This Ward Is About To Erupt

What's up everyone! Hope you guys are having a great week! Going to start this one out by wishing a happy birthday to my brother Brian who would have turned 24 this past Saturday. Love you big bro!


I'm also wishing a Happy Father's Day to you dad! I love you and I'm cheering for you everyday that you keep up the exercise grind!


Not gonna lie, this new area is a struggle. First off, we are walking over 20 km a day on a giant ingrown toenail that I should probably get checked out. Secondly, the biggest holiday of the year is currently happening in our city, making the work 10 times harder. And lastly, this ward is on it's last leg. We are trying desperately to stop it from getting it closed down! 


Let's get right into it...


Ward Problems
It currently feels like the cold war in this ward. It feels like there is about to have a fight break out at any moment. This ward has 360 members, but only 30 members came last week (which is the most this year). To combat these problems, my companion and I brought all of the ward leaders together and help a ward counsel. I'd like to think it went pretty well. For the first 30 minutes, everyone kinda just got everything off of their chests and were yelling at one another. And then we talked plans and progress, and what we are doing to do to bring this ward back to what it was. I have so much hope and faith. 


Reactivating Members
As missionaries, our purpose is to help people develop faith in Christ, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and prepare them to stay in the church. But in this ward, it's kinda hard to fulfill our purpose, as we have now become the Relief Society President and the Elders Quorum President. And one of the big focuses that we are taking is visiting and reactivating the inactive members of this ward. In one visit that we made, we spent two hours conversing with this return missionary who has since left the church and promised next to come back until God smacked him on the head. This dude was saying so many apostate things and with trying with all of my might to keep the spirit in the room. As we were leaving, I felt prompted to kneel down with him and offer a prayer. At first I had asked him to offer the prayer lol, and he rejected my offer. I then prayed as sincerely as possible for this man. Then on Sunday, I had the biggest smile on my face as he walked into the chapel and sat down!


other cool things that happened
- Had some really spiritual baptismal interviews where I gained a witness that the gift of discernment is real!
- We had a zone meeting this week and I gave a training on how we can work better with members. Perfect topic.
- We ate 5kg of lasagna on Wednesday and that was probably on of the hardest days on the mission lol.
- Had a really cool exchange with Elder Tadji (an American who arrived with me). We saw some pretty cool miracles and ending the exchange getting some ice cream cones and fries at McDonalds. 
- One of the members whips out american candy after lunch! We ate some airheads, jelly beans, and other sour stuff that was pretty good. I'll be eternally grateful for american candies!


That's it for this week! Shoot me a message on FB messenger if you haven't already. I love you guys and hope you all have an amazing week!


Elder Ware







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