This week was nuts!

It felt like this week we were all over the place. But I really drew closer to Heavenly Father as well. Last Monday I was feeling pretty down. Had a rough day. And then we went to teach a lesson to a man named Denis and the spirit wasn't guiding the lesson like I should have let it. And Elder MacDonald noticed that. He said that I was being pretty pushy with him and He's right I was. So that night I had the opportunity to say a big long prayer. And to ask Heavenly Father how I could better myself to follow and feel the spirit. And I also apologized to the Lord. I didn't do my best that lesson. And coming away from that prayer I learned two things. One is that the Lord understands that we have weaknesses. He gets that. But through him we can turn those weak things in our lives into strengths. And that's a real positive thing for me. It's been amazing to know that I can come to him and He can help me. The other thing I learned is that I can do better. And
we all can. Elder MacDonald and I read a talk by F. Enzio Busche called Unleashing the Dormant Spirit. What a great talk. He speaks of categorizing our thoughts and actions so that we an feel the spirit more fully. There are things that we say in order to be funny that can drive the Spirit away, or things that we do that helps the spirit understand that we aren't so serious about following him. The effort we put forth has to be serious and thorough and then the Spirit says, o.k. here ya go. Here is what you need. And that knowledge has been a huge blessing.
for the rest of the week we did a lot of running around. We knocked a ton of doors on Tuesday and gave Sister Meck a blessing. On Wednesday we had an awesome zone conference. The A.P.'s spoke about our goal of 550 and how to obtain it. W need 89 baptisms in December and we have 89 dates set. So staying close to each and everyone of them is going to be important. Daily Contact. we can't let those with dates slip out of our hands. They also told us the story of how they achieved there goal of 400 last year. They said around this time of the year it was looking like it was literally going to be impossible to achieve 400. A guy who is high up in the MTC came to the mission as well and he did some stats and he basically told President Jergensen that it was impossible to get that many baptisms in that short of time. And President Jergensen said to him. No. We will make it. You haven't met my missionaries. So the MTC guy goes to Zone Conference the next day and
then after the meeting says to President Jergensen "O.k. I've met your missionaries and I believe you will reach your goal." Andon December 31st they got the 400th baptism. how amazing. please pray for our mission and the goal of 550.
We also got to watch Ephraim's Rescue at ZC. If you haven't seen that or 17 Miracles you need to watch them both. They are some of the most toughing movies I have ever seen. And they both got approved for us to watch on Christmas! Do I smell a movie marathon coming on? I think so! And we get to sleep in until 8 on Christmas day! YES! What A BLESSING!

On Friday we went out to Independence and taught Brother Ledjte. And we really got on a different level with him I think. We taught him about finishing and enduring to the end. His Cancer is getting worse and he doesn't have much left in him. But we told him that He has so much to offer the world still. And so much to offer the branch. He could be such a great example if he would just come out to church. The Branch needs a good example of someone who endures hard things.
We also taught Brother locke who told us straight up that he will never come back to church. He thinks the Church is perfect but he has been confronted in different wards that He has lived in about not coming every Sunday. So we were kinda frustrated with that. He loves meeting with us though. His wife and daughter need the support the church can give him. Because they are both converts and they don;t have a testimony like his. They need church attendance even if he doesn't. Which we all do. So we will see where that goes.

On Saturday we drove up to Elkader to usher and attend a Christams show put on by kelly Lord who is a convert of about 13 years. She is eccentric. But she is so cool. She flies in two piano freaks (they are soooooo good), one who served his mission here and one who served his mission in Oakland. The show seriously blew my mind. Kelly has a great gift of discernment and when we were eating dinner with her she kinda read our fortunes if you will. she told me she would tell me mine later cause it was special. And it was a really sacred and spiritual experience for me. And so I won't share it. But the concert was amazing. We handed out cards with our number on them at the end of the show and people weer pretty interested because of the spirit they felt. So I was pretty stoked about that. Anyways, I love you all so much. Keep us in your prayers. We are taching Lisa Sifrit tonight and hopefully setting a date forJanuary 11th with her. So please pray for us. I
love you all!

Elder Caleb James Wardle