God Won't Bless Us Against Our Will......

Hello it's your fellow brother, I hope you are all doing well.......we've got someone on date to be baptized this Saturday. Before I got here he wasn't on date and wasn't really progressing. Once again I add my little testimony to those of the prophets, where ever you are on the mission you are meant to be there, that doesn't mean I'm not going to be disappointed about not being in Mexico, however I do know that there are people here that I can help.......

.......being here in Hazelwood has made my teaching abilities grow exponentially. When I got here I was really bad at teaching and that being the case, it made me go through a forced evolution to become a better missionary. When you realize something is wrong you can either Choose to change, or you can Choose not too. That's what's so good about the gospel. God loves us and wants to bless us, but he isn't going to bless us against our will, he will not force us follow him. We have been given agency to choose to follow Him. It is that simple. You are either choosing to try your best to follow God's commandments or you are not. You always have a choice. For me it is never the easiest or funnest path, but I know that if I follow God's commandments, in the end I will be eternally more happy than if I didn't. If you don't believe that, it is ok cause I didn't for awhile. That is where faith comes in. If you don't have the desire, then pray for the desire, then put in the work and as you work your faith will grow, and that desire will come. It is up to you an no one else. You always have a choice........

.......there was a hurt dog wondering around our apartment complex one night. It was super skinny and looked like it had been hit by a car. We fed it a couple hot dogs and then it scampered off. In the morning it was still out side so my companion let him into our apartment, and it ended up spending the whole day there. We called the pound to come get it but they said they didn't know when they would be able to send someone to pick it up so we made a post on a facebook hazelwood community page, and this lady came and got the dog. Just as she pulled away this black man drove in and parked right next to us. He was coming in hot so I had to hop out of the way of his car. He rolled the window down and asked if we were the Mormons and we said yeah. Then he started getting all mad and said we were racist and all this stuff and got out of his car. He started yelling and walking closer and puffing out his chest like he was about to square up so then I started preparing my self to throw hands. I remember thinking "dang I'm about to get sent home for fighting this dude!.... but he started laughing and it turned out he was a member that used to live in hazelwood and he was just messing with us. As we were talking a lady was walking past and he asked if she had 2 minutes. He shared his testimony and it got spiritual real quick and she said she would be down to meet with us. That's how easy it is to share the gospel. Just talk to everyone. It is easy for me to say that now tho since I am on a mission.  We will have to see how I do when I go home. 

Also we did some service picking dead plants and weeds from flower beds at the temple. That's all I've got for today. PRAISE GOD IN THE NAME OF OUR REDEEMER, OUR BROTHER, OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST AMEN!!!!!