Week #28 One by One

Hey everyone! Wow Disneyland sounds like so much fun! Glad you guys got to experience the same amount of walking I get to do every day. Fun isn't it? Anyway hope you guys had a great Martin Luther King Day weekend!

Q&A

1. Transfers will be on the 29th of Januray. Whether I go or not we will have to wait and see. Today I got another reason why I do not want to go just yet. The same day we have transfers I have to also go take care of some immigration/visa pàssport. If I have to pack up and say goodbye to everyone too in the same day it will be such a crazy day

2. We were able to watch President Monson's funeral. We got together as a whole mission and watched it. It was so good. I never thought before that I would watch the prophet's funeral in Spanish but I did and it was actually fairly manageable. I am going to miss President Monson so much but today we are going to watch the announcement from President Nelson and I am so excited!

3. This week we have interviews with President and I am so excited.They are only 15 minutes but I look forward to those 15 minutes every transfer. President Morgan is awesome. He knows exactly how to help me and he is so kind and generous. I have learned so much from that man. 

4. A goal I currently have is to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish all the way through and it is going really well. I am in 3rd Nephi right now and it gets easier to understand the more I read. I hope to finish it by the end of this transfer but we will see. 

5. Spanish is going really well. I can write and read fairly easily. Understanding and talking are a little farther behind bgut it has come a long way. What gets me everytime is the Chilean vocabulary. There are a lot of words that I have learned in Spanish before the mission but I cannot use them because Chileans use a completly different vocabulary. With the Chilean words the only teacher is experience. There is no book to read or any dictionary that I know of. Other than that Spanish is going really well. 

This week was a little more difficult than past weeks. Here is why. A lot of people that we set baptismal dates are really good people. They like the lessons, they have good comments. I really belive that each of them is prepared to receive the Restored Gospel. The problem is that they do not keep their commitments like reading, praying, or going to church. This is not anything new. It is common in Chile, it is common in the States. In a perfect mission everyone would hear the Gospel, accept it immediately, and would love to do things such as reading their Scriptures, praying, or going to church. Unforunately we are not in a perfect mission. People do not keep their commitments, they do not progress. What do we do then? What my mission has taught me up to this point is the value of the approach of one by one. 

One by One is the approach that Christ used. His miracles and healings were one by one. He taught and loved each person He saw one by one. I have learned that as a missionary and as a member that we have to do the same thing. I would love it if we could have tons of baptisms and that commitments were not such a huge obstacle. But it is. In that case, I have learned that when I focus on my investigators one at a time the inspiration I need to help them come. Numbers are important but the people are even more so. I have found more joy in working one by one than anything else I have ever done before in my life. (Sorry, long spiritual rant, just something I had on my mind)

Love you guys

Landon

 My mission tag as of right now. It is a bit beat up around the edges.Cannot imagine what it will be like at the end of my mission

Gas tank behind our house. It is huge(and also super expensive to fill)