our new Branch President, Elder Frandsen. We had a great appointment with one individual in particular, Bro. Liang Zi Zhi, whom I've visited before with Elder Carns. We talked to him and he told us an incredible conversion story all about the power of prayer. He also responded really well to a lesson we shared on the Book of Mormon. Once hearing that Prophet's have encouraged us to read it every day, he removed his copy from his bookshelf, and immediately put it on his bedside table. It was a spiritually powerful evening, easily a highlight for my week.
We also had Zone Conference this week, our last one with Pres. and Sis. Frandsen before they end their mission at the end of the month. They will definitely be missed, but they left with some incredible thoughts to all of us missionaries. Sis. Frandsen shared a message on putting on the armor of righteousness, and Pres. Frandsen talked about the Lord turning us into what He wants us to be. He used the example of sculpting us into a "work of art." I love that analogy. I am grateful for the opportunities this life allows us to let God help us to become what He not only wants us, but NEEDS us to be. However, that will only happen if we allow him to do so. It was powerful, just like all of Pres.' talks to us. We will miss him for sure. However, we are excited to welcome Pres. and Sis. Durham in a few weeks. But, more on him later...
We also are now finally into Summer. It has been HOT! We've been serving outside a ton, and both Elder Mitchell and I both received our first sunburns of the season...we are rocking some pretty awesome looking tan lines....Its bad...
So, our area isn't experiencing very many miracles when it comes to our key indicators. However, we are definitely seeing miracles come up involving our Branch. We are having more people in attendance at Sacrament Meeting, we are having people more willing to serve, and we are experiencing more spiritually-uplifting meetings. Slowly but surely, I feel the Lord is accomplishing a great purpose in our Branch. We hope that helping the Branch increase in their efforts to do member-missionary work will help.
To wrap up, we gave out massive sweet potatoes, helped pick up massive platters of food from Chinatown in Oakland, and also acted as the "grill masters" at the Branch BBQ. It was a fun week!
Please continue to pray for our area. We have some potential investigators to visit this week. We are so grateful for the help the Lord is giving us to strengthen the Branch, but would love to see some conversion work as well.
Love you all, and have a great week!
Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao
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