Constantly Nourishing our Testimonies

iHola Familia! (iY los demas!)
 
I feel a little more Spanish today than usual, these past couple weeks I've been upping my effort to love the people and the culture I serve, I had a talk with my companion a while back that made me realize that while I've given it my mind, might and strength, I haven't given it my heart and so I can't access the trust of the people as well. It's been interesting to recognize that weakness that I have and work on loving these people, I've found that I don't have to love my own country or culture any less but to just really enjoy and appreciate the differences. It's mostly been just a shift of focus, I realize that when I pay attention when I'm in small cramped apartment with lots of people either teaching or socializing, or just out and among the people and sharing the Gospel with these amazing humble people, I really enjoy it and wouldn't trade it for the world! There's so many amazing things about the Spanish people and their culture, different foods and items of courtesy (like always offering food, fastest way to win over a Janis!), and I love being here with them, serving them.
 
So this past week was transfers, and I am now serving in the same area with Elder Gonzalez, who I actually served with before (deja vu in more than one way) in Carbondale/Aspen, and we're having a really good time! He was born in Mexico City, but moved to the states when he was less than 2 years old, and has lived in West Valley Utah for a while. He's a hard worker and we're getting a lot of good results, we're now both in the *ahem* "mature" parts of our missions (only a few months left), so we're giving everything we've got and we have the experience to be effective now.
 
For sake of a reminder, my current address for the next 5 weeks is:
1325 Garfield St. #111
Denver, CO, 80206
 
There's been some crazy changes in our area this transfer, basically they took out the Elders that covered the South of the ward and put in a pair of Sister missionaries, and we've eliminated the border so now both pairs cover the entire ward area! It's been a little stressful for all of us I think but it's already reaping huge results, the first and foremost is that we can now eat dinners separately and thus be much better in tune with the members. In the past we've had all 4 of us Elders at dinner each night, and not only is it a big burden for the family with food, but also it's hard to focus on the families because they don't eat at the table with you if there's 4. It's been working great and we'll be able to get a lot more referrals this way. Also, this frees us up to find the Less Actives in the entire ward, and it turns out that most of them lived in the south anyway, so my organizing impulses are going crazy and there's a ton for us to do finding the "lost sheep" and at the same time updating records of the people who've moved.
 
A cool thing that happened this week is when we went to find a former investigator in our records, and what we found instead was an entire part-member family! The daughter of the former investigator turned out to be a member (and was about our age and left my companion speechless in the lesson :), and had come back to live with her parents for a while! Her parents had investigated with some sister missionaries but hadn't really progressed, but we were able to talk to them and they're interested in hearing the lessons again, and accompanying their daughter at church! They didn't come yesterday, but we're hoping that with a little bit of a push they'll start going and have the entire family in the church!
 
Something else that happened is we found a less active family to teach that had been taught and baptized by Elder Gonzalez while he was here at the start of his mission, it's a couple of teenage girls and their mom who fell off the ward radar after they were baptized and without fellowship started going to a Christian church and have gotten confused. It's pretty sad, but luckily they still love the missionaries and want to learn again, so we're teaching them from scratch. I've found that the principle is true that's taught in the Book of Mormon, that when we accept God's will, we receive knowledge little by little till it becomes a fullness, and when we disobey God our knowledge is taken away little by little till we have nothing. This family at one point had a burning testimony and conviction of the truth of the Restored Gospel, but from neglect and time they hardly even remembered who Joseph Smith is. It's a testimony to me that we have to be constantly nourishing our testimonies or we lose them, there's just too much opposition in the world and the Adversary is too focused for us to ever just kick it into neutral and think that "all is well in Zion".
 
I'm so happy to be here as a missionary, I love the Gospel and I love this work! There are so many blessings the Lord has given me for my service, and the constant spiritual support and sometimes take for granted is going to be sorely missed when I go home. I'm so grateful for this opportunity right now though, the Lord has placed me in the highest potential Spanish area in the mission, and has given me the tools and companion to be able to effect "a marvelous work and a wonder" in a small way among these people. Thank you all so much for your support and prayers, have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Damon Janis