He's There

Familia y Amigos,

Hello once again. I hope you all had a great 4th of July and didn't get into too much trouble with them fireworks. haha

As for this past week, if you were to look at our numbers, our week stunk...but if you were to look at the blessings, our week rocked! Here are a few of the blessings:

1. First of all, President Weston arrived in Omaha this week and we had a meeting on Tuesday to get to know him, his wife, and his son Jackson. Wow, they are going to do great things here. The Spirit was powerful as all of us missionaries made a line all the way down the stake center hallway and greeted him personally and then they bore their testimonies and wow. I was amazed. I'm excited to learn from them this next year. Super humble people and they are so close to, and in tune with, the Spirit.

2. Then, on Thursday I think, the carzar here took us Elders out to lunch for staying under the mileage limit like 2 months ago and he gave us 50 extra miles for this month!

3. On Wednesday, we had gone and seen everyone we could possibly think of and we were left with no other plans. So we started to walk back to our apartment to have an early dinner...and then a less-active family saw us walking across the street and yelled at us to come over. We went over and they were having a 4th of July feast!! haha carne asada, jalapenos, arroz, ensalada, and cactus. Yeah, I had cactus. And it was flippin' good! haha. But we ended up having a delicous dinner and visit with them.

4. Then, on Friday, we once again had nothing to do and there was a soccer game going on across the street. We walked over to watch for a second and then once we started walking again, a car came up behind us honking and said "Hey, Elders!" haha It was a guy who is less-active that just moved here to Omaha, and we had tried to see him just minutes before but he wasn't there. We were invited into his house and had an awesome visit with him. K well, this guy is probably the most simple person I have ever met. haha but one thing he said was really cool I thought...There is no line between having fun and working. It's all fun and it's all work. I liked that comment. All work we do can be fun if we want to make it that way.

5. Saturday, we went to see a recent convert who lived way far away and we could only take the bus. And when we got on the bus, there was only room for us to sit in the back. So we went back there and as I looked around, there was this one little black toddler that just caught my eye and all I could do was think about this kid and what life is like for him. My heart swelled up with gratitude for the many blessings we have as members of the Church, but it was also filled of pain thinking of this little black toddler who didn't have nice clothes on and his dad was wearing boots...and they don't know where to go or how to find true peace and joy. I feel like the Lord was trying to soften my heart and He made me realize how blessed we are. I wanted so badly to go talk to the black toddler's dad, but they got off the next stop and it just wasn't the best situation. But anyway, that was beside the point...we were going to see a recent convert and when we got off the bus, we couldn't find the house. Thankfully, we had a member that came and met us at her place and he came out and helped us find it. But, after we had been visiting the the recent convert for a while, I looked at my watch and realized we were about to miss the bus going back home. I was stressed out for a bit, but then I remembered something that President Weston said when he interviewed each of us and shared his testimony..."Don't ever worry. Trust that things will all work out." So, long story short, our lesson made us miss the bus, but I felt like we had a great visit with the recent convert and then in the end the member offered to give us a ride back home. And, if we had taken the bus, we would have been late for our next appointment anyway.

So, here is just 5 big blessings that happened this week and there were many more. Heavenly Father is there and is wanting to bless us. If we turn to Him, He will always surprise us with blessings.

Thank you all for all of your love and support. Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Vawdrey

P.S. I'm sorry I forgot my camera cord so I can't upload pictures. I'll put some on next week.