Finding Strength and Blessings Through Prayer....and Job!

Well this is another one of those no pictures weeks, sorry. Been really focused in the area and with investigators so haven´t had the time. Va a disculpar.

So this week was actually a really big blessing and answer to my and my companion´s prayers. With our area we have been really struggling to find new to people to teach, and the people who we are teaching are just having a really hard time progressing for some reason. Haven´t had many people with plans to get baptized because of this also so we have been fighting with that these past couple months, until the Lord led some new people and blessings into our lives. We have found some incredible people who I´m not sure how to explain it other than the Lord truly does prepare the hearts of His children in THEIR due time.

With a lot of hard work, diligence and patience Elder Berges and I have been doing a lot of things as a companionship to better help the work here in Cañoto. We now have a couple families on track to get married and then later baptized as well as some long time investigators who are finally keeping commitments, reading the scriptures daily, coming to church regularly, and growing their testimony of this restored gospel.

I have always looked to the story of Job in the old testament for strength even before the mission because of the principle it has taught me and continues to teach me on faith in the Lord even in our times of trials. That truly is my fountain of peace when it comes to tough times and tribulations in the mission and in life itself. Once we begin to understand the Lord´s will, understand his refining process in our lives and the truth "that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."(Ether 12:6) The Lord answers our honest and sincere prayers and He knows the righteous desires of our hearts. Once we put our trust in Him, and realize that even from the Fall of Adam and Eve until present time, there has been "an opposition in all things".

Love you all.
Elder Connor Ryan deCocq

Two Weeks worth of stuffs

Well, as expected transfer week had its craziness, but for the most part I´ve got things under control so everything went smoothly (at least for the parts that were my responsibilities hahahaha).

Anyway, this week an Elder had his appendix burst so he was stuck in the hospital and had to get surgery and since we are the secretaries we went to go check on him and bring his companion lunch every day hahahahaha so that was an adventure.

The new missionaries came in this week too so we were pretty busy doing all that fun stuff with them. Passed out on the couch at the president´s house too while waiting for the food to get there.

This week threw some crazy curve balls at us that also gave us amazing opportunities to serve others.

Vanderlei, the man in the wheel chair who I was able to help baptize a couple weeks ago, had a very serious attack this week and wasn´t able to breath. He called the Sister missionaries over to his house to help him and when they got there they told us they were pretty sure he was going to die right then and there. But then Vanderlei wanted to say a prayer because "He knew that through prayer and his faith that if it was his time to go that the Lord would take him". The Sisters then called us over to give him a blessing and while we were on the way over they had said a prayer and the Lord, working his miracles, cured Vanderlei of his problem he was having and when we got there everything was normal again. We then gave him a priesthood blessing and he told us he knew the Lord had blessed him in his time of need. The healing power of the priesthood is real and here on the earth once more. I know it, I can feel it, and had many other opportunities this week to be able to go some hospitals here in Santa Cruz to give blessings to people because of their faith that they have in the healing power of faith.

The Lord is blessing us with a lot of many great families to teach and incredible miracles from our faith, diligence, and desires. Not gonna lie, it has been rough here these past couple months with the balancing the office work with the proselyting but now that we´ve got it under control and are working diligently, we are beginning to truly see some amazing blessings.

Today for P-day President´s son called us and invited us over to his house to watch a movie and eat some pizza with him so we went over there and chilled for a bit and relaxed. Also in the morning went out with Elder Berges and we got Pizza and climbed some crazy tall building to take some videos on the roof (see videos below). Other than that though the work is progressing and the Lord is preparing His children in these days.

Here's a couple of fun vids.  If you are reading this on email, click here to see the videos

 Chau for now,

Elder Connor Ryan deCocq