Elder Austin Russell Cook Philippines, Legazpi Mission 8-2016 thru 8-2018: I know that the Gospel is the ONE path that God created for all of His children

I love being a missionary!

Since Elder Caballes is the new Assistant, we got to go
on exchanges! That means I gotta work with
MAH BOI AGAIN!! Love this kid so much

This last week we hit the "reset" button on this area, so we basically tanked all of our old "investigators" because none of them really had any interest. I guess the other elders were teaching them just so they could have some numbers to report every week, but there was never really any desire in the people they were teaching.

So, yet again, I come into an area with absolutely no ground work, but I can say from the bottom of my heart that that is now my favorite thing to do! It's great because you know that everything you do from here on out is because of you and the Lord, so you can actually be proud of the investigators you find and the progress you help create in the Ward.

Anyways, we've hit the ground running this last week by talking to literally EVERYONE. Okay, I know that I'm already a talkative guy, but I can say with a surety that I have never talked so much and to so many people in my life. After about two hours of proselyting my mouth has run out of saliva, but we still have 6 hours after that, so we just press on with joy! We've already been experiencing the miracles from it! For example, last Friday we were tracting ALL DAY and didn't get ANYTHING and we were so close to giving up, but we refused to. At the end of our proselyting we were about to go in for the day, but we decided to just go one more, and that family let us in the second we knocked on their door and now they are very interested in our message! That happened maybe 4 or five times last week and now we have a couple new investigators to be teaching this week!

It's just amazing how the Lord fulfills his promises. In D&C 84:33 the Lord said, "For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying of their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies." Every time I get exhausted and feel like giving up, I just shove a little more faith in it, and when I do that, my strength is renewed and I forget that I'm even tired. I love this Gospel and the blessings it brings. People always think and say that there is a different path for everyone, but I know that the Gospel is the ONE path that God created for all of His children. And that's why I'm out here- just to share this plan with others.