Elder Cameron Bolinder's Excellent Adventures: Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: Week 31

Biking in St. Peter, MN

Little México 🇲🇽

Since this week was transfer week, on Wednesday everybody got shuffled around driving up to the twin cities to pick up their new companions. Elder Atwood drove up to get a new greenie who joined us in the Mankato ward, and we've had a great time so far with him this week. So, we got to have another missionary, Elder Smith, join us in a trio for the day! We went up to Le Sueur, where most of our Hispanic investigators are, and had a few lessons up there so we had some fun trying to translate a bit for him lol. But we did contact some English people as well, and met this guy from Florida who we talked to and gave him a Book of Mormon! Too bad he is technically outside our ward boundaries, so we have to refer all the English speaking people we found to other missionaries. Nonetheless, it was still an awesome contact and a great day!

Other great news in Le Sueur -- we recently got to teach a Hispanic referral we got this week. She's a super sweet lady named Maria from México. She heard a little bit about our church from the sister missionaries, but wanted to get un Libro de Mormón (Book of Mormon) in Spanish. We got to explain to her a little bit of the background of where it comes from, what it is, and the restoration of the gospel! We're excited to see how she will start progressing, but probably the highlight lesson of the week.

This week we have tried to focus more on finding since we don't have a ton of people to teach right now. We were able to take out one of the priests in our ward who is waiting to get his mission call and get him some tracting experience! We didn't have much success but we had a few good contacts. Towards the end of the week we were getting a little discouraged because of the lack of new investigators we were finding, but we kept pushing. And although it's been a grind, God has blessed us with some miracles for our efforts! On Sunday, we were going to see our investigator Germán. He lives in a trailer park on the other end of town here in St. Peter, and there are two trailer parks here that are just loaded with Hispanics. Basically 95% of the Hispanic families that live here are in these two trailer parks. Although they have been tracted over soo many times from past elders here, we still go there frequently to see German. It's the funniest thing though because right as you walk in, it literally feels like you've walked into a mini México! They've got Latino music blasting, little kids playing fútbol on the streets. It's great😂. Reminds me of my time in La Ciudad de México. Well one of our goals for this month is to say hi to every person we see. So, as we walk down the streets of "Little Mexico" we say hola to this guy and his buddy just standing on the side of the house. One of them gave us a nonchalant "hola" back, but then the other guy starts walking up. He walks up to us and asked, "hey, where are ya'll from?" He was probably in his early 20s and had a beer can in his hand so at first I was like oh no, hopefully he's not drunk. But he was super nice! We told him we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and explained to him some of the things we do as missionaries. He told us his nephew just got cancer and he's really worried about what's going to happen. We said a prayer with him in his behalf, and were able to teach him about the plan of salvation that Heavenly Father has for us and give him comfort in knowing that if something happens, he will see his nephew again! His name is Hector, and he turned out to be just a genuine guy who is starting to look for God in his life. We set a time to meet with him again next week, and although it didn't happen right away, we were finally blessed with an awesome new 'gator!

That's all for this week, but it's definitely been a good one. Really looking forward to this next transfer, and I feel like things are finally on the upswing in this area! I love being a missionary. I love being a disciple of Christ, and sharing the joy I have felt from His gospel with others! I know that our Father in Heaven loves us. He knows us personally. He wants us to be happy has a plan for each and every one of us. He loves us so much that "He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and he is the central part of the great plan of happiness. As we turn to him, have faith in him, and repent, we can grow to become more like him and "overcome the world", just as He has.

I love you all so much and I thank you deeply for all of your amazing examples and support! ¡Hasta la próxima semana!

-Elder Bolinder