A great week of Thanksgiving and answered prayers!

Getting ready for our Thanksgiving feast!

     Hello Everyone! Another great week to be a Mormon missionary, I am grateful this morning for the many blessings the Lord has given me!  It was so nice to be fed so well on Thanksgiving.

A little too much turkey!

     This week started out a bit tough with not many people to teach.  But about midway through the week things started to pick back up again. Elder Castaneda and I have been working very hard, but also smart. I came home a few nights this week absolutely exhausted, many times I catch myself falling asleep during our companionship prayers, for that I have repented. The Lord has blessed me with energy to carry out through the day. Our zone as a whole is doing amazing things. We currently have 39 investigators with baptismal dates, and we had 34 at sacrament meeting. We have done very well at setting up for the month of December hoping to hit our mark of 20 baptisms. 
     This week being fast sunday, I felt very down. It has been a fews weeks since we had seen any investigators at church. Our area has only seen 1 baptism in the last 7 months. Being a 30 minute drive for our investigators to get to church seems at times nearly impossible. I began my fast thinking of all the many blessings I had received. I prayed with a sincere desire for our investigators to come to church. That morning as we went to church we set up for another sacrament meeting. The Spanish group that we serve in, had all of its leaders out of town, so we had to direct the sacrament meeting with the bishop from the English ward in there with us. It was hectic! As we walked outside to see if any of our investigators had showed up, there were none to be found. My heart sank. I felt sad once again that no one was coming to church. As we walked back into the building, sacrament meeting was about to start. We were beginning to close the doors and return to our seats, when all of the sudden, we see our investigators piling into the building! A woman named Dominica, her two daughters, and their two friends all who we had been teaching! I was once again filled with such happiness that the Lord had answered our prayers and fast! As I sat in testimony meeting, a woman stood and bore her testimony of missionary work and how the missionaries never gave up on her and how grateful she was. I learned a great lesson this week on faith and patience. 
     I am grateful that the Lord has given me trials and hard times on my mission, not because they are fun or easy, but because we learn from them! I know that God answers and hears prayers! It requires faith and desire but He will answer them. I love this work, I love my calling as a missionary, and I have come to enjoy every moment I have been given to serve Him who knows all! Have a great week everyone! 

Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken