Hey everyone!
It's been a phenomenal week full of miracles as I'm getting used to the great area of Doylestown. It all started off with District Meeting on Tuesday. It was a pretty powerful discussion on prayer and we also had the Stake President's wife observing what a District Meeting was like since her and her husband are going on a mission in Houston which is pretty neat. But after, we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders who I have an incredible amount of love for. Elder Drake and Elder Haws have to be some of my favorite Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Drake to his area called Pennypack, which is borderline to Philadelphia. There were a good amount of ghetto parts so that really brought some good memories of Reading back. Elder Drake is such a great missionary! He came out one transfer before I did and we had such great talks about old companions we both had and really getting to know one another. The best part of the exchange was that we had an appointment fall through with an investigator St an apartment complex so while we headed back to the car we talked to this guy who was about to head into his apartment building. He wasn't interested at all, in fact, he was high as a kite unfortunately. But he told us we could knock on doors in his building and we decided to give it a shot. The first door we knocked one was a young couple with an infant son who let us right in. It was amazing to see how the Restoration just clicked for Khallel and Stephenie, Elder Drake is such a great teacher too. We just kept bouncing back and forth with each other which was so nice. When you can teach with clarity and unity at the same time, the Spirit is in abundance. It was pretty fun to go to Pennypack and do some work in that area. We only do 2-3 exchanges here since there's only sisters in the District but exchanges are so powerful without a doubt.
The next day we taught our investigator Skylar and she brought up a good amount of concerns regarding her testimony. So we started off with the basics of God and Jesus Christ and she knew about them, but she was searching for a personal connection. Well, Elder Morton was impressed to show an old holiday video of the Savior and by the end of it, everyone was in tears. The Spirit was beyond strong in that room, probably one of the strongest lessons I have been apart of on my mission. She knew from that point God was there, and He did hear her prayers. It was so great!
Something pretty neat that happened also was that we had an appointment with a less active named Brother Bachin. He's been less active for a couple years so he feeds the missionaries and is willing to have a lesson with the Elders after. So the interesting part of it all was he is uncomfortable sharing a message with us around his wife, so we went in a small RV in his garage to read the Book of Mormon with him. It was actually pretty neat, I've never had a lesson in an RV so it was an experience for sure!
We also had stake conference and it was a pretty big deal this weekend. There was a new Stake Presidency called and we were able to hear some pretty great testimonies from the old and new Presidencies. We also got to hear two Seventies speak which were pretty impressive and powerful messages as well as President Randall, who is one of the best speakers I know without question. Overall, it was a pretty good week! We don't have anyone on date yet for baptism, but we are going to go above and beyond to find those who are ready! I know the Lord can do the impossible. As we exercise faith in Him, believing we will get an answer, it will come to pass. I hope we can all remember that our Lord is waiting to bless us, we just need to ask in faith, believing we shall receive.
Elder Cortes
Doylestown, PA
