Elder Britton W Wardell : Focused?? What does that mean....

My Mother is the greatest person in the world.....

(birthday package finally got here...)

1-20-15

Weeeeell here's the scoop.

So, some exciting news, our mission, just recently doubled in geographic size. we just took on this HUUUGE stake to the west of us, called the fort meyers stake, so now our mission goes from the gulf coast to the atlantic. If you draw a line from sebastion florida, to ft meyers florida, everything south of that is now in my mission! pretty cool huh? we also swiped thirty of the missionaries that were once in the Tampa mission.

In other exciting news, i learned a valuable lesson the other day. one of the most important things in the mission is staying focused. first on the mission yes, but just as importantly as you're biking. becasue as nice as a corvette looks at a dealership, it's not as nice looking when you look back in front of you and see a support cable for a telephone pole. by the grace of the lord, i hit the cable straight on my tire, and came off without too much damage. the photos will tell all.

i was lucky, my bike just had a loose spoke, one slightly bent sprocket and a misallinged derailer. the derailer was just an adjustment, the sprocket only needed a pair of channel locks and some muscle, and luckily, the guy at the bike shop was cool. all is well, it's a happy day ;) *hoping you all get the reference there.

Another happy lesson that we learned was the value of patience.

so this past week for me and elder rubio, we had kind of a dry spell.

meaning, not alot of people found, and not alot of people taught. but we were working our butts off. knocking for hours every day! (which is highly inefficient lemme tell ya, member referrals are the BEST!) butt we kept wondering what was going wrong. We were/are obedient, we work hard, we are praying, but just couldn't figure it out. and then it came to my mind, alma 34 41, (paraphrasing) Bear all afflictions with patience. (mom please put the actual scripture here.) but after that, we realized that sometimes we get a test of faith, no matter what happens we need to just always do our part, keep to the rules, and all will be well. We just kept on truckin after that. and the best part, was this last sunday, we got a DOPE member referral for a lady who's married to a member, wants to learn about the gospel, and wants to be baptised! :) miracles happen after the tough times. the tough times just strengthen our faith and patience, and help us to become who our heavenly father wants us to be. Love yall, tlak to you next week.

Elder Wardell.