Elder Gavin Milius: ELDER SIKAHEMA!!!

Well this week was quite the fun one! We had an amazing zone conference this week. It was a mission tour so Elder Sikahema from the Seventy and his wife came and talked with us and basically straight up just told us we are the greatest mission ever, maybe he says that to all the missions he visits but who knows. He is hilarious in person and him and his wife are so smart and so genuine and now I feel like I can baptize anyone on the street.

But Tuesday was a pretty basic day, we had time to go knocking which is what we did. Didn't have crazy success but hey, it's all about the effort. We did have a meeting with some lady who was a referral and it was over zoom. So we get on zoom and send her the link but apparently the link didn't work for her, so we sat there just waiting. We ended up texting her and that's when she told us the link didn't work but then right after she said that, she said she has been doing some research and that she feels more comfortable with the Baptist church and said we don't need to meet with her anymore. We were in shock! We wanted to see what she read but she has ghosted us since so I don't know what the heck happened but we were just in shock.

Wednesday was Zone Conference!!!! It was in Richmond so we had to drive a couple hours up to the Mission Building. When we got there, we were kinda early so we just like waited till more missionaries showed up so we could go in. We got to talk to so many missionaries because instead of breaking up the conferences so that 3 zones met together, they had like 6 zones meet together, so it was a lot of people. It was so fun though to talk to so many friends and see so many people who actually care about you lol. We had panda express for lunch which was bussin', then we got to hear from our president and his wife as well as some missionaries. A couple things that stood out to me was our president shared a lot about trusting in the lord and how no matter what, the lord is the one directing the mission. He also shared that as missionaries, we need to be willing to fight alligators and crawl over broken glass to do this work and to listen to the words of the prophets. President Hutchison is awesome! He's so patriotic and he just call us to the work!! Another thing that stood out to me was there was a sister who gave her departing testimony and she shared the story of when Jesus was tried and the people wanted to crucify Jesus rather than the murderer who was found guilty. Jesus took the consequence that wasn't his, we are found guilty but Jesus still paid the consequence and I just though that was so cool, and so up-lifting. Aight now we get to Elder Sikahema!!! He did a role-play with some elders and one thing that he said was that the Book Of Mormon answers deep questions with more clarity and power than the Bible ever could. After the role-play, however, his wife gave a great talk on who we are and who's we are. We are children of God, we are children of the covenant, and we are disciples of Jesus Christ. Knowing this is how we can better our lives and prepare ourselves for the trials that come our way. Which lead great to Elder Sikahemas final talk about preparation. We read Alma 49 and talked about how preparation is so so important in our lives because no matter what, the stones and arrows of life will be thrown and shot at us, but whether or not we can survive is determined on how tall we build our walls, and how much we prepare for them. He also shared that temple workers and missionaries are the ones who keep the world safe from destruction, we are here to help people receive the ordinances of salvation and exaltation, and without that, the world would come to a stop and would be destroyed. But that goes into the fact that we are all missionaries and we all can go to the temple for proxy so we all need to be part of those who keep this world safe. Covenants are so important because covenants are what protects us physically and spiritually, to honor those covenants is a big preparation to withhold the arrows and stones of the world. So in conclusions Elder Sikahema is a Chad of all Chad's, he is a stud, an absolute spiritual unit! He gave a talk last year in October and I would recommend rereading it! Cause it is awesome. OK well to finish off this amazing day so far, we had a zone breakout which was always fun. We talked about how to invite the spirit. And the 6 things we talked about were, 1- pray (pray like the savior would, 2- use the scriptures (to teach doctrine, invite to act, promise blessings), 3- music, 4- express love and gratitude for friends, 5- testify all the time, 6- share spiritual experiences. It was a great Zone Breakout and was definitely worth it even though it was a little less intense than Elder Sikahema lol. Finally we made the trip back home and had an awesome lesson with one our super progressing guys. Overall, one of the best days in my entire mission so far, don't think anything can top this day.

Well Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the typical days of days. Thursday we had service, and weekly planning, and went out knocking. Friday we had service, had a lesson with another guy on date, and went out knocking, Saturday was almost the exact same but minus the service. Sunday we had church and then went out knocking. Nothing crazy happened on those days, maybe that's because I don't know how anything could compare to Wednesday because it was so flipping lit!!

Anyways that was my week!! Hope y'all had a great week as well, prolly can't beat me because ya know, hearing from a general authority is kinda the best thing in the world lol. But I hope you guys have a great week to come, stay close to God and get to know Jesus this Christmas season!! Read 3 Nephi 11 and 3 Nephi 27. Also read Elder Sikahemas talk from last year because it's awesome. But hope y'all have a fantastic holiday season and I'll see you guys in the next one.