The Best Two Years: Churrrr Gosford

So I've been out 13 months, Gosford is my third area, and Elder Tito is my fifth companion. I feel pretty blessed to have stayed in areas for a while each time. I actually quite like the 6 month stay idea. I feel like it allows you to get to know the area well and then accomplish a lot more than you could if you were moving everywhere often.

Gosford is a pretty big area with lots of potential. There seems to be a ton of opportunities for finding, and for the first time in my mission, the train option is available as well, which is pretty cool. Up until now, I've only been train finding on trade-offs. Elder Tito is a pretty big fan of tracting, which works well, because so am I. We had some pretty enjoyable moments tracting this week, just with all the people that you get at the door.

I think the funniest experience we had was meeting a lady who told us to come back at 2:00. So we get there, and there's a paper on her door that says "sorry can't talk". I think that was a first for both of us haha. Your loss sistah!

As for the new District, I think this is gonna be quite the transfer. We've had a lot of fun already just in our first District Meeting and Conference Weekend. Elder Tito has dubbed us the PCC District because we have Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, and Hawai'i represented, with Australia and Utah as well. Needless to say, it's pretty crack-up (Aussie for joke/laugh).

General Conference definitely lived up to it's hype. There were so many talks on basic principles of the Gospel, which seems so fitting. It is becoming more and more evident that the time is nigh and we need to prepare such as not only knowing of Christ, but knowing Him. There were a lot of talks that stuck out to me, but I think the one I learned from the most was Elder Juan A. Uceda. He shared a story from his mission where they visited Machu Picchu and the experience he had there, but the section that hit me the most was: "we returned to Machu Picchu very carefully and in silence. On the return trip, I remained silent, and the idea came to my mind that He had paid attention to my voice but that I had not paid any attention to His. There was a deep pain in my heart for disobeying His voice and at the same time a deep sense of gratitude for His mercy. He did not exercise His justice upon me, but in His great mercy, He had saved my life".

Something that I am trying to work on is relying on the Spirit more. I, like Elder Uceda, can definitely say that Heavenly Father has been listening to my voice. But, I don't think I can say the same for myself. I've come to learn that God has often answered my prayers, but I either haven't noticed or wasn't listening close enough, which is why that is my biggest goal right now. If I can rely on the Spirit always, I know there will be even greater opportunities in store.

Love you heaps!

Elder Muh