Elder Cameron Bolinder's Excellent Adventures: Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: Week 25

Elder Christensen and Elder Bolinder - St. Peter, MN

¿¡Qué tal amigos!?

It's been quite the transition here to St. Peter. First of all, the area is HUGE. We cover St. Peter, and also several other small towns including Mankato, New Ulm, and Le Sueur - all of which attend the Mankato Ward. It's definitely taking some getting used to not being so close to the city, and all you see are cornfields for miles!

So my new companion is Elder Christiansen from Farmington, New Mexico! He's a super nice guy and very humble! He has been out for just over 6 months and just was called to be a district leader. He's been here for just one transfer, and they also white-washed the Mankato English elders (replaced both missionaries with new ones at the same time) so the ward just got 3 brand new missionaries and they were so welcoming and excited to help us!

There's not a whole lot of Spanish work here, I guess all the Hispanics are just hiding in every nook and cranny in these tiny farm towns lol. But, we do have a really cool investigator named Germán! The elders found him tracting through a trailer park in St. Peter. We had a super solid lesson with him on the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is showing some great potential to progress! It's also super fun because he is taking English classes at his school and so we are also trying to teach him some English as well during our visits which is always entertaining with Hispanics😂. He has school and work during the week and unfortunately works all day on Sundays so he is unable to attend church, so that's the next step we are working on with him!

We also met with one of our other progressing investigators named Shun. And yes, I did spell that correctly. Pretty strange spelling, but it's actually pronounced "Shawn." And man, he is just on fire! He has a super strong testimony of the restored gospel and recognizes the hand of the Lord in his life, guiding him through his challenging situations. He has strong desires to be baptized and become a member of the church, but he has struggled in the past with overcoming addiction to alcohol and tobacco. As of now, he has kicked the alcohol out but is still working on quitting smoking. We are trying to help him use the power and strength from the atonement of Jesus Christ to help him become clean, and it's a tough battle but he is progressing well towards the goal of baptism!

During one of my personal studies, I was reading the scriptures to try to find something that would help him and I came across a powerful verse in the Bible - 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Satan and his powers are so real. But God has given us the ability to conquer him. Heavenly Father will not let us be tempted above that which we can bear. He has given the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ to help us escape his grasp. It is up to us to rely on the strength from our Savior to withstand the evils of today's world! It's an incredible blessing to have been given commandments from the lord to bless us. I know that if we are exactly obedient to God's commandments, there are so many precious blessings promised to us from our Father in Heaven!

I hope all of you are getting pumped for General Conference! It's such a privilege every 6 months to hear from all the leaders of our church and receive guidance from our living prophet Thomas S. Monson. Often, we take this special blessing for granted! I would invite you all to tune into general conference (whether it's at home, on LDS.org, or other sources) and go with a prayer in your heart, seeking for guidance and revelation in your life. And I promise you that through the power of the Spirit you will receive answers from the words of our modern day prophets and apostles!

¡Disfrúten su semana y cuídense mucho!

-Elder Bolinder