Halfway through the transfer?!

We had a really excellent week this week.  We found 8 new investigators--two new families! They've both been prepared in a lot of ways.  Juan and Consuelo have actually had contact with the church before. Consuelo, the mom, attended our church in Mexico for over a year before moving to the United States.  Her sister attended as well and actually got baptized.  When we asked her why she didn't get baptized, she said she wasn't sure--the moment just never arrived!  We hope her moment has arrived now.  We had a great lesson with them and they are very close to accepting a baptismal date for the end of July.  The other family, the Garcias, are also super prepared.  The dad was a gangster 10 years ago, but decided to change his life.  He immediately called all his kids into the living room to listen to the lesson and read the scriptures.  It's so awesome to see a
dad taking the lead in providing opportunities for his children to learn about their Heavenly Father.  That's honestly something that's becoming more and more rare.  In a lot of the families we teach, the mom is the one who takes the lead and the dad often sits back and watches, or doesn't participate at all.  In reality, both are responsible for the spiritual well-being of their children, but it's part of the divine calling of fatherhood to be the spiritual leader in the home along with the mother.

We also met our new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Meredith!  It's honestly kind of weird to not have President and Sister Wade around.  I really feel that they are a big reason why I was called to this mission.  They've both helped me to grow personally in many ways and I know Heavenly Father knew I needed them.  I also feel that way about President and Sister Meredith.  It's amazing to see the mantle fall upon someone's shoulders as they accept a calling.  President and Sister Meredith are just exploding with sincere and profound love for the mission and the missionaries.  They're definitely more "grandparent-ish" than the Wades, I think.   Sister Meredith actually reminds me of Grandma Croft in the way she speaks to us.  She doesn't have an accent, but she has the same smile when she's telling a story. 

I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by.  Sometimes I feel a little sick inside (I understand you now, Derek) thinking about how little time there is.  Every week goes by like the wind and I often feel a little panicky that I haven't seen the results I've expected to see.  I want to be able to go to bed every night with the satisfaction of knowing that I've done everything I could that day.  Most days that's definitely true, but there are also days when I may have missed opportunities.  I want to try my hardest to make sure not a single day slips by with "trunky" thoughts or distractions.  As President Holland said in his last conference talk, "It's getting late" and I want to do everything I can with the time that I have. This truly is the work of the Lord.  The gospel has been restored, and now is the time, whether we're full-time missionaries or not, to live the gospel and share the gospel.