Today's P-Day is a lot different because we will be getting to attend the Temple this Wednesday 😄 This means P-Day will be moved to Wednesday but I still wanted to get an email sent out today about this past week. And phew what a week! I'll be honest this week was pretty hard and was quite the challenge. We got bashed and hated on a lot during our finding efforts and weren't able to find any new people to teach! But this week I have learned a lot about how true it is that when we focus on Jesus Christ, we can be happy despite the circumstances of our lives. 

On Tuesday I got to go on my first ever Zone Leader exchange where Elder Van Dyke, a leader of a large area of missionaries came out with me to our area for the day. The work was tough but we were super diligent and kept pushing!! Some cool things happened though! We knocked an apartment complex on a hill and it was looking up at the temple and we got to watch the sunset there. We also finally got in contact with our friend Billy who is awesome! Elder Bazil and I haven't been able to get in contact with him for a few weeks and we showed up, and we then called him to let us in the building. He told us that the night before the Lord had given him a dream in which he knew that he needed to reach out and seek the Lord's path from us. But he was afraid to reach out. He said he had been talking to his family all day saying, “what do I even say to the Elders to get them to come,” and when he was talking to his wife, we called saying we are here can you open the door! Such an inspired spur of the moment stop by! I learned a lot this day from Elder Van Dyke and we had a good day together.

Wednesday was another good day where we had another incredible lesson with our friend Kenny! We taught about the Temple and he loved it!! Kenny is so awesome and truly feels like a real friend! He is preparing to be baptized on March 15, please pray for him!!

The next few days were very difficult for me. We faced so much opposition and all of the plans I had been looking forward to canceled!! What a bummer 😢 Thursday was especially hard as once everything fell through we said let's go back to the church to gather our thoughts and restart. When we arrived at the church there were anti-mormon pamphlets that spewed hate and condemnation that were put on the churches doors. It was a good thing we found them and not the youth. This day felt like we had to fight to be defenders of the faith. And what I do know is that without the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost we would've been defeated. But what I know to be true, this gospel of Jesus Christ, is absolutely true!! It has been given to me by God himself, by his voice it was given to me, and through the blessings that have come, I know this work to be true. I knew it and I knew God knew it, and I can not deny it! No man, nor woman, will ever be able to take that away from me. 

After much prayer and reflection admist the trials, I was still able to feel joy in the work we could do. I felt joy as I testified of Jesus Christ. Friday night ended up being a great night, as Elders Henrie and Snavely came over and stayed the night at our place. It was super fun and we stayed up late playing pool and hanging out!! 

The weekend was pretty great in the end though. The Lord really did answer our prayers, we had 2 incredible church tours! We did these ones unlike how I've done them before though. Our building has a lot of beautiful and unique artwork and so we went around the building talking about the symbolism and beauty in the artwork and related it to Jesus Christ. Church was also a great experience and we had our friend Anthony come!! This was a huge and monumental step for him and he really enjoyed it. At church I got up and bore my testimony of the following spiritual thought.

My spiritual thought for this week is literally the spiritual thought I have had all week. And it comes from two places. The first is the Apostle Paul's declaration in his second letter to Timothy which reads:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 

Though this week was certainly a fight against the evils of this world, I found peace and hope in my savior Jesus Christ as I thought about this one day I am experiencing is nothing compared to eternity. And that my reward and joy in Heaven will far outweigh all of the bad I had to suffer at the hands of others. 

The second thing comes from my Mom. And what she told me in my first transfer has stuck with me and has been one of the greatest statements of faith that has kept me motivated to keep pressing forward. And it is, “just because something is hard, doesn't mean it is not right.” I find peace and hope in this because it helps me to hand my will over to God and to let him do what he needs right now. Sometimes I wish I was still in Seguin with my friends there, but that is not the right thing at this time. The right thing is for me to be here in this place, with this people, with the friends I have now made here. And while yes it is quite a challenge, it is the Father's challenge given to me, that I can overcome with the power of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to be the son of the mother I have. In this area I have met multiple people and have been prompted by the spirit to share things about my mom. How she has gone through so much and yet because of Jesus Christ she has been able to gain so much!! Even her firstborn son is on a mission! 😄 The people here have been grateful for her and her decision to trust her Heavenly Father and join the church. It reminds me of Elder Hollands saying, some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until Heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ they come. 20+ years since my mom's conversion her story and testimony is a blessing to people who she will likely never meet. And to be her son, the only one in the entire TSAM to get to say that and to share that testimony, I am grateful 🙏 🙏🙏

I hope yall have a wonderful week and may God bless you. Below are some pictures are from my week as well!

With Love,

Elder Noble