Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Weekly Email # 41 - Conquering Roadblocks and Loving Rejection


You know that saying, "There's no comfort in the growth zone and there is no growth in the comfort zone"? 
Yep, there has been no comfort this week. Haha!

How's it going everyone? This week has been a difficult one in terms of getting over fears, growing a lot 
and dealing with things that you simply don't want to deal with. In my last email, I talked about how
much I disliked driving and how now I am the designated driver for our companionship until Elder Blanchard completes a test and our vehicle coordinator gives back his driving privileges. It's funny how these
things work.

Well this can be one of those, "I told you so" moments from my mom and dad, who have been... Encouraging me to start driving and getting comfortable with it out here. And it honestly hasn't been that bad. Truth be told I was so freaking nervous when I found out that I had to drive basically halfway across the mission to get to Zone Conference (116 miles round trip), and then travel quickly to our dinner and then to our lesson which are on opposite borders of our area. 170 mile day. No big deal.

And I have been driving ever since. I don't write this to brag, but it's good for me to reflect on it. I have prayed really hard this past week just simply because I was scared. I remember saying, "Heavenly Father, I know this is really stupid, but will you please help me feel comfortable in getting over this fear?" Ever since I said that prayer,
and the many more after that, I have never felt more relaxed, yet focused, behind the wheel. This was a confirmation to me that God cares about EVERY particular thing in our lives, regardless of how
ridiculous they may appear to be.

Investigator Update- Again, no one came to Church yesterday. I personally think we didn't do enough this week to get people to Church. But we have a few solid investigators that can be baptized and we need to help them to take the right steps. Those right steps include us teaching, the Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, Keeping
Commitments, and exercising faith. Let's just say it is going to be a busy week!

While I have been here in the Mount Vernon Ward, we have started a monthly tradition with the youth. That is, every first Wednesday of the month, the priests, teachers, and deacons come out and do missionary work with us. And every single time they have come out with us, they only remember one thing. The tracting. Haha so it doesn't
really matter if we plan lessons for them to come with us, they always remember the 10-15 minutes we spend with them doing tracting.

Elder Blanchard and I took Matthew Scoresby, a 17 year old priest that is preparing to go on a mission next year. We went to a local street, parked the car (very precisely and parallel, I might add) and started knocking doors. Due to the limited 8 minutes we had to knock, we were only able to knock on 6 doors. Every door answered, except for the one that Matthew knocked on. Haha I felt bad, because you could just tell from looking at him that he was SUPER nervous. But he probably wasn't complaining that the door he knocked didn't answer. Haha

We get to our last door and I get the great privilege of knocking on this door so that I can set an example for Matthew. A lady named Lacie answered the door and I honestly can't even tell you what went on in
the conversation. That's probably the most comfortable I've ever felt in a door knocking scenario. As I testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, you could tell that she definitely was denying the feelings that she was feeling. We spent the next 15-20 minutes at her door step just talking to her about the Gospel.

Even though we ended up dropping her just yesterday because she wasn't interested, it still was good to try and get a little bit more comfortable with tracting. Haha slowly, but surely.

It's been a hard week. But I'm grateful for the fact that I don't need to face these challenges and trials alone. If I take anything away from the mission, it'll be just that. Since I first entered the MTC, I've recognized the Lord's hand in my life so much, that it would simply be inexplicably impossible for me to deny such experiences. I
hope you all can do the same. To look for the Lord's hand in your life. It's brought me much happiness and I know it can do the same, if not, more for you.

Have a splendid week! Love you all, thanks a bunch to you lovely people!

Elder Galbraith

Me and Elder Walker (Zone Leader) went to Whits Ice Cream on exchanges!
Best Ice cream in Ohio!





 Blanchard and I making some breakfast.


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