Rollercoaster Week

Hey everyone! Hope this email finds you all happy and healthy. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster week for me, but I'm feeling good at the moment.

So this week, as I mentioned, we had the opportunity to have a special mission conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson of the quorum of the twelve.  So, Tuesday we traveled eight and a half hours to Osorno to have the Conference on Wednesday. It was really great, I got to see a lot of my old friends on the mission and it was a great conference.  Elder Nelson is basically everything I want to be in life, he was a famous heart surgeon, like I want to be, and he is pretty much the happiest, most positive person I've ever met.  Sister Nelson also spoke and I love what she said about spending time wisely. She said that we should each ask ourselves every day "if I knew that the Savior was coming tomorrow, how would I use my time today?" In reality, the Savior is coming tomorrow, we just don't know which tomorrow, and we don't want to have regrets about all that we could've done to help and serve others in our lives. My favorite thing from Elder Nelson was what he said about just being happy.  "Just smile and the people will open their hearts to you."  Something I realized this week is that the biggest thing we have going for us as far as missionary work is that we really are happy as a result of what we know and believe. Just think of all the blessings in our lives and how happy we really are because of this gospel.  If everyone could understand that, they would be a lot more receptive to the gospel.

The rest of the week has been quite frustrating for me. I just got to a point where I was tired of things not going my way.  We hadn't been able to visit with our top investigator Yohana for a couple of weeks and found out that because of the bad example of a certain member, she doesn't want to be baptized anymore. I really cannot remember being more angry in my life than when I heard this.  All the time and energy and love and work that I've but into this my last three months here gone down the drain because of the bad example of another member of the branch. We realized that the same thing has been happening to many less actives, recent converts, and investigators because of this same member who should really be the best example in the branch. Yesterday I was at the point of just giving up. What more can I do if the members are just going to ruin it anyway by not showing a good example of the church? After lunch yesterday I took some time to just say a prayer and read through some of my old letters from home.  I found one that my sister Madi sent to me a while ago.  She mentioned a scripture from D&C 76:60 "And they shall overcome all things." This letter from months ago was an answer to my prayer.  No matter how many things are working against us, and how hopeless it can seem, while we are on Christ's TEAM we will overcome all things.

Well that's about it for this week.  Thank you everyone for all of your help and support.  I love and miss you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Cameron Dower