This past week has been super awesome. Elder Lavulo and I have been teaching like crazy since we found so many people that we could teach the week before. He and I have been biking so much too because we would have one appointment on one side of our area, and then another one on the opposite side. So yeah my legs got sore pretty quick. This last week was probably the busiest that I've been on my mission so far.
The few things that were highlights from this week are really great. First off that Dago came to church for the second week in a row! We've been teaching him a lot, about every other day now. He's such a sick dude. We go over and he's always really excited to see us and he understands everything that we've taught him really easily. He's way smart and he loves learning about anything that has to do with God and Christ. He's such an interesting guy too. He told us this week that he lost 160 pounds not too long ago. He showed us photos from before and I was just like "whhhaaatttt how?.." He lost some serious weight and I think he's a guy that can commit and do things when he wants to, which is good because he really wants to be baptized and he's excited for it the most. On Sunday we showed him the font and he thought it was so cool. We also showed him the big painting of when Christ visited the Americas and when we explained the whole story about it to him, and pointed out the history of it all. It gave him goosebumps haha. We've been having a lot of success with him and he's coming closer to Christ every day that we see him. Dago just has to give up smoking and once we teach him it, I think that he will commit to quitting so that he can receive the Gospel.
Also this week that was really amazing was that we helped a recent convert in the ward with a lot of stuff. We stop by at his house all the time and he's one of the best members that is in this ward, and he was only baptized in September. He has been struggling really bad lately though. He had 2 best friends die recently, and he has been having a lot of issues with his family and it's caused him to struggle. He gave in to a lot of bad habits with pornography because he just didn't feel happy anymore and he slipped into bad choices. We've been working with him really hard to throw all of his DVD's away so that he can feel happier and feel as he once did when he was baptized when he lived the commandments. It took awhile, but we had a long talk with him and he decided that he wanted to progress in his life and move on and use The Atonement to get rid of his addiction :). So we did all we could to help him do that. We grabbed every single DVD, put it all in a garbage bag, stomped and jumped on all of it, ran it over a couple of times with Elder Bowen and Hugh's car, and threw it in a dumpster. I'm really proud that he decided to do that. I love that guy and I've known him since I got to Boiling Springs and he is seriously one of the strongest guys I've met in my entire life, and it was great to help him live the gospel so that he could be happier. He made a huge change and he's gained faith in this trial and he's taking a big step towards repentance and being worthy again.
The blessings I've gotten have been so ridiculous that I don't know how to thank my Heavenly Father for them all. We've found even more people to teach this week, and we've got a few other people besides Dago on date for baptism. Things have been going great with Elder Lavulo too. We've been getting along really well and it's been fun having him as a companion. We laugh all the time, and even though we had a small difference of opinion on Sunday, we worked it out and we became better friends because of it. We teach really well together, and we can relate to each other. Things are going better than ever in Boiling Springs and even though I may be working harder than ever, and having more success than ever, I still know that I wouldn't have had it if it weren't for the help that Heavenly Father gives me every day. I pray for the strength to bike for miles on end and there's no way that I could have done all of that on my own, I'm too lazy. I'm blessed all the time and I have no one to thank but God and I'm so thankful for the countless things that He's done for me since I left on my mission. I'm excited for this next week.
Love,
Elder Sean Bills