Look Forward With Hope!

 But Christmas I learned a really valuable lesson hahaha.... So first off it rained the WHOLE day.. so we stayed inside the church and the Branch BBQ ended around 3.... from 3-9.... I kid you not.... I played a little ninja and ping pong for about an hour... so actually 4-9.... I just watched mormon messages..... We had nothing to do so I watched those all day.... And I could care less how unproductive my Christmas was.... but I realized the best gift I had.... (obviously besides all of you, family, friends etc.)... And that was a testimony of this gospel... as I watched each one I felt the spirit confirm to me what I was hearing was true... So It was a pretty sweet Christmas I would say.
Now let me tell you about my New Years Eve..... So I remembered I was thinking... What did I do this time 1 year ago?... And we were in the house in Cashmere playing farkle and I remember mom and dad kissed and Jared was like "gross" Or something mean and I laughed super hard...... And now.... let me tell you about my lovely new years eve for the finishing of 2012 :) .... We had to be back at our flat at 4pm and once we got in... we were told to make the flat "Temple Clean"..... And so me and Elder J live in a 4 man flat.... so me and Elder J had to clean a huge flat with the 2 of us.... we cleaned 5 hours straight until 9.... planned for tomorrow for like 5 minutes and then cleaned til 10:30... we didn't even have dinner..... And then this morning we cleaned another 3 hours!!!!!!!!!!!! So we finished the new year cleaning and started the new year cleaning.... I kid you not... we were in a state of wearyness where you're laughing for no apparent reason and yet you still wanted to just hit someone.... And there were tons of party people (we live by a ton of clubs) and I was so angry hahah.. we were just yelling "REPENT! REPENT!".... oh my goodness.... I was thinking the whole time... "this is so dumb.. I didn't come on a mission to clean... I hate my life".... pretty dramatic right? hahah but if you would've seen how dirty it was, you would've said the same hahah. And so this morning for personal study I came across some revelation that slapped me in the face... First I'll give you some background... My zone leader Elder A... always has the most intense and revelation flowing studies in the world... and he says every morning he prays for it and opens up the scriptures randomly... and comes to his revelation... so this morning I did the same.... I prayed and opened up randomly.... I was in a pretty bad mood due to the most stupid new years eve I've ever had and it just so happened I landed in the bible.... where it speaks of the first and great commandment... Love one another... And I thought... "love one another?... more like hit someone".... And as I read it said a phrase with Jesus speaking "Because I live.. ye shall live also..." And it popped in my mind the talk given in General Conference which was titled that... So I flipped that open... and read.... and there's this little strand of light that comes from my window.... and it landed exactly.... perfectly..... on this sentence in the story.... "look forward with hope, rather than look backward with despair"... And that just dumbfounded me for real.... I was so shocked that I underlined and marked it and even took a picture that you can see..... With such simple words.... brought a great peace to my mind... mostly because I was pretty angry I had cleaned my whole new years eve hahah and started off the new year stupid as well... So I thought to myself.... from now on... I'm not going to dwell on the bad things this past year such as yesterday.... instead I'm going to look forward with hope.... And I think the same can apply with EVERYONE.... often when the new year comes everyone thinks about all the bad things that happened to them and just hope for a better year.... so what better way to live by... than to look forward with hope, rather than looking backward with despair.... (there's my over exaggerated story for you hahaha) So now I've typed too much and I shallst be on my way now... Just remember that and have a happy 2013!

Best Christmas Present EVER!

This week was seriously fair dinkum aussie!... aka sweet as. We did a TON of teaching and found a TON of new investigators... To put it in short we saw miracles for days!.. We went from our area being pretty close to dead... to setting 4 baptismal dates this week alone!... It was INSANE!... And I found a Brazilian!!!!!... It's been my goal to baptize a Brazilian on my mission hahah, and he came in for a lesson and is keen as!.. He's gonna get baptized for sure. But really the most craziest thing was when we went on trade offs with the assistants... I went with Elder U..  He is seriously the definition of a machine.... And he shared an experience where him and his companion made a promise to the Lord.... They weren't going to care about food, sleep, or anything.. They were just going to dedicate their time to work... And he said it was seriously the most borderline thing between hard working and just absolutely crazy... And they set a pretty high baptismal goal for the next 3 months.... and at the end of that 3 months they had achieved it all except 1... And they were pretty pumped but they still knew this goal was inspired of God... And the week before reporting ended... one of their investigators ran out of Sacrament meeting crying.... and they got a text a little later saying "I felt the spirit so strong.. can I be baptized next Saturday?"... And so she was baptized and they reached their goal for baptisms in that 3 months!... And he said "I could honestly tell you Elder Ball... I couldn't of gave any more in that time than what I gave.."... And then he asked me to think about a question but I want to change it a little.... "At the end of my mission... How do I want to account to God?"... And think of that question as you read Alma 26.... This is Alma's homecoming talk after his 13 year mission.... So that definitely boosted me up another gear to work harder.
At the beginning of my mission maybe when I was out like 3 months.. I was having trouble finding.. like I could get phone numbers from people easy... but finding solid people was hard.... So I prayed real hard one night... and the next day I found this Chinese guy named L.... who will be getting baptized this week!!!! Best Christmas present EVER!... And then that same week I found this Japanese girl named N.. she was for real hard hearted hahaha... Like she straight up told us she didn't want to learn about God at first... but then she started opening up about her past and how her grandma died recently... and she wanted to know where she was now.... And so then she softened up to learn about the gospel which is miracle as!!... And something even cooler... my Zone Leader Elder H.. in his Patriarchal Blessing it says he will serve in his native tongue.... yet on his mission he barely has spoken Japanese... and so now he sees it being fulfilled.... and so he'll be teaching her now and I'm sure she'll get baptized soon :D... MIRACLES!

BOOM! ...SPIRIT IN YOUR FACE!

But this week was pretty crazy hahah...  I'm still in the City.. just different Area and different district.... Oh my goodness though... It broke my heart... all my investigators... I won't teach them anymore..  :'( ... But it's algood we've had some miracles this week....The area was basically dead when I came Friday.. like no investigators... but one night I just sat down and made a billion calls and we set up seriously like SO MANY lessons with potential investigators for this week.... EVEN!.... This girl named M from Mexico....  And I met her 2 months ago but she never answered... but that night she answered and we were on the phone like 10 minutes just trying to convince her to come in... cause I still remember she told me all the churches are corrupt because there's no authority on the earth anymore... And I almost had a heart attack... (RESTORATION)... So finally she agreed to come in and listen to what we have to say... So Wednesday shallst be our make or break lesson... I'm scared as hahah.
This morning for about 4 hours we moved 7 girls' stuff to their new apartment.... K so just imagine how much stuff 1 girl has.... and times that by..... 7!.... It was so heavy hahah. But it was AWESOME!.
This week was sweeet as... I'll share one really cool experience... So we were teaching one of our investigators... (she'll be baptized this week).. And at the end of our lesson she just bore her testimony to us and basically shared her conversion story with us and just started crying... For real the spirit was so strong... like... the only description would be like BOOM!... SPIRIT IN YOUR FACE!...  She's got a super cool conversion story too... but I'll tell that when I get pictures of her baptism as well :)
And another super cool thing... It was an Arizona invasion this Sunday!!! A ton of guys from Arizona came for business and 2 of them went to Mesa High.. and 1 of them grew up in Kingsborough Park ward (which was 52nd ward at the time).. And he knew everyone... Pyles, Robinsons, Favreuas etc... But unfortunately... I didn't catch his name -_-... so sorry bout dat hahaha. But he was super cool.