Week #10 The Blessing of Being a Missionary

September 19, 2017

Week #10 The Blessing of Being a Missionary

Hi Everyone! Another P Day is here! It is crazy how fast it is going. When I write emails, I look back on the week and I am just so grateful for the last week. Even if it was hard, I am grateful for the experiences I am having.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!! We got an email from the office Sunday Morning with the title "Best Email of your entire mission." I was curious so I opened it. The big news is that Elder Ballard is coming to the mission on October 20th!!!!! Yeah!!!!! This will be the second time I see an Apostle on my mission and it will be Elder Ballard both times! I am so excited. Now, as you know, the Apostles do not come around to missions just for fun. We are getting a bit of a change to the mission work. Starting in October, probably after Elder Ballard comes, our mission will be doing online proselyting! We have some training soon and then we will have Facebook! It is kind of weird. That is the only information that I have. I will try to let you know more as it goes on. I think this change is just a big testimony to that we are getting ready for the Second Coming. We can't reach everyone on the street or at their door. And this new oppritunity has doubled the number of investigators in other missions. Yeah, it has been a really cool week.

I will jump back to the beginning of this week. We had exchanges with Ellwangen so I was with Elder Hichens for Wednesday and Thursday. He is a fun guy. He is from Britain and he loves to serve. Finding was great in Ellwangen. It was more quiet and I could understand more German. After that exchange, Kaufusi and I went to teach Godwin. Godwin is just a fantastic kid. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he is going to start reading! He is doing so well!

Me and Godwin

The next couple of days were a bit slower. We had ward council and weekly planning. Two awesome oppritunities to learn more about the work. It was hard to be in a meeting with only German but it is getting better. On Saturday, we visited Bernie which was kind of disappointing. Bernie is great but he is losing an urge to get baptized. He wants to wait until he is sure he is absolutely ready. And it is hard to tell him that it is not the right mindset. He really needs the power of the Holy Ghost in his life. We all do and we cannot push off those important changes to our lives. Bernie has not been reading either so that was also disappointing. I pray it gets better.

After that, I had an incredible experience with a less active couple, Sandra and Christian. We called them to see if we could visit and they asked if we could give Sandra a blessing. We met with them and wow, they have been through a lot. I won't say it all but in summary, they have constant family struggles, Sandra is in the hospital a lot, and they have a hard time with going to church. Sandra was saying that she felt like God was really silent and instantly, I had an impression. It was one of those impressions I could not push off. I shared with them the words of my favorite song, "Even When He is Silent." The words are:

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining

I believe in love even when I feel it not

I believe in God even when it is silent.

A little bit of background of this incredible song and my experience with it. The words were found on a wall in a concentration camp and they were put into this beautiful song. We sang it as Chamber Singers last year and I think it is okay to say it had a profound effect on us. The words still touch my heart even though it has been a couple of months since I have sung the word. I told Sandra and Christian that God did love them and that He was there. I felt so inadequate trying to cheer them up but I am sure the Spirit helped. Something in their eyes changed and I am sure the Spirit touched them. On the train ride home, I realized how much the Savior was involved with this experience. He inspired those words, he inspired my teacher to pick out that song, he touched my heart as I sung that song countless times, he reminded me of the song and its power, and he used my experiences to touch someone else's life. He inspired us to call them that day and gave us the words to say. He is definitedly at the helm of this work! It was a night where I was so grateful to be a missionary. I am definitedly not a major player in the work but how grateful I am to be a part of it! There is nothing like being a missionary and how blessed we are to know of the blessings of the gospel! (from mom: Here is a link to a video Mason's choir made of this song last spring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_2PKNvEKQ0 )

Anyway, that is pretty much all I had to say this week. I am praying for you guys and I love you all for all that you have done for me!! I will talk to you guys next week!

Elder Mason Evans