Pray

I have a lot to say, but I just wanted to say that it was super good to talk to my family I hope they have an amazing week!

This week I wanted to say one thing and it was about the Sunday that we had. I know that od really did bless us that day and it was a Christmas miracle. As you know or do not know we really need males in our church in Alaverdi. Right now we have one male that is coming and is consistent. So this transfer we have been trying to improve that so that we can go from a group to a branch. This week we went to church, but on the way we went and brought a male that just moved to our area. He is super cool and only has been baptized for a year. It feels like God is pouring these blessings upon us. We got to church with him and I was not expecting to have a whole more ton males come to sacrament, but here is when the real miracle happens, one of our investigators came that was a male and one of the old Branch presidents came. I now know that the Lord has a hand in his work. We just were continue to work and it moves forward. Sometimes the blessings do not come, but that is not because we are not worthy of the blessings, but just because God wants to see if we are really going to keep doing it when it is even hard. I am just super grateful for this week and everything that you guys do for me. Never take anything granted because we really have it good in America. I do not thing you guys realize how good you really do have it and thank the Lord every day for the blessings that you have. Do not let a day go by where you do not thank the Lord. He is everything in this life and the least we can do is show him a little gratitude by getting on our knees and showing him that we love him. I learned this last week that if you do not have to desire to pray, than pray until you do have the desire. I know that it can be hard to pray because for a long time I did not do it all. If you are not praying right now, try it.  See if you see a change. Do not think for one second that the Lord will not take you back in a heart beat because He will. I know that He will because He did it with me.  This is my invitation to you this week to pray to the Lord this week for everything that you are grateful for and if you do not know what you are grateful for or flat out don't feel like praying, then start out with asking him if he is there or for the desire to pray. We all can pray and we all can feel the Lord's love in our life we just have to be willing enough to take it from him because he for sure wants to give it to us. I know I kind of went off on this topic, but I just want to encourage you to pray to the Lord and you will feel that He loves you.

I love everything that you do for me and keep smiling because the Lord is truly blessing you. Even when you think he is not He is.

Elder Sproul

Try your best... Really try YOUR best

This week was a really good week. I feel like the missionary work has gotten a whole new mind set for me. 

A lot of people have been struggling with their numbers and I have just been thinking if you want to do 

good in life all you have to do is try. Elder Holland I think said it best, "the best part about this gospel is 

we get credit for trying." When we try, we show the Lord that we are willing to do His work. So when I 

think about people who are not doing the best, maybe they are not really trying their best. This is the 

Lord's work and He wants to help us, but there is no way that He can help us if we are not trying to receive 

His help. I have been reading the teaching of Brigham Young and he said something like this. If we are not 

going to follow through with revelation why would He give it to us. I take this and look at missionary work. 

If we are not trying to find investigators He is not just going to throw them in your lap. Just basically a 

principle for life, if you want to do well in life and have the Lord bless you, then you have to at least try 

to do your best in everything and at that time the Lord will show you miracles in your life. So this week 

evaluate what you have been doing and ask yourself if you really have been trying your best. You and 

the Lord are the only ones who will know so take it up with Him.

Overall this was a good week and I am super happy to be able to talk to my family next week. It was a 

good week due to the fact that I found out how to be happy on the mission and that is just to work. 

I am not saying that I was not happy before and not doing any work before, but it just really hit me 

this week. Other than that nothing to crazy happened this week, except we had 2 investigators come 

to church and they are very interested. I am super happy to see how it goes with them. We just have 

to work on the dad in the family so that he will come to church too. That is what we will be working 

on next week. 

I love you guys so much and have an amazing week! Read your scriptures and pray to Heavenly Father. 

If you do not have the desire to pray, then pray until you have the desire to pray. I promise it will help 

you. I love you.

Elder Sproul

Backdoor Blessings

This week was a week full of miracles, well really just one day that went really well. On Thursday, we had a really good weekly planning and fixed a lot of things that were wrong with our companionship. We talked stuff out that needed to be said and actually changed what we were doing wrong. I think that sometimes as males we do not really say what is on our mind, but one thing that is good about this trio is we do. If we didn't it would just get worse and worse. On Friday, we really saw a ton on miracles. Almost every lesson that we went to had a non member in it, of which we were able to teach. If my mind is correct I think that day we were able to get 5 member presents that day. It was definitely one of the best days that I have had in a while and we totally saw the Lord's hand in everything we did that day. He really does help you in everything you do. Sometimes we don't even see it, so it just made me think about how many times that I have received blessings without even knowing. That was the highlight of my week and now we have to work on getting more people to church. That is the next step now that we have some investigators to teach. 

So I also went on a split with the Zone leaders this week, one thing that I learned from him was how to have better street contacting. He really did do a good job and I was able to learn a lot. Elder Willard is a really good missionary and is in his position for a reason. One thing that was super cool was we had this conversation with this lady on the street and were waking with her and it did not really turn into anything, but right after that we went to one of this members house and there was a lady inside and we were able to pick her up as an investigator. Even though sometimes it does not lead to anything on the street, I think that we need to preach on the street so that we can find other places. We like to call it back door blessings. Sometimes you will not see the blessings in one place, but they really are there, but just not where you are looking. 

This week I feel like I have talked about back door blessings, which are basically blessings that you do not really see, but are there. If we could all see how many back door blessings that we were getting every day we would see a ton more blessings than you really think. In this Christmas season, remember to give thanks for the blessings that you receive. He is showering them down on us and we just have to be ready to receive them. So basically just be grateful for what God has given you and do something nice for someone that does not have a lot. I have seen so many people like that here and it really is sad how good we have it in America. Seriously count your many blessings, because there really are a ton. We have it so nice in America and then I see people complaining, like if you were to see half of the world you would realize that you really do have it pretty well. So this week do something nice for someone and give someone the opportunity to see the back door blessings in there life. I promise you that you will feel the love that Christ has for them and for you. 

This week in my studies I have been studying patience. Something that can help everyone. We always need to turn the other cheek as Jesus would. One scripture that really hit me hard was Alma 34:40-41. It just hit me that if we don't have patience and lash out at someone else, then we really are just like them and are in essence are committing the same sin.

Thank you for everything that you do for me and have an amazing week. I really do feel the blessings from your prayers and am really grateful. I will see you in a couple of weeks. Next week I will let you know what is going on with skype and all of that. We are going to talk about it in district meeting and will know more then. 

Elder Sproul 

Mindset is the key to success!

This week at Zone conference I leaned a lot about mindset and what that means. The one main thing that I learned is that if you think something is not going to happen then it won't. I mean we all know that, but it became real for me this week. One example they brought up was talking on the streets. As you know or maybe you do not we can not knock doors here in Armenia and it is all based on street contacts. So an example that they brought up was talking to people on the street and thinking this person is not going to stop for me, but we still say hello to him. I mean the odds are that nothing is really going to happen. I mean we have a lot more odds of something happening if we think it is going to happen. So that is something I am going to work on is to think that more people will accept the gospel and are ready for it. If I do that, I will find a lot more people because the l am thinking that I can.

This week in Alaverdi was pretty good. Something that was really cool was this experience of when we went to this members house. We called her and planned up with her to be over there around 7 in the evening. When we got there this drunk man was there and was bugging the member. I knew at this point that the Lord had put us there for a reason. He was not doing a ton of harm, but was just being loud and a normal drunk person. However, this member still wanted him out of her house. So we got to talking with this guy and started taking pictures with him. Then after that we were like hey lets go and take pictures out side so that we could get him outside and out of her house. So all of that worked and we were able to ditch this guy outside. The moral of this story is that the Lord puts us in places that we were needed. I was super grateful that we could be in a place that the Lord needed us. The week was a normal week and we had meetings with members and I love being in a trio.

In my studies this week, I learned that we need to be more patient. Patience is one of the Christ's attributes that will help us live with our Heavenly Father again. The scripture that I really liked was Alma 34 verses 40 and 41. These scriptures really helped me out and I want to invite you all the be more patient this week. 

Oh and follow the #lightuptheworld initiative on mormon.org. Look at that and blast social media up. I love you all so much and have an amazing week

Elder sproul