Elder Colton Richins

Well this last week was pretty crazy. Me and Elder Quimuanga are frantically trying to prepare a few young students for baptism! They are so ready, but it has been so hard getting help from the members. They live 45 minutes away by car...and seeing as we have no transport and there are no buses that go there, we have really needed to rely on the members. It's been super challenging to get help from them. This last ward council we had Miguel Silva (who is one of the 2 members who have sacrificed much to help us) told the council that God has given this ward this situation to challenge them. The challenge is, if they (the members) will work together and unify so that we can bring more members to the God's true church. I was glad that he talked about this...it was very good...but until now we have still not seen an effect. It's started to get very stressful. They are marked for this baptism for this weekend. We are fasting as a zone this Tuesday that everything runs smoothly. This last Sunday I got chastized by one of the members for using the same people to help out with these young men...for a second, I almost lost my "representative of Jesus Christ cool" and ripped his head off. But I didn't. I kept my cool. :) I told him that we were trying our absolute hardest to get other members to help...but nobody will! We found out that a couple members had lied to us about why they could not help. I was pretty taken aback by this. On top of all of this...President Fluckiger has been dishing out a lot of pressure about baptizing as well...so basically I was having a mental breakdown...but you just learn to take these types of situations and turn them into spiritual growth experiences. :) I am kinda anxious for this week to be done. I'm ready for transfers. I wouldn't be at all upset if I was released from zone leader. :) I just want to work without all of these sometimes unnecessary pressures. But whatever the Lord wants for me, I know is best. So I guess we will see what happens this next week. So wish us luck this week that we will be able to prepare these young men for baptism by this weekend. :/

On Tuesday I had a really cool division with one of the AP's, Elder Ferreira. He's Brazilian...he's known in the mission for being basically a machine. The dude is freakin' intense where missionary work is concerned. He's a very very skillful missionary. I was grateful to be able to learn from him. We had a very successful day. We contacted a butt-ton of people on the streets and found some new potential investigators. Then that night we went to no man's land to teach these students. We taught a very powerful plan of salvation. We taught very well. And we had Miguel Silva with us. It was the perfect combination! It was a very powerful lesson. I am grateful we had the combination that we did. Kevin, who is the student that we feel is most prepared, had told us that he really liked going to church. He said that he felt different there and that he came home that day feeling super good. He was excited to go again. Kevin is an excellent man! 

Then on Thursday I got to do a division with Elder Wilson. We had a killer day as well. We found out also, that we were able to work effectively together! We always thought that if we were to serve together that nothing would get done. But we actually had a really good day and we helped the area out a lot. Then we went to Lisbon later that night because we had to renew our visas. We got there and got to catch up with all the members from our MTC district. It was such a great day! I basically hung out with Elder Dunford, and Elder Wilson the whole day. Then after we went to Rodizio for lunch and had a good talk about our missions before we all caught buses back to our own areas. It was super fun spending two days with Elder Wilson. He's a great guy, and I've learned a lot from him. 

Sunday we had an interesting experience. One of the members in the ward had a diabetes attack during sacrament meeting. People escorted him out to help him while sacrament meeting kept on running. We were asked to help out so we left. They asked us to grab someone strong that could help lift this man into the car to go to the hospital. We went an got Kevin. Kevin is huge. I felt it would be really good for him to have a service opportunity! And by the look on his face afterward he felt really good being able to serve and help out others. I can see his testimony growing! I really hope everything works out for this weekend! Miguel gave an incredible talk during sacrament meeting. He talked about sacrifice. (I know he was talking about this regarding the member's lack of desire to help out with the students). He talked to the women, saying, "Do NOT let your husbands stay out home on the couch when there is work in Zion to be done!" He then told the story of John Tanner (which is absolutely incredible. If you do not know the story of John Tanner, look it up!) Then he told of a person that he knew who was a man in the church. His wife was a nonmember and always complained for him to stop being so involved in the church...well her influence slowly started to take effect...and soon he turned into a man who never left the house. Miguel said that this women strongly regrets her decision to convince her husband to leave behind his church responsibilities because now he has become an idle man who never leaves the house. He then referred to conference how the prophet said that NOW is the time for the members to work with the missionaries. Zion is ready to be built. When David O McKay said that "every member is a missionary" it was taken as counsel....well this counsel has now passed to a commandment..... It was a very very good talk. I really hope that it wakes everyone up!

Picture.....one tired missionary!