Pace 1:7

(Note from the editor....I've corrected what I thought was a typo before but apparently it was jargon used by people not in my age bracket!  oops!!  SO...I'm going to leave his letter as is and if something sounds like it doesn't make sense---then you must be my people! Ha!!)

What's goin on gamers!

I had a pretty icy week not gonna lie However first I must talk about a miracle that happened last week. Like you may have read in Pace 1:6 I didn't feel like writing but it would be a sin if I didn't record this story in my mission history. 

So we are teaching this mans named Chris. Chris is one of my favorite human beings ever. He lives in an apartment that is like 12x6 ft and he has 26 bunnies ! He started off with 2 but you know how it be with bunnies, more on that later. Anyways Chris has been taught for a while and a few weeks ago he decided he wanted to be baptized! Well when we met with him 2 weeks ago we decided to go over the baptismal interview questions with him so we could see what we needed to help him with before he got baptized. We expected some difficulty with a few of the questions at the end but it turns out we didn't even get to them because he had lots of doubts about the first two questions which are like the most basic fundamental parts of the gospel. I felt awful after that lesson. 

Then we met with Chris again the day after Thanksgiving. Chris was not doing well, he had a crappy Thanksgiving, his hammock broke so he was sleeping on the ground where all of his bunnies would bite him at night, and he had lost his wallet that had his driver's license, his social security card, the little money he had, and his only pictures of his father and mother. That meeting we just let him talk to us for a while. As he was talking I was thinking of a way I could help Chris. One of his biggest concerns was that he didn't believe that God could give power to men to perform miracles. So at the end of our meeting I promised Chris a miracle. I told Chris that he WOULD find his wallet. We gave him a couple conference talks to read and left. 

After we left Chris's apartment we prayed and began the search. We were going to find Chris's wallet and he would have no more doubts. We spent as long as we could looking for the wallet praying along the way telling God that we had that faith for this miracle to happen and we knew he had the power to do it. But alas the wallet was nowhere to be found  That night I was feeling pretty bad, I was wondering what I was doing wrong. I knew that my desires were righteous, I thought that I had the faith, and I knew that God had the power. That's all the ingredients right? I went to sleep pretty discouraged that night, but I kept praying that Chris would find his wallet so that he wouldn't have any more doubts. A few days passed and it was time to meet with Chris again.  I went in expecting Chris to get on me telling me that I had lied, that I promised him a miracle and that it never came, but when we walked into his apartment Chris was completely different. He read one of the talks we gave him and something clicked. He was so excited about getting baptized but said he wanted to make sure he was getting baptized for the right reasons. He wanted to know that this was the right decision. He decided he was going to try and read the whole Book of Mormon before his baptism two weeks later! That night I was so happy. Chris never found his wallet, but my prayers were still answered. A miracle still happened! Just not the way I thought was best, the way the Lord KNEW was best. 

My experience reminded me of the prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon. First when he went to get the plates from Laban. Nephi had faith that the Lord would provide a way for him to get the plates but his first two attempts failed. But because Nephi kept his faith he was able to accomplish the thing which the Lord had commanded him. I know that the Lord always provides a way for us to accomplish the things which he asks of us but sometimes it takes time and failure along the way. 

I was also reminded of the time when Nephi's brothers tied him up. Nephi prayed for the Lord to give him  the strength to break the bands with which he was tied, but instead the Lord loosed the bands from around him. I know that God will answer our prayers. Just because the answer doesn't come the way we think it will doesn't mean that God isn't listening. God hears our prayers and will answer them the way that he knows is best! Chris gets baptized next Sunday so pray that he will be ready to make this promise with God! There was only one bad part about our visit that night. Going back to his bunnies and how it be with them sometimes, one of his bunnies "how it be'd" all over my pants . It was all worth it though to see Chris so happy and committed to following the Savior Jesus Christ!

On to this week I will keep it to the highlights in bullet point format because last week's miracle was so long

1. Went to Rockefeller Center to help run the giving machines. Dream come true, the Rockefeller tree /ice rink  combo was probably what I was most excited about tourist wise coming to New York, just because of all the great hallmarks filmed there. People tell me there are other movies that were filmed there like elf, home alone, and an episode of monk, some low budget films I'm assuming.

2. Went on an exchange and got, guess what, DOMINOS PIZZA for the first time since I've left. Slapped per usual

3. We had a Christmas concert at the church and my comp and I got put on security duty . We made sure no one stole the performers instruments and personal items. We had the place on lock!  also the ASL missionaries translated the concert

4. Found out that I'm getting split trained (my comp is getting transferred to another area so I get a new comp to finish my training). Step dad!

5. The sisters in our area had a baptism! One of their friends Rob! He is the funniest 70 year old man alive. They had to do his baptism 7 times  before he was able to get all the way under the water. He was a trooper though and had fun despite it all!

6. Went to the top of the Rock today and got some pics of New York City, the big apple, the city that never sleeps , the concrete jungle 

7. Had dinner with another cute family. 4 little boys!