May 28, 2018

Fam, 

This week was interesting. It started off  rough with the transfer call I didn't want to hear, going back to the Grandville Spanish 1 area, an area that has just completely struggled for its entire recorded history. It was pretty hard for me to be excited about that so the weekend was spent thinking about what could be done differently this time than the 11 months I spent there. That call started a study on what my missionary purpose is. That study has been going well and has continued since then.

Sunday last week we got a call from President where he apologized saying that he had made the wrong transfer on accident and that Elder Rencher would train in the Spanish 1 area. I'm staying in the Grandville Spanish 2 area so my mailing address is 

1650 R W Berends Dr Sw APT#6
Wyoming, MI 59519

Next transfer we'll have a new elder coming out and as it sits right now President is wanting to open a third Spanish area. We are under a pretty tight schedule to hammer out the boundaries of a third Spanish area. The problem is where it might be. Our options are tight but right now they include opening an area in Holland, kalamazu, or some reorganization of the two areas in the greater Grand Rapids area.  

Sunday we had what felt like an important advancement in the Spanish branch. We've been working with a few members to help them be ready for being called to be branch missionaries. Before church we had a long meeting with the Branch President where we were able to set some goals and plans related with certain things going on within the Branch and after church we were able to set apart the Branch missionaries. As we left the setting apart of the four missionaries I felt a pretty strong impression of how important this call was to the four missionaries called. If they chose to magnify their calling I felt that it would be a step that would lead them to being able to become leaders in the Branch. 

Being able to meet with people online really has helped a few people progress more than they probably would have. 

The most clear example is Patricia. For a few reasons we really can't meet with her frequently. Things are different with our video chat lessons. We've had consistan lessons with her over the last few weeks and her progression has taken off. She loves to study which is super convenient for us because she actually wants to read in the BOM. She'll bring us questions and we'll organize a study for her to go through the scriptures and find her own answer. We've set the pattern with her with starting with a question, opening with prayer, searching, then writing down her answer and asking God if how she answered the question was correct or not, and continuing until she receives a witness of the Holy Ghost. She recognized the spirit she feels as her husband and she have gone through these studies. Our most recent lesson with her we left a study on Baptism with the questions being "what can I do to feel more prepared for baptism?" and "What are the blessings of baptism." She wasn't in church this Sunday so we talked with her husband who told us why. Good news is that she wants to be baptized and even asked Fred, her husband, to preform it. Hopefully we can set some dates in our next lesson. 

All in all the week ended well