04/06/2015

  Happy Easter to all! I hope everyone was able to be with family to celebrate the life, Atonement, and the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting for Madagascar.  We, of course weren't able to see General Conference here yet. I am not sure when we will be able to watch conference, but I heard that the talks were very inspiring. I hope that we will get to see it within the next few weeks.

  The biggest challenge this week has been to find new investigators. Since I have been here for about four and a half months and the population here is not that immense, we have probably tracted most of the non members here. My biggest concern has been the chance that I may get transferred at the next transfer. Elder Stokes and I have been very productive with the investigators we do have and we get along really well together, and I really hope it stays that way for a while. We have a family that will hopefully be baptized on April 25th. They will be interviewed for baptism on Friday. Rado, Mariana, and Yonja are their names. Pray that all goes well this week.  

  Our biggest success was being able to find and teach a lot of inactive members. We wont really know if we were successful until they come back to church, I guess. Our tender mercy this week was having dinner at a member's house this past Saturday. We shared a lesson with them on the Atonement and the Sacrament. This is probably the second or third time we have had dinner at a member's house, in this area. Most are too poor to feed the missionaries. We were very grateful.

  I will pray that the box will arrive sometime this week, but if not, I won't  be too sad. I might take out some money out of my account to get a nice meal for my birthday, other than that it will be just another day. I appreciate all the birthday wishes however. The videos from the family were awesome. It was cool to see faces of people I have not seen in a while. Which reminds me that Skype for Mother's Day will be a month from Friday. It seems that Christmas was just yesterday, but time flies.

  My companion and I have a goal to be the most diligent-working missionaries. More than 30 hours this week. We are planning on starting earlier than 12 (the normal time we go out to work) a few days a week, so that we can accomplish goals. There are interviews with President Adams tomorrow. 

My favorite scripture this week explains the importance of sharing the word of God with others.  "Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things."    

Have a great week, everyone.

 -Elder Pinson