Transfer 16, Week 5 (June 26, 2017)

Hey Y'all! Happy Monday to ya! We had a super good week this week! Lets get to it. 

We were able to see Brian a couple times this week and that was exciting! He's still reading consistently in the Book of Mormon and something very cool is he understands it and can give us summaries of what he read. He's a very intelligent kid and has so much potential. We're trying to help him make the connection between just reading and learning from us to obtain more information and knowledge, and the spiritual side and testimony of what we teach. He seems to understand it but we're trying to help him recognize the spirit more while he reads. He's still very hesitant about coming to church or committing to a baptismal date. We feel like there is another concern he isn't telling us about, but hopefully with time he will open up more. We were able to get a recently returned missionary to come with us and help us teach him on Friday, which was awesome! He could really use an extra prayer or two in the upcoming weeks. 

We have found several others this week, who look like some pretty solid potentials! We are doing some really good work, but at the same time we feel as though every time something good happens, some negative thing happens (whether that's people harshly turning us away, or people getting angry with us, or people trying to tear us down). It's interesting how Satan tries to get us down when we're doing such good work. I feel like I've learned, though, over these past 22/23 months that Heavenly Father and His work always will prevail, no matter what will happen! Something that President reminds us of is that eventually, "every knee shall bow, and every younger confess that Jesus is the Christ!" What a blessing it is to have that knowledge! 

Former Elder Atkinson & Alex

Some things I failed to mention last week, that I just forgot to put in, was that Elder Atkinson came back to the mission for a week or so and we met up and got some lunch. It was good to see him and catch up a little. I'm excited to see him out at UVU though. Last week also, our car battery didn't start after interviews and had to get it jumped! And President came to our district meeting last week and then took us all out to Wendy's after ;) hahaha gotta love him!

This week we also had to take our car in the shop and we didn't have any set appointments before dinner, so we just decided to walk and contact all day until it was done. We dropped it off about 10:30 and picked it up around 5. Luckily, that was the hottest day of the week. Needless to say, the annual summer tanning has ensued. Haha it just keeps the work fun! 

Love y'all! Have a super good week!

Con Amor, 

Elder Joyner

Petaluma