Dearest Family and Friends,
So good to have a chance to talk with you all today. Mission life has taken a big turn for me this week and I sure feel supported by so many, thank you for all your prayers and good wishes. The new calling has been stretching me and I am learning on the fly. This week has been very fulfilling despite it being the least amount of seeking those outside the faith I have done since the week before I left home. Elder Dransfield and I split our area and are sharing it with the Training Sisters, they are sort of like the Sister AP's. The split has added more work to our load trying to correlate and get everyone up to speed, which pretty much has fallen on my companion, I feel bad for him but he is a beast. It is funny because he is about 115 pounds but he has the spiritual strength of about 10 Elder Prince's, I love him. I am learning there is no growing in a comfort zone and there is no comfort in a growing zone.
Life is stressful but the odd thing is I surprisingly don't feel overwhelmed, again thank you so much for your prayers! They are keeping me awake! The greatest blessing of this week has been the opportunity I had to go on an exchange to one of the younger missionaries in my zone serving in Perry, Oh. This particular Elder is having alot of troubles with opening his mouth in lessons and his says he gets very anxious. We had a full two days together and we worked every second. We used up every minute of the day together and when we would walk from house to house tracting we would talk about the work in his area. My goal for the transfer was not to talk about anything besides the work in the area and personal improvement.I didn't even find out where this Elder calls home. Our last night together we both sat down in his living room and were able to talk about some of the struggles he has been having teaching. He explained to me that he has been having fear as he goes into appointments and that it has been hindering him being able to communicate. I understood how he felt and I began to show him a few things in the scriptures about 'fear'. We talked about how "perfect love, casteth out all fear". Charity seemed to be the antidote. We then read from the Bible dictionary on fear in which it states "[fear is] something unworthy of a child of God to feel". It explained that since the beginning God has been teaching man not to fear. That God has revealed Himself in His perfect character to us in such a way that we can place full confidence in Him without reserve. By the end of our discussion we read from Moroni about acquiring charity which would indeed cast out fear. I counseled him that the first step to overcoming weakness is mighty prayer. I was touched when that night this humble Elder offered up about a 45 minute prayer to Heavenly Father.
I love you all so much. I am so grateful for you. Thank you for all of your support. The Lord is so good and he is helping learn and grow everyday. I testify that the Atonement is the only way to overcoming the hurdles of life. I am being taught by the very best right now, even the humble and inexperienced. If I have learned anything about the Lord it is that He is anxious on us to improve and relying upon Him is the only way to truly do so. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Don't give up in anything good, and give up in everything that is bad!
Love, Elder Prince
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