ELDER DALLAS ROMNEY VARNER: Hitchhiking Miracles (Week 16)

what a week! and we didn't even get the chance to see all our potentials from the last few weeks! miracles left and right this week! we be getting hyped out here! this was definitely one of the funnest weeks of my mission so far!

honestly, not too much to report on for Monday, but i did get my hands on an American football and got to ball out with elder Sinclaire for a bit, I still got game!

Tuesday was a pretty hectic, but a miraculous day! We started by getting a call at 5am from the sisters saying they needed help to check train times(because they had to go to Birmingham cuz sister Gjevik was leaving and sister wadsworth had to get her greenie!), so we walked to the station and then a mile to their flat to help them walk to the station, so two miles! I'm gonna be so fit by the end of this transfer! After all that, we showered, got ready, and went to the train station again to say goodbye to elder smith, but the bus came TWO hours late so that was a chunk of time, then we got lunch and I went with elder Garrick of my mtc group, to five guys! Nothing better than taking an english chap to a good ole merican meal! Following all of that madness, we had two amazing lessons with Jxxx and Axxxx! Kxxx came with us to teach Axxx, and as we were walking to the lesson, someone came up to us and said they wanted to meet up! heck freakin yeah! Then we ate dinner at our flat with elder miner, elder bille, and elder jam jam. Then at 9:00 we went to the station again to welcome all the new people to our zone! I'm officially no longer the greenest missionary in the district thanks to wadsworth training! So hyped! The miracles didn't stop there, at 9:45 we got a call from a recent convert who is less active saying he wants to meet up with us!! And we got such a sweet referral! More to come on that!

Wednesday wasn't too bad, just not very productive, we set up a few appointments, the beginning of the day was pretty slow, but it did get better! We visited Dxxx Kxxx for awhile, that guys is so fun to talk to, such a good heart. After that we did some tracting, saw a bit of snow/ice, and then had the best less active visit of my mission. We went to visit a guy who used to be a bishop and a member of a stake presidency, who now is less active. He didn't really say why he is less active, but he said he still knew the church was true 100%, and that he was wanting to come back, but needed time. His wife passed away a few years ago, so I talked to him a bit about my mom and found some common ground with him, we showed him the Christmas video and by the end of that and me bearing my testimony he was tearing up, we got to talk to him for a bit more after and he gave us some hot coco. While he won't be coming to church soon necessarily, he did invite us to come back!

Thursday was good and bad. It was bad because no one wanted to talk to us, at all, except one guy who wanted to talk to me about trump and gun control, and I just had to sit there listening to it until I could say "as a full-time missionary for my church, I just simply haven't had the time to follow politics", and that was the end of that. Following a few hours that, then the day got good again! We met with the recent convert who was less active who called us on Tuesday night and he said he wanted to come back to church and the activities! So that was a miracle! And then we went to Royston's house for dinner, we had mac n cheese and I actually enjoyed it, my family has to be shocked with that one because I hate cheese haha. Oh also we had to pick up two elders who are serving in Milford haven, elder borelli and elder Elliot, elder borelli and sinclaire had to go to Birmingham so I was with elder Elliot for Friday.

Friday was SOO good! By far the best day I've had since being in the trio! Elder Elliot and I balled out in the area! He's from Oregon, such a cool guy, it was probably the most fun I've ever had finding! We taught a ton of street lessons and showed the Christmas video to a bunch of people, and everyone loved it! We even found a new investigator and a few solid potentials! The new investigator was a total fourth floor last door kind of moment, we decided to knock every door on a street and this guy named Jxxxn answered at the very last door after a street full of nothing, it was a miracle. Later on we prayed for which other street to knock and we decided on a street, for the first good amount of doors, no one showed even a bit of interest and I was starting to get a bit discouraged because it was cold and dark, but then a lady answered the door and said she wasn't interested because her mom had just passed away, but then I shared my story with my mom and she opened up a bit, we taught her a bit of the plan of salvation and gave her a leaflet(pamphlet) and she invited us to come again another time. We found some more potentials on that street and THEN we knocked a door and a lady answered and said she wasn't too interested because her husband passed away recently, again I was able to testify of eternal families to her and gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet. As we walked away from that street, tears filled my eyes because I realised that God truly did lead us to that street at that time. It was such a great day overall, elder Elliot is such a boss!! He has such a positive and outgoing attitude and we got along so well, it was nice to go Finding with someone who was so excited and positive! I hope I get a chance to serve with that kid again!

Saturday was a sweet one too! We had district meeting and lunch which was rad, then we went finding and met some awesome people! We met a guy named Dxxx who used to be a boxer, has a daughter and wife, super funny guy, and actually is looking forward to seeing us again! The hype is so real guys!?! Then we had the homies miner and holbrook come over for dinner and we all went to an activity game night thing which was cool. Family, I tried so hard to get them to play the potato dancing game thing, but they didn't like the idea haha. Also I saw a stake dance activity thing right before my very eyes, I was closer in age with some of those kids than any missionaries, fetch, I miss dances guys, those stake dances every Saturday night were legit, I'd die to go to one right now!

Sunday was another sweet one! It started off with a miracle! We were walking to church and about half way there this van pulls over and the guy offers us a ride, and we didn't wanna turn down that opportunity so we went for it! Then once I got in the car I realised it was ExxxGxxxx, the less active member I've been trying to contact for a month! He drove us to church, he said he was sorry he couldn't meet up earlier but we could stop by sometime this upcoming week! Total miracle! Taking rides from potential strangers works! Just kidding don't do that, please. Church was sweet! I taught second hour on how we can joyfully endure to the end. Not much else to report on for the day.

Ill end this with a quick spiritual thought: President Nelson spoke a lot on joy this last general conference and he said "My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. We feel it at Christmas time when we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” And we can feel it all year round. For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!" We can feel joy all the time as we choose to follow Jesus Christ and learn to rely upon him at all times. I know this to be true for me and i promise each of you joy and peace as you do so in your lives!

Also a quick shout out to the baller Trevor Thompson! It was his birthday last week so happy birthday man! SUCH a stud!

I hope you guys all have a great week! Keep lighting the world this holiday season! Much love!