Striving to Reach the Area Profile

Could not write a week ago as PDay was on a holiday = public library closed.  During our planning session last week, Elder Ahumada and I had set the goal of reaching the Area Profile for this week (which was the last week of the transfer) (by the way, we survived the transfers calls this weekend and are now set for another transfer - 6 weeks - in Georgetown) (also, Elder Ahumada will be going home at the end of this transfer, so chances are I'll be here for even another transfer longer to keep a smooth transition of missionaries).  So the Area Profile is essentially just a voice message that goes out from the A.P.'s each week, to the whole mission, updating us on how the mission is doing all around;  in order to have your area (Georgetown) mentioned in the weekly Area Profile, you have to have 4 baptismal dates, 5 new investigators, 6 investigators at church, and 10 or more lessons with a member present.  Believe it or not, this is quite difficult to reach (ya, we're not in a Mexico/South America mission.  This is New England, and it's hardcore).  So we went at this week with that goal, and it was great because it fueled us with TONS of energy.  We were working so hard all week, and striving so much to reach this goal, but what happened was quite interesting.

This last week we did not reach the Area Profile.  We had a very difficult week, with many people flaking out on us, and relatively no members being about to come out with us, and at times it got very discouraging (summer-time vacation/party excuses).  But we did not let this get us down; we worked through all the discouragements and let-downs, and whenever something got tough, we just prayed harder.  Elder Ahumada and I ended up having an awesome week together, and we grew so much.  And although we only ended up with 1 member lesson, and we had to drop the 4 baptismal dates (they aren't ready) and now set new ones, the big success came on Sunday.

Throughout the week of working hard and pushing through these discouraging times, we ended up actually meeting the goal of a total of 5 new investigators, but still weren't sure if they would come to church.  Well, through a lot of prayers, and some Sunday morning wake-up calls, we were blessed to have 6 of our investigators make it to church yesterday.  As they each walked in - one at a time, every few minutes - our faces lit up more and more and we felt the true blessings that came from diligent work and perseverance.

So things are really looking up now.  We have several baptismal dates to figure out, and 6 other investigators who, in this coming week, we look forward to inviting to be baptized.

Until next time,

Elder Dustin Carr