Week 73 ~ Zone Picture from TODAY, Kevin made his zone Pizza for all their hard work!!!

Hi mom, I am so happy to be able to email you. It is absolutely incredible to me that week past week, the time just keeps flying by. I am so thankful for the support of the Ward as you are going through this difficult process of retraining. I feel so much confidence in you, and am so grateful to our Father in Heaven for having revealed the importance of fasting for these times of need. I will be especially generous in my fast this weekend, because I know that there are families with even more need than our own and those families that I see here. IT is such a blessing to be a member of a church guided by revelation from a loving heavenly father.

That being said, I definitely have some interesting things that happened this week. 

1. Missionaries go through a little bit of a midlife crisis, This week my companion saw my photos from before my mission and was telling me how much weaker I as than before (I ever so politely invited him to shut up hahaha) but I decided to run a mile today to see how I would do. There is actually a 400 meter track here in tierra blanca so I took him out, and ran a 4:54. Given I never really ran the mile this is a new record for me, and gave me a, I've still got it, kind of feeling.

2. This week was absolutely and completely a success for our zone. We hit an assistance of 470 this week as a stake. To give you an idea, when I got here it was 370. I am honestly so grateful for the hard work of the missionaries in the zone. I am super blessed to be able to work with so many people who are capable of serving the Lord with all of their hearts, its wonderful. Needless to say that is more than a 25% increase in stake attendance in 2 months of work. At the same time I feel like I never reach a point at which I can sit back and said that is success, because now I feel incredibly nervous that the number is going to drop this week, and feel an incredible need to fix this. 

3. That being said, today my companion and I decided to make some pizza as a reward for the zone, and it went absolutely wonderfully. I now have hand made corn tortillas, empanadas, budin, volovanes, pizza, empanadillas, a variety of chicken recipes, several new taco recipes, a variety of salsas, pastas, and new ways of cooking steaks. So needless to say I am going to be a little chef when I get home.

4. In regards to the hurricane it was so bad they closed schools and a bunch of other things, only to find it rained, which happens so frequently is a bit like saying in California it was dry.

5. Today we were studying and all of a sudden, I saw a pillar of light descend from the sky until it rested upon me. It was just one of those moments when I realized oh my gosh, can you imagine what it would have been like to actually see a pillar of light brighter than the sun, and to see God and Jesus in that light. Wow, I know Joseph Smith was a prophet, I feel it with every fiber of my being.

6. So we have baptized 2 weeks in a row and have 1 for this week too, and sounds like we might go a full 6 weeks baptizing every week if everything goes well, so I am super pumped about that.

Just a note, I love Elder Mangum, he is super chill and relaxed, we  get along great and he is a good teacher. One of the best times in my mission right now!

Elder Standridge