Good Times

Family and Friends,

I am very happy and have my heart full of gratitude these days. I am so happy and thankful for all that my Heavenly Father has given me. He's blessed me with a wonderful companion that is such a positive and humble hard worker, a zone full of good happy and hardworking missionaries, a powerful and inspired Mission President, two greart leaders and friends as APs who always give great advice and guidance, members that support us and love us, chosen investigators that are so wonderful, and powerful converts that share the gospel and have powerful testimonies. Alexandra (a convert from last month) is already in Alma in the Book of Mormon and she sits right next to our investigators that we bring to church and in the lessons with them she straight up motivates them and tells them not be scared, to trust in the Lord, and to be BAPTIZED. She shares how much her baptism and this church have blessed and changed her life for the better. Today I was singing all afternoon in the house very happy and I hope to share this happiness with everyone!

There are quite a few pictures so just to explain a few of them we had 3 great baptisms of Joselyn, Joshua, and Adrian. Joselyn is a single mom who has great neighbors that are members and really welcomed her in to the church and we're already teaching a few of her friends and they have baptismal dates :) Joshua is the nephew of some members that we're less active but we rescued them and baptized him :) two birds with one stone and now they all go to church together and they're quite happy! Adrian is the younger brother of a recent convert named Andres and he is super solid and is one of the few kids here who likes basketball more than soccer wow! It was great to see his big brother baptize him.

The picture of two crazy guys hugging each other is of Elder Rallison and I just before Elder Rallison left to Guayaquil for transfers. He is an AWESOME missionary and great friend and it truly was a joy to have him in the zone and work side by side with him. He will be missed but we know that he's doing great things where he is and it's the Lord' will so its whats best :) also the Lord blessed us greatly as a zone and we were able to pass the goal and we will be celebrating with President Amaya and the APs soon :) good times! 

We worked our tails off as a zone and it paid off :) There were several keys to our success this month and many are found in the 8 Attributes but here are a few that stand out in particular. We followed all the instructions and guidance of President and the APs especially about being submerged in the Work of Salvation with lots and lots of lessons with members, referrals, and rescuing less actives. We were like pilots looking at the gauges and levels of the planes making sure the planes flies smoothly and successfully. We did the same every week and every day with the Key Indicators. Every Sunday night we counted the totals and compared with past weeks and were attentive to tendencies or weak points or progress to help keep improving every week. We focused on the spiritual growth and progress of every individual in our zone, especially with the district leaders in making sure that they became strong lions of leaders confident and capable in what they were doing so that they could then take good care of the missionaries in their district. There are many more but I'll have to share next week! 

Something that I felt would be important to share... many members and missionaries think that it is just plain evil and wrong to talk about numbers and goals and that you should just focus on people. It is natural to think that at first but its important to remember that when used in the right way numbers and goals are a powerful instrument in bringing about eternal salvation to more people. Of course we need to be focused on people and make sure that we don't get to carried away with only wanting to have impressive statistics. But when used with a proper balance and an understanding that like PME teaches each number represents a son or daughter of God, then numbers and goals are necessary and valuable. As President Monson taught, When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.  And he is a living example of that as the Prophet of God. What was the first thing President Monson announced at General Conference? Numbers! He said that there are currently over 15 million members and over 80 thousand missionaries serving. The Lord has said that He has His sheep counted and it is important to count for Him so we need to follow His example. (3 Nephi 18:31). 

Remeber to be humble and make changes when the Spirit gives you whispers of correction. 

Love,

Elder Remington