Hey, Everyone!

I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing well.  This week for me has been typical of the mission.... with it´s ups and downs. However.... I learned something about that, that I hadn´t really ever thought of before. This week was zone training, and the leaders were sharing what they learned in the meeting with the mission president. One of the Sister Training Leaders shared a quote that Hermana Ferreira had told them: ´´A calm sea never made a good missionary.´´ I thought about that quote for a while, and realized that it was true. If we are not constantly battling different challenges or difficulties that we have in the mission, we will never be able to see our potential, or how strong we can possibly be when it´s necessary to put up a fight. Through many personal experiences in the mission, I´ve found myself at what I had thought would be the breaking point of my patience, and have found myself asking for immediate help to be taken out of my stress or sadness of that day.  However, I´ve realized that God doesn´t usually work like that. He lets us make the necessary decision, but never leaves our side as we do so. If it weren´t for the challenges that my Heavenly Father has given me, I wouldn´t have learned to be more patient, or more courageous. It is truly an honor to be serving in the Lord´s work. This week we visited an investigator that was angry when we passed by because she was really busy, however, we fixed the situation, and helped her and her family feel that we only visit them because we truly love them and want to help them progress in the church. We also had several awesome investigators come to church this week that are extremely interested and we´re now working on helping them progress, to be baptized. I hope everyone has another great week! 

Love, 

Elder Checketts

(From Preston's mom...  I just got this picture from a member in our ward here in Utah, whose nephew is serving in the same mission as PJ... so cool, and such a small world!  :)