Elder Cameron Bolinder's Excellent Adventures: Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: Week 38

Crucial Minnesota Mosquito Defense Weapon!

Dang Skeeters!

Hello mis amigos! It's been another good week here in mosquito land. Granted, the mugginess is probably harder to get used to. But, we are having a blast here in Mankato. We had a dinner with an older couple outside on their porch this week, and they were like Boy Scouts they were so prepared! haha. They bought these food covers for all the food and also had an arsenal of this zapper shaped like a tennis racket and an as'salt'-gun to ward off the annoying mosquitos. Fighting the swarms like true Minnesotans lol.

This week was good, but a bit slow. Elder Stevens was sick during the start of the week. But, things picked up towards the end and we had some great milagros!

On Thursday we got to blitz the Minnesota State University campus and do some contacting! It was a little sparse because it's summer, but there was a basketball thing going on so we talked to a good amount of people. We were able to give away about 10 pass-along cards, but me and elder Stevens were disappointed because nobody took a Book of Mormon. So with our spirits a little down, we started to make our way back to the car. And then.. we run into Amina! She was this sweet African lady who accepted a Book of Mormon and gave us her number!

Then, the next day we went tracting through this trailer park and absolutely nobody was home it was strange. We thought about going to a different street but we both felt like we should just continue on. Long story short, we met three people right in a row and taught all of them the restoration and left a Book of Mormon! Walking back to the car we passed by a few more houses and we thought, hey why not stop by one more house before we have to go to dinner. And sure enough, they answer and we meet Kyra and her daughter Morgan. They just moved to Mankato and are looking for a church to go to, so we taught them about the origins of our church and the Book of Mormon and invited them to church. She was super nice and really receptive! It's amazing how the Lord blesses us for working hard until the end!

On Saturday, we had a sweet service project we did for a member of the ward. We got to dig a 5-foot hole for the window-well he is putting in. It literally felt like the movie “Holes” haha😂. But it was fun. And we got fed watermelon afterwards.. bonus! I'll attach a pic.

So a miracle from this week.. between the two sets of elders here we had 10 investigators come to church today!! And the family who's church we attended last week came and loved it! The wife was definitely touched by the Spirit, and had lots of questions. Afterwards she said to us "I think I'm going to start writing down all my questions for you to answer because I have way to many to remember." Haha. And I love when people ask questions because we have answers!

We had ward conference, so we had talks from the stake presidency and it was so powerful. They talked about Alma 32, and amazing chapter in the Book of Mormon that talks about growing our testimonies of the gospel like we grow a tree. We have to "nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us." As we do those important daily things to nourish our 'testimony trees' such as prayer, scripture study, service, church, developing Christ-like attributes, we can taste of the fruit or the blessings and happiness we receive from the Lord. "And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit." I know this to be true because this is how I gained my testimony of the restored gospel. Reading the Book of Mormon, sincere prayer, seeking for answers and guidance helps us to grow spiritually. We can't grow a strong tree over night, we have to strengthen our roots to withstand the winds of the adversary. A really awesome quote from our stake president that I like is,"You only know as much as you are willing to pay the price to know." So true!

That's all for this week, but I hope you know how much I appreciate all of you! Have a great week!!

-Elder Bolinder