A day in the life of a CA Fresno misisonary
Hello! How is everyone doing back home? Things are great here! To answer your questions, I'm in a town called Atwater. Yes, keep sending mail to the mission home, they immediately forward it. I did get your letter. I hope you got mine. We have a car (which I drive) and we bike. I don't think I've really done any walking. We have dinner with members every day except Mondays, which is our preperation day and occasional other days where no one signed up for a dinner. The Tuesday after I got here we had a Zone meeting. We had specialized training that Thursday, which is where a few zones get together to receive training from President Gelwix and the Assistants. Each zone is asked to do a muscial number. My district leader had brought a copy of an arrangement of "Savior, Redeemer" (I think that's what it's called) which I think might be in 17 Miracles. Anyway, it's a really pretty song and the zone leaders decided we would sing that as a zone. Elder Doane (my district leader) hadn't thought we'd actually do it. Well, the piano part is kind of difficult, and somehow I ended up being the one to play it. With less than two hours of practice, I manged to make it work for the Thursday training. So yes, my piano "skills" have been put to use. :)
A typical day involves exercise (five days of that week that involves 20 minutes of running and a 2 minute plank), breakfast and preparation (like showering) in the morning, personal study at 8, companionship study at 9, language study at 10, lunch at 11, The First Twelve Weeks study program for an hour, and then proselyting, which involves lessons, street contacting, and something we call "Harvesting Blessing" which is where instead of asking people if they'd like to learn more about our church, we ask if we can leave a blessing on their home as representatives of Christ. That gives you a chance to invite the Spirit and soften their hearts. There can also be various trainings and meetings during the week that change our schedule a bit.
I wanted to share one story. A recent convert in our branch has a stepmother (I think that's the relationship) who hadn't been feeling well because she'd fallen and hit her head. After having dinner at this converts house on Friday, we went over there to give her a blessing. We explained what a blessing was and how we did it, and then we told her to focus her attention on how she felt as we gave the blessing. Her dogs didn't trust us very much and they kept barking when we stood up, but with some help and some treats, they calmed down enough for us to give the blessing. I annointed and Elder Hernandez gave the blessing. The Spirit was strong, and the dogs completely calmed down, which she noticed. And she felt the Spirit so powerfully. She said she knows that she needs to go to church and pay tithing but she hasn't known which church is the one she supposed to go to. She's been praying to know which church to go to, and she has noticed the change in her step-daughter since she was baptized. We're going to go visit her again today.
I've seen how people can be prepared to hear the gospel and God leads us to them. I have so many experiences and not enought time to share them all. But I know that this is the Lord's work and I'm so glad to be a part of it!
I love you!
-Elder Ryan Lofthouse-
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