Training !!!

Dear Family,
 
I am very happy to report that I will be training once again.  Elder Manning and I will be staying together as Zone Leaders in San Jose South, but we will be training a new missionary from Ensenada, Mexico.  We will pick up Elder Rodriguez on Thanksgiving Day.  His first experience in the mission will involve three holiday meals. He is currently in the MTC as an advanced Spanish speaker. This means that he already speaks English.  We are very excited for the chance to train. It will also give me someone to provide me updates on all of the new mission stuff after I am released. 
 
This last week was the perfect precursor to training.  We began teaching a part-member family within our apartment complex. We ate dinner with them on Friday night. If we can reactivate the mom and two daughters, it is likely that we can baptize the dad.
 
Ward council was perfect. I haven't seen it this good since Gavilan. The rescue moves forward. We are teaching many less actives and seeing results as they begin to make their way back to activity in the church. The members of the ward council are beginning to see the results and are eager to help us as we build the kingdom in Los Alamitos.
 
The week continued to get even better. Sunday, during the start of sacrament meeting, Jaron, an RM, approached us asking us if we could teach his nonmember girlfriend after church. She asked him if she could take the missionary lessons. She has been coming to church with him for a year and a half and this is the first time she expressed any interest in taking the lessons.  Elder Manning and I must have looked like a loaf of manna had just fallen from the sky when we thought about teaching her after church.
 
The lesson went really well. We were bold, but loving. Lucilla knows a good deal about the church already, but needed us to put together the "Why?" of the Restoration. I think we helped her a lot.  We are excited for our next appointment.
 
After Sacrament meeting we were approached by Rigo Garcia, who had been sealed to his family the day before, telling us that he had invited a family that was at his reception to take the missionary lessons. We are hoping to set an appointment this week.
 
It is amazing how going the extra mile really brings forth the blessings.  This week we achieved the "perfect week" as planned. We talked to 20 people a day and taught 20 lessons in the week. It was amazing to see the blessings just come. We have been working our tails off for the last three months, but it wasn't until we pushed ourselves beyond what we thought possible that we saw the blessings we have been seeking for months.  We now know what we are capable of more. We also learned how to better manage our time to accomplish all of the things we can in the week. The Lord really does bless us when we seek to grow and stretch. Sometimes he does the stretching, at other times, he makes us do it, but the blessings come. 
 
Love,
 
Elder Badger