You have to be kitten me meow

Funny: I think I have ended up taking care of more animals on my mission than I have ever in my life before. We have officially been adopted by some kittens and their mom. They sit on our back porch and meow and scratch until we come give them a bowl of milk. They then come a snuggle with us outside for a few minutes and eventually go back into the wild. I am still however really am not a huge fan of animals or pets. So, while the mission changes a lot some things never change.

Spiritual: This week we had a missionary ran multi-ward party. It was a blast! Everyone told us that with it being Memorial Day that it was likely to be flop. But we put our trust in God and did all the work we could to prepare for the event. We ended up having over 100 people there and a few of our members brought their nonmember friends. Everyone loved it and had a great time! The next day at church one of our recent converts told us that she had invited a few of her friends to church, no one made it but the invitation was still offered. What a great way to start the fire under the ward.

Where I am at: Cortez here is still waiting for summer. It has been stormy all week (except for the day of our party 😁). But everyone is happy and it seems as though life is slowing down for most people so hopefully this next week, we can finally begin to catch people home haha.

A Menace to Society

Funny: In the book of Genesis it reads "it is not good that the man should be alone", this week we learned what that really meant. We went over to a man we are teaching who is single and when we arrived, he was in the process of taking care of his kid (vacuum droid) who had gotten lost in his house while simultaneously arguing with Google about what the best lasagna recipe was. We then spent a good half an hour with him learning how flowers do actually respond to commands when you ask them correctly. Needless to say, we both walked away from that lesson talking to flowers and deciding that we would not live alone for any longer than we need to.

Spiritual: Many of the people here in Cortez have been taught by missionaries for a long time. That makes it hard to get them to change because very rarely are we teaching anything that they haven't heard before. This week though we had a breakthrough with Carl. We went over to his house and it took us a lot longer than we wanted but he finally accepted a baptismal date. The change that came over him was almost instant. Before he was more interested in talking about himself and his life but after accepting the date, he is interested in learning all he can about the Gospel before his baptism. Funny how the Lord can open our minds once we take a few simple steps into the unknown.

Where I am at: Cortez is super green right now because we have had a perfect mix of rain and sun. Everything is alive and looks happy, it is wonderful. We have also had a great week if missionary work. We are beginning to really turn the area around. This next week we should really begin to see some strong results.

love y'all

Elder Black

Soothing Piano and Naps

Funny: the biggest problem with having been out on my mission so long is that I have no reserve energy left in my body. Due to some funky exchanges we ended up with Elder Howell for a day. We went to a piano recital for one of the families we are working with. It was only about 35 minutes long but we all probably fell asleep at the 5-minute mark. I woke up first for the last song and the other two were out till the end. It was good we were in the back haha..

Spiritual: we had a great meeting with a lady named Sandy. She had been taught by missionaries before but it had been a while. We had a talk with her and she was closed off and not super interactive. We decided to switch things up, we noticed she had a lot of sticks in her yard and so the next day we showed up in work clothes and started picking up sticks. We ended up doing yard work for her for an hour and a half. While we were working, we talked about everything imaginable. Finally, at the end of the projects we told her about the Book of Mormon. That's when she told us that even though the missionaries didn't go by for about a year, she was still reading it and was enjoying it. It is incredible how easy missionary work can be when we take the time to gain trust!

Where I am at: life here is good. We had 5 exchanges this week and that took a toll on the area but we are going to jump back in the saddle this week and get to work! Some people that could probably use some prayers would be :
Carl, he is working on a baptismal date
Aaron, she has been sick
Sandy, she is really beginning to get excited about the Gospel.
And Reece, he is praying about coming to church
All is well here in Cortez and we are excited to see miracles happen. 

Why Did It Have to be Snakes?

Funny: Another one of those scout camp skills came in handy this week. We were mowing the grass and we accidently ran over a snake. That poor thing was in a horrible state so we decided to take care of it. Well a shovel and a quick slice with a pocket knife later that problem was solved. Haha, the people we were with decided to make to snake an example to the other snakes so now it hangs on a tree as a warning for all other snakes that might dare to cross the fence.

Spiritual: this week we went through and dis a clean on our teaching pool. What that meant was that we went through and met with those people who had been meeting with the missionaries for a while and we asked them that if they knew that the church was true would they be baptized. It was interesting to see the results, there were some that without a doubt said no. Others said maybe, but only a small amount said yes. Once we cleared out the teaching pool, we realized that we had a lot of free time. Once again, the Lord came in clutch and our days were filled with more productive activities than before. I have grown to love the principles of sacrifice and consecration.

Where I am at: we had a great zone conference this week. One of the big points was that missionary work is not about baptizing but about simply inviting. The interesting perspective was brought up that we simply need to be around nonmembers and live in such a way that the Holy Ghost can touch the lives of those around us. What a simple way of doing missionary work!

Love ya

Elder Black