02.06.11

Alright, well I have been really slacking on the blog lately so I'm going to try and get it back on track. This last week was one of the best on my mission. The lessons that we had with everyone were really good and all the people that we are working with are making really good progress. Our focus this week was getting Charmaine all ready for her baptism on Saturday the 11th. She is doing really awesome and she made the decision and she is good to go for Saturday. So we are really excited about that. Then we had some really good lessons with Marine and her family. They have been doing awesome and they all -- 5-- of them have a baptismal date for the 25th. They all came to church yesterday and loved it again so that is really awesome. It's funny we have really been praying for priesthood and the Lord blesses us with 5 women... haha. But hey I'm not complaining, i'll take all the blessings I can get. It's really a cool thing to actually realize that as a missionary you have very, very little control of the success that you are blessed with. All that we have complete control over is our level of obedience. IF I was not blessed to have baptized a single soul on my mission but learned how to be and was obedient then I would consider my mission a great success.  The Lord has been good to me, sometimes things get pretty western here but that's when I'm grateful for one of the greatest blessings that I have received on this mission and that is the blessing of friendship. Ever since the start of my MTC days I have been blessed to forge great friendships that I know are going to stand the test of time. Elder S. Montgomery started this thing from the beginning with me and over the course of these last 18 months, he has become just as much a brother to me as my brothers at home. I love that guy and am grateful that Heavenly Father knew who I needed to go through this experience with. When we got here, we met Chase Peterson and he was my zone leader for about the first full year of my mission. His friendship has been incredible and he was someone to always look up to and someone you could always count on, for anything, even bailing me out of when I needed some money for groceries...haha. He too has become a true brother to me and I look forward to the reuniting of the trinity of Peterson, Monty and Randle. Then I was made companion with Elder Conder and to this day I am so grateful for the time that we had in montego bay. He is awesome and I still look up to him. He taught me a lot and came to me at the perfect time in my mission. I love him and he too is a brother to me. Elder Mccready and I became great friends and we had some amazing times together. I know he is going to be a good person in my life. I'm grateful for all my brothers.