Success with Less-Actives

Hi Everyone!

Things are going well here in Carbondale/Aspen, and although it seems a little slow at times I can see the hand of the Lord shaping me and teaching me all kinds of lessons! I'm with my new companion now, Elder Arangua, who is from Chile but has lived in Utah for about 9 years. He did BMX biking before his mission, and did a couple years of college. We served in the same district when I was in Denver, so I've know him for a while and didn't have much of a transition. He works hard, although he gets distracted pretty easily and will often stop to examine bikes or different technology items, I think he wants to go into a computer profession after the mission.

We're trying to get things going in the Aspen branch, none of the missionaries here have made it a priority for a long time (mostly because of miles, it's a 60 mile round trip and we only get 275 per week, covering a 35 mile area for the Spanish branch alone), but the stake president wants us to use the members and the leadership to get appointments set up and work in the area for a couple days at a time. I really hope we can get it going soon, the branch mission leader there has been in Oklahoma for the whole time I've been here and won't be back for a couple weeks, but hopefully we can coordinate with the branch president and find enough work to do to justify a few long trips over there.

We're seeing some success with the less-actives! We had fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, and several showed up and even bore their testimonies! It's awesome to see people you've been visiting and working with take that step of faith and come to church, I think that might be the key to getting this branch strengthened and unified! We're also going to try to plan some activities so that the Spanish people will do their thing and socialize, we should be able to get a lot of less-active members and non-member friends if we do it right!

I'm finding that I don't really mind the rejection and rude people we meet every day, because I'm understanding more and more the amazing message we have for the world and I'm not afraid to share it. Our mission president has been pushing us to do "OYM"'s, where you Open Your Mouth and share the gospel with everyone, even the lady walking her dog and the man reading the paper, to strike up a conversation and talk about the gospel. It's been a hard thing for me to learn, I'm usually quiet and don't like to bother people, but I'm finding that I can do it with the Lord's help and we've had some really good gospel conversations come out of it! We talked to one lady who was watering her lawn, and she was really nice and chatted with us about how she'd read a book recently by a Mormon author and she was interested in knowing what made us different from the rest of the churches. We explained about how God always called prophets to lead his people, and Christ himself set up his church with apostles and prophets, but after the people rejected them and killed them a lot of truths were lost, but God has called another prophet in these times to restore that original church of Christ. She wasn't interested in learning much more, but it was a really pleasant conversation and was definitely a good seed planted!

I hope you all have a great week, and stay close to the Lord! I love the scripture in Alma 34 (can't remember the exact verse) that says that to those who exercise faith and repentance, the great plan of redemption will begin to work immediately. God is always there to help and guide us, and as soon as we start seeking him he's immediately there to help us! I'm so grateful for the blessings of the gospel in my life, and also for the opportunity I have to share it with others here in the mission!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis