Fried Alligator, and Exhaustion

Hello everybody!

       These last few weeks have been great! We have a few amazing people that we're talking to who are progressing and learning really well - I love watching people grow as they change their lives and just look happier and happier as they follow up on their commitments. It's fulfilling to see that the work that we're doing is actually helping people.

Being on a mission is really hard sometimes! As a church member, all that you see from the missionaries is them being really happy and bearing their strong testimonies of the gospel while they teach and baptize. What you don't see are the late nights worrying about investigators and the hours upon hours thinking about struggling members and how we can help them. 

As fulfilling and incredible as being a missionary is, it's exhausting! I fell asleep at a member's house for the first time yesterday afternoon... It's not as bad as it sounds. We were at his apartment, and he and Elder Day were cooking fried alligator (tastes like a really good combination of fish and chicken, 10/10 would recommend). Elder Faust, Elder Pacella and I were all sitting on this really comfortable brown couch and within one minute of us sitting down, all three of us were OUT. 

I know that the gospel that I have the opportunity to preach is true because I don't know how on earth I'd be able to keep going without God's help. We have dozens of disappointments every week, we're doing something that the world sees as really peculiar (leaving family and friends for two years to bike in 100 degree weather and tell people about Jesus), we face a lot of rejection, and we spend all of our time thinking about other people. At the end of the day, I just look back at the day and thank God for help keeping me going with how hard I'm working, because, without God's help, there's no way that I could keep going.

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Here is a photo of me, Elder Pacella, and Elder Foust. Transfers were this week - Elder day and I are staying, Elder Pacella is going to Jacksonville, and Elder Faust is going home. Ade is front and center - he was baptized 9 months ago. 

We painted the graffiti wall again! It was really fun. This time, we painted the Book of Mormon and the Bible and where they take place (the Bible in the Middle East area and the Book of Mormon in the Americas.

For more history about the background of the Gainsville "Graffiti Wall" go to :  "Asher gets into the arts in August"