Rock Bottom

Hello!

This week was absolutely amazing! It started pretty rough, but by the end, we saw so many miracles! Also, we had a super awesome Zone Conference, about missionaries being combat medics that help the needs of wounded on the field, and members being like helicopters that can bring the wounded into the hospital. Our job is to help people who are suffering, who are looking for peace and help in their lives. It was definitely a really good Zone Conference, and I felt inspired!

As far as crazy experiences, we had English Class on Saturday, and after English Class, one of our students asked if we wanted some bread. We tried to politely decline at first, but after some insistence, we finally accepted. She told us to follow her, and hopped on her bike. We hesitantly followed, and after about 5 minutes of biking, we arrived at a closed down bakery. The lady walked inside, and after a minute, came out with two large groceries bags full of frozen bread products. So, now we are trying to work slowly through all of that. But we were running low on money for food, so it was definitely a miracle!

But the bread was just one of many miracles, this week was so amazing! At the beginning of the week, we had stopped meeting with most of our investigators, and our last investigator with a baptismal date didn't want to meet with us anymore. We had hit rock bottom... But that was not the miracle. We were having a really hard time, and just not feeling very excited. But at Zone Conference, we talked about having hope and being happy in our trials, and so Elder Church and I decided to change our outlook. We approached our work with more hope and happiness, and it was crazy! We ended finding some super cool people, and we saw so many miracles!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary, and to see so often the miracles of my Father in Heaven. I know that in our lives, we face struggles and challenges, and things become harder than we think we can handle. But I also know that the Lord has promised us the we are not going through these experiences for no reason. He has told us that all these things will be for our good, and if we can hold on with faith, we will see the miracles in our life. Yesterday, I was able to give an impromptu talk in Sacrament meeting about the gift of repentance, and repentance truly is a gift. The opportunity we have to be forgiven, to be happy even after we have made mistakes, truly is a representation of our Father in Heaven's love for us. And if we are willing to repent, and move forward with faith, we will see the miracles all around us!

I love you all, and I hope you're all doing well! I'd love to hear what's been happening with everyone else!

Love,

Elder Shope