Best Week Yet!

Hey family!

   Thanks for your letters guys; it’s been great hearing from you all. I had such a crazy week. It was way good though.  Its weird being the oldest one out here but it’s been really cool to see where I was and where I am now. It’s slowly starting to hit me that my mission with a name tag will not be for the rest of my life but I am excited to continue on through my life. There is honestly nothing greater than serving others. It had been BLIZZARDING lately and it is NOT supposed to do that in spring haha, but today after the wind stopped blowing, it was just so beautiful.  I'm excited for the time when I can sit down and look at all the beautiful EVERYTHING that God has given me. My companion and I are KILLING it. We just blew our results from last transfer out of the water and it feels so good to know that I'm truly trying to stay focused to the end I have one of my old companions in my area now it’s been too fun to be around him again.  I have now been in this area for 7 MONTHS.  It’s crazy!! It’s going to be hard to leave my family out here, but I know that it be so easy to receive you guys back.  I had a really special experience this week that I will always remember. It was about prayer. During personal study, I learned a little about prayer and how we should pray and what our actions should be in connection with our prayers.  I read about how all things are fulfilled by faith and how b/c of the faith of Alma and his prayers, an angel appeared to his son.  Eventually his son's heart was changed. So I decided that I needed to pray with more faith that God can do anything, even soften a hardened heart. I had an investigator in mind (Sasha)  when I was praying, but as with most things, God's ways are different than my ways. So as the week progressed, I continued to pray for a changed heart of our investigators. Well, we have one investigator named Oleg that I don't like meeting with b/c he is super smart and knows the Bible way well and always asked questions that are impossible to answer and have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation...so our lessons go nowhere with him.  So we ended up getting a lesson with him at the branch and the spirit was there and he for the first time, just sat and listened.  He soaked everything up and seemed to really accept what was taught. It was truly a miracle. I know that God heard my prayer and we were just blessed enough to see blessings that came from that. Also, we met with Jehovah’s Witness....those lessons always drain me.  But this one was cool, in the sense that the spirit led us in our teaching. I witnessed weak missionaries confound the wise all b/c we were trying to listened to the spirit. I felt the Spirit work through me while asking questions to help them understand the need for a prophet and the Restored Gospel. Feeling the Spirit working through you is one of life's most sublime experiences, at least for me here on a mission where we strive to diligently to always have that with us. 

I have to go now to a lesson, but I love you all and am grateful for all of your support

Have a great week!

- Elder Rooney