A Valuable Lesson on Obedience

Hello everyone! This week had some tough days. On Monday night I started feeling sick and on Tuesday morning I woke up feeling awful, and we had exchanges planned with Camp Hill. Elder Ramos was still recovering a bit from the needle in his foot and I was feeling super sick and he was like we could just rest today if you don't feel good
enough. And I didn't want to rest or ruin the exchanges so I said nope I'm doin this.


So that morning before exchanges we had a lesson with D which turned out super awesome because she doesn't understand that she will be blessed for going to church and me and Elder Ramos both testified of how the gospel has changed our lives because she kept saying "you guys grew up in to this. You have always believed this" and we were like nah even though we were born into this church we are still converts to this gospel. Everyone is as they find their own testimony. So then we went on exchanges. I went to Camp Hill with Elder Hinckley who's great uncle is Gordon B Hinckley I think. We spent all day driving around to inactives and potentials we found in the area book and most of them had moved or didn't answer the door which was a bummer. We had a really good dinner at a members house and
then tried some more people and again, no answers. By the time we got home I felt like dying because I felt so sick. It was a sore throat, but like next level sore throat. Plus horrible headaches and I felt feverish. I've never experienced anywhere near this much pain in my throat.. The next morning I felt even worse. By the time we exchanged
back at district meeting I felt a little better but still not good and Elder Ramos asked me again if I needed to rest and I was like nah. And we went about our day.


We were with the sisters the rest of the day, we went and taught a lesson to one of their investigators who is getting baptized. We talked about families and we all shared pictures of our families and talked about what eternal families mean to us. That night we had a dinner appointment and I was scared because the night before in Camp Hill this family had made us cheeseburgers which were really good but were SO painful to swallow and every bite was a
struggle. So I was like this is going to be really tough because I was feeling even worse than the night before. We walked inside and they were like we're making soup! And I was like thank you Heavenly Father my throat will live to tell the tail.


The next morning on Thursday Brother Fike came over and him and Elder Ramos gave me a blessing. In the blessing he said that I need to be prayerful and obedient about recovering from my sickness, and even though the past couple days and that day I had been feeling like I needed to rest when I prayed, I kept going and again that day I was like we have stuff to do lets go do it. We tried some people and spent a while at the library so Elder Ramos could put all the numbers in for the month online for the zone leaders since he's district leader.


That night we finally had a sit down lesson planned with L and we were just hoping and praying she would be there and answer the door, because sometimes her car is there and her upstairs light is on and we knock and knock and knock and call her phone but she still doesn't answer because she doesn't hear well. It's so frustrating we're like we know you're there! But anyways she answered the door which was the first good point. After she PA rambled
about her job for a good 30 minutes before we even sat down, we finally got to sit down and begin. We talked about the restoration and she knew some stuff already, some correct and some false. She was like
"that man, Joseph Smith. He wrote the Book of da Mormons. And we were like well not really, he translated the Book of Mormon and we talked about how he was God's prophet on the earth in this dispensation and she was like you know, I do believe that Joseph Smith was one of the
Lord's prophets on the earth. And we were like sweet! But she hasn't prayed about the Book of Mormon or anything, but she did say "I been studyin yalls bible" and so we invited her to read the Book of Mormon with the bible because she kept saying "they gotta connect somewhere you know what I mean! They both God's word" and we were like yes! So
anyways we invited her to study the Book of Mormon and before we could even say anything else she was like "I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna read the book of da Mormons with the bible. I'll study dat word side by side and I will pray to the Lord to see if it really is his word" and we were like saweeet and Elder Ramos was like if God tells
you it's true will you be baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? And she was like I'm gone pray about dat. So yeah that lesson was awesome, but took 2 and 1/2 hours because she was PA rambling so much.


We got home and I felt like death again because I didn't rest. I also felt like death through the 2 1/2 hour lesson. When we got home I was like delirious and I just passed out right away. The next morning I was thinking about what brother
Fike had said in the blessing he gave me and praying about it, I again felt like I needed to rest. Elder Ramos asked me that morning what do you want to do and I said not rest because we had stuff planned! And he said what does Heavenly Father want you to do? And I said rest and
so I decided to rest. So we rested that day until dinner which was planned at the Fikes for sister Simpson's birthday, and I was feeling quite a bit better by the time we went. We had a silly string fight and sister Fike made tacos with carne asada and me and Elder Ramos chomped down on all the carne asada while the non Californians ate the ground beef because they haven't seen the light yet.


On Saturday I woke up feeling great and I learned a valuable lesson on obedience. Heavenly Father had been telling me all week to rest but I didn't, and when I finally did I was fine after one day. That day we studied and did weekly planning basically all day until dinner. We had a dinner appointment with this family, the K. Sister K and her 14 year old son both go to church, but Brother K hadn't been to church in a few years, and the same with their 26 year old son. So we
went and Brother K made us super good cheeseburgers with
homemade fries! Like he had farmed the potatoes by himself, and had a fry cutter thing like they have at in-n-out, and then fried them and they were super good. After dinner we shared a thought with them on what they can do to be a missionary. We asked them about who they think could benefit from the gospel and what they can do to come
closer to Christ. Brother K had written himself down and Elder Ramos asked him what "Brother K, what can you do to help Brother K come closer to Christ?" And he laughed and was like uhh probably go to church and we invited him to church. Then we had the opportunity to give their inactive son a blessing of healing for an undisclosed addiction. The spirit was so strong and we could really tell that he was touched. On Sunday Brother K came to church! It was so sweet. And Sister K told us that ever since we gave
her son C the blessing he had been opening up to her more and even expressed interest in going to church. So that was awesome.


Last night after dinner we went with the sisters to S's house, their investigator who is getting baptized in a couple weeks, because she had fallen the day before and missed church. She was in a lot of pain and we were able to give her a blessing. After, she had a peaceful smile on her face and said "I feel like a really warm feeling in my heart, is that what im supposed to feel?" And we all were like yes
Sharon that's normal, it's the spirit! And she was super happy so that was sweet. So there's my week!