Monday, February 11, 2013 - ONE Down LESS than ONE to Go!!!!!

Hola Mi Familia! Well, it happened! This past Friday, I completed ONE YEAR in the mission! It feel pretty dang fantastic if I do say so myself! I can't even imagine that one year has passed, but it has! So crazy! I have learned SO much in these past 12 months! I can't even being to think or count all of the things I've learned and life lessons that I have experience. I definitely think I am NOT the same person I was one year ago. Well, this week was kind of slow...it seems like as time goes on we are getting less and less people to teach and those that we have are not progressing as well as we would like. Our 2 investigators....I'm not so sure about them. I am thinking that the lady’s sister who was just baptized a month ago is just talking her into and she likes the idea of getting baptized and all and I don't think that she is really receiving a conversion. She is just interested because she has seen the change in her sister, but she needs to understand that she has to put in an effort to change and receive a testimony. And her 9 year old son is quite a difficult kid. He doesn't seem to pay attention too much and would rather be playing instead of listening to us. He is just a kid so it is understandable, but he really like primary when he went last week. We just need to find games or creative ways to teach him. Unfortunately they didn't go to church yesterday and so the dates for the 2nd of March have fallen and we need to see what is up and plan another one. The other lady is progressing really well! She came to church for the 2nd time yesterday and that really made me happy. She is reading the Book of Mormon and although she has a hard time understanding it sometimes I think she likes it especially when we help her see how it helps her in her life. She is still having problems with her husband. We taught her how to receive personal revelation and how she can ask God what she should do in her situation. She seems to like church especially Relief Society. We really need to find her a friend though that can help her feel more welcome, but it is hard to find someone to match her because she is 20 (my age....that is weird) and has a 2 year old son. But we will work on that. Hopefully if everything continues to go well, we will have a baptism for her the 2nd of March. This week because of various events and circumstances I have been thinking a lot about the Atonement and how fantastic it is! My knowledge and testimony have really grown tremendously this past year on the mish! It is really fantastic to know that we have the opportunity to repent and be forgiven thanks to Jesus Christ. A lot of times when we talk about repentance we talk about it with a reluctant or possibly sad tone. Something like "Oh I did something I shouldn't have and now I have to repent". I have come to learn that we should not be like that. We should be happy and excited to repent. We all make mistakes and sin and Jesus and Heavenly Father give us the OPPORTUNITY and GIFT of repentance! Isn't that great! We get a second chance. So maybe our attitudes should be "Oh, I did something wrong that I shouldn't have, but heck yeah! I get to repent! I get a second chance to try and be better!" Just a thought... Well, that is about all I've got for this week I hope you all are well and enjoy this week! Hope everyone finds a Honey to celebrate the 14th with! I will be excited to celebrate "Single's Awareness Day" with the rest of the singles of the world! Rock on! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner