Seeking the Lord (Oct. 23, 2023)

Hey everyone!! This week was crazy!! We saw some amazing miracles and worked super hard!! We also had 3 exchanges, so super busy haha! I'm loving Machali and I know it's going to be really hard to say goodbye to this place when that day arrives.

I got to have an exchange with Elder Wendel to start out the week and it was a great day! It was so fun to work together again, it was just to natural working together and we were able to find a teach some really great people! It's so cool to see how much we've changed throughout the mission, we started together day one and have grown and changed together these past 16 months, I really love that dude! I was able to have an exchange with Elder Jones who is new to the mission and it was really cool to help him be the best missionary he can, he has some huge desires to do good and it was a really powerful exchange. I also got to go back to Doñihue, one of my favorite little towns that I've ever been able to serve in! I went with Elder Fullmer and we got rejected literally all day long, but we still had a ton of fun and the Lord was able to teach us a lot. Elder Fullmer is probably one of the happiest and funniest people I've ever met, it was so much fun! That's it for the exchanges, it was great and I was able to learn a ton!

Big time highlight from the week is that we put Engels and Maria on date! We found them my first week in Machali and have been teaching them, we've also baptized their 2 daughters Valeria and Daniela. So please pray that these guys can get baptized November 11th!! 

This week my testimony was strengthened in so many ways! Every day God made it very clear that he exists and is in charge of this work. I also learned a very valuable lesson that the more we recognize the hand of the Lord each day, the more our testimony of him will be strengthened. I know that "all things denote there is a God" (Alma 30:44). These week we saw some big success and also saw that the Lord used us to be miracles of the lives of others in need. Another huge manifestation of God was the opposition that we faced. "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." (2 Nephi 2:11). All truth has opposition, and all right has a wrong. Jesus Christ who was the only perfect being to ever live was the most loved and also the most hated. The message we share as missionaries changes lives and is loved, but also hated. I learned to look at rejection differently this week, instead of thinking, "that person was a jerk or an idiot" I allow it to be a testimony that God lives and he is in control. The truthfulness and power of our message will bring opposition, and this opposition testifies of God. I promise that the more we look for God in our lives each day, we will recognize him in everything that happens and that our testimonies will continue to be strengthened and immovable.

I'm learning so much out here! I'm so grateful to serve each day! I also hope this email made a little sense haha. I love you guys all a ton and miss you so much!!

Elder Micheli