By small and simple things…

Hello, My week was pretty good. We've been starting to see more progress, and we hope that carries on as we strive to be diligent ourselves while also involving the ward members as much as we can in missionary work, whether alongside us or in their own lives. Tuesday was Zone Conference; it was over zoom again, hopefully for the last time haha. Afterwards, Elder Bennett made a lot of calls and texts while I was resting my eyes haha. I had a headache for some reason and I felt pretty tired after zone conference. We then got a call from Sister Salter, who we were planning to meet that evening to help her and her family come back to church, and she told us that their water heater just inexplicably broke, so we rescheduled for Wednesday evening. We then tried stopping by Burt, and when we knocked, we heard his wife come to the door, look through the peephole, and say something to him, and then he came out of the garage and told us not to come back because they have a lot on their plate right now. It was unfortunate, but at least we were able to give him a Book of Mormon a while back. We then just got Jersey Mike's and headed home. Wednesday was district council, and we had snickerdoodles before we started haha, they were pretty good. After we did some service with the Sisters, we stopped by various families who haven't been to church in a while, met some people (and their dogs lol) in a park (though very few wanted to hear a message), and we met a girl chilling in her car and got her in contact with the missionaries down in San Jose (since she actually lives down there). We then had an interesting lesson with Sister Salter's family haha. We asked Bruce (recently baptized member) to join us and share his testimony, which was good, but there were just several interruptions/distractions when we tried to testify and see how we could help her and her family. At the end of the lesson, however, her toddler came into the room, and she was absolutely adorable haha, so that was a nice way to end the night. On Thursday, we did our weekly planning, and we updated a lot of the documents we use with the ward council/ward mission correlation to keep them posted on the various members we have visited and the progress we're making with the work in general since much of it was out of date. Anyways, after that, we dropped Elder Bennett's bike of at Brother Bodily's to see if it could be fixed, and he invited us to have some dinner, which was nice of him. We then went home to make some calls and send some texts while we made a cake for one of our member's birthday tomorrow haha. She has a lot on her plate, so we wanted to let her know how much we appreciate her and the service she does. On Friday, we dropped off the cake and talked with her and husband for a while, and then we began a mini exchange with our district leader (instead of the full 24 hours, we were only allowed to do 4-5 hours). Elder Allan (the district leader) came into my area with me while Elder Bennett went with Elder Wilkinson, his companion. We met with the mom of an inactive family and got her phone number so we could schedule a better time to meet, talked to a guy named Jerry while he was waxing his Corvette (he wasn't interested in another message though, rip), and we finally met the Gulati family (we've been trying to contact them for a while). Before we even got to their door, Brother Gulati was opening the door to bring in a package, and when he and his wife saw us, they just shouted, "Elders, come in!" and practically pulled us inside their house. Very different reaction from almost everyone else we've met lol. His wife was doing something in another room (not a member), but we got to know Brother Gulati and his conversion and why he stopped going to church. We're still trying to figure out what's holding him back from returning to church because he still has a good testimony and loves the Church, so we'll try to figure that out while teaching his family the gospel next time we're over there since he and his wife want to have us over for dinner sometime soon haha. We then ended the exchange, and Elder Bennett and I had a good member message that evening. We were then able to schedule some meetings this upcoming week for a couple more inactive families. Even though we're not teaching very many new people, the fact that we've been able to have these appointments is progress for us, so I'm feeling confident that our diligence and perseverance is starting to roll the ball in the right direction. On Saturday, we did some service for one of our members, and he gave us a bunch of his food storage, which we appreciated....but some of it was past its "best buy" date lol. We're still very grateful for what he gave us though haha. After a late lunch, we made some calls and walked around various parks to talk to whoever we could. At first, no one really wanted to listen to us, but we did meet one guy, Ian, who was super cool. He was willing to say a prayer with us, even after realizing who we were, and he asked us a bunch of questions about the Pearl of Great Price, the Melchizedek priesthood, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, etc. We gave him a Book of Mormon and pointed him to Alma 13 to learn more about the Melchizedek priesthood, which he accepted and appreciated since he calls himself a "truth seeker" and always wants to know more. He's a bit busy, and we haven't been able to schedule another time to meet with him yet, but he gave us his number, so hopefully we can meet him again and teach him about more truth. We then met with another inactive member to try to help him grow his faith and start seeking for answers again, and he said he appreciates us coming over, so we'll try to meet with him again. Sunday was Stake Conference, which was pretty good. After some family history and our ward mission correlation meeting, we went to an inactive member's house (Sister Moffat) with her ministering sister, and it was good, they got along well....but they essentially just talked about politics the whole time we were there lol. We got our spiritual thought in at least though haha. After getting some dinner, the zone leaders wanted to do a quick blitz/exchange with us for the rest of the evening, which was fun. Me and Elder Barber (one of the zone leaders) actually found someone that wants us to come back on Saturday (his name is very long, so he said to call him S.S.P.), so that's pretty neat haha. I pray that you all are doing well. As I said before, we've really begun to see the fruits of our diligent labor this past week or two, even if they seem small and simple, and I promise that the same can be true for you as well. If you continue to faithfully work hard and consistently involve the Lord in every aspect of your life, you will see progress and miracles in whatever you're working on or even struggling with. It may take time, and the results may not be immediate, but I know that those fruits and miracles will come as you search and work for them. See you all next week, Elder Enger P.S. An Elder in my mission received news that he's heading to the Philippines (his original assignment) in the next week or two 👀 I'll keep you posted for if the same thing happens to me.