Monday Message: August 4, 2014

Well this week has seemed to fly by pretty fast. I almost forgot that it was monday today when i woke up i thought it was a normal day and was getting ready to go out to work haha! i have truly began to love the work and have been trying really hard to improve my people skills and be able to talk to anyone! we have been teaching a lot of new people and we have set a goal Elder Brown and I to baptize 10 people this transfer! so we have been working really hard to reach that! But i think the Lord humbled us a little and showed us that its not on our time but his time. we went out on friday and it seemed like everything that we had planned for fell through and all of the people that we have set a baptismal date with couldnt meet with us for one reason or the other! and all of them had some unexpected thing come up the night before church to the point that they couldnt make it to church. for example one of the kids of the gilbert family fell off the steps and broke his femur (he is only 2 years old) and so there aunts and uncles who we are teaching had to go to the hospital and werent able to make it to church! but that is only a minor set back they are gaining a testimony of the gospel especially the Book of Mormon. and they have accepted baptism for the 30th of August. We are excited and plan on striving to work with the lords timing and not forcing our timing into things!

Other than that it has just been pretty hot. it has rained off and on this week but not anything really to talk about. just flooding. Haha jk no floods here as of now! I am really getting along with elder brown and i think that we are seeing the success of the unity that we have together. i have never felt the presence of the spirit in my work as i have with elder brown. we strive to be exactly obedient and even when we are dead tired we push each other to get better. The good thing about our relationship is that we both have played sports and know the importance of hard work. we dont settle for anything but the best from each other, so the time that one of us wants to give up and turn back the other is there to back them up. so that helps and we are both striving to meet the same goals we arent divided in what we want. so i am having a great time with him. 

I am getting closer and closer to 11 months and soon after 1 year it is crazy that it has gone by so fast and yet slow at times too! i use to wish that i could just be done by now but as i have been here in Guyana things have really changed! of course i have still hit a lot of challenges and yes i have had MANY challenges so far in the past year but i can honestly say that i wouldnt change it for anything in the whole world! i almost wish that i would have realized how much of a learning experience this is earlier on! i have ran out of time for the things that i wanted to accomplish before my year mark. i wanted to read all of D&C before and to do that i just started the other day and now i have to read 2 sections a night and some of them are supper long haha! i dont go to sleep till like 11 sometimes! and i also have started to read "jesus the christ" it is a huge book but it is so helpful in learning things! i wish i could study all day sometimes! also sleep all day to haha! but i will make it and then i will set new goals at 1 year such as read the bible and The infinate atonement. i love the gospel and studying it i cant get enough of it. i incourage you to always study and pray it truly brings the spirit and that is what makes us happy. doing evil can only bring happiness for a season then we realize that we have wronged and wish to change. Wickedness never was happiness. Do all you can to have the spirit is my prayer!

I love you so much and hope that you have a great week! Be safe and pray always! love the Lord with all of your heart! And REMEMBER I love you!!!!

Love Your Elder

Elder Nathanial Woodruff