Solid Work in Beaumont

Alright alright so this week was superb! (said in the same voice as that one guy from 17 miracles)

Our Zone over here in Beaumont is doing so well. We have effectively doubled all of our averages in one week. That is no easy task, but with some challenges extended and accepted, we have some pretty amazing missionaries that were able to work wonders.

Our area also benefited from the challenge. We were able to meet with some of the coolest people that were found this week. One of them was a referral from another set of missionaries. They referred him because he's YSA age. He was raised in India and his religious background is Hindu. However, while he was here in the States he had a crazy bad car accident and he gained a witness that God exists because of what he felt during the crash. So when we met with him he told us he wants to come closer to God so he can "pay him back for what good he did for me". He is super solid and golden all around. He doesn't read english very well so we downloaded the BoM in Hindi on his phone. We ran into a little problem with him this week, but his faith is showing with how he's overcoming that. Ever since his accident, he has kinda been an alcoholic. He told us he is drunk about 70% of the time. In one of our lessons this week, he told us he was going to be a little drunk. We talked to him and he opened up that he "wants to be clean, like you guys" and he pointed to us. He asked if we have ever smoked or drink, when we said never he was amazed and asked if it was possible for him to become clean. I don't think I've ever testified of the cleansing power of the Atonement and God's love for someone more than I did right then. He was also smoking too and when he heard we don't smoke he looked at his cigarette and threw it far away. It was a great moment and kinda funny because I've never seen anyone do that haha. After that lesson he wanted to give us a hug so I got a hug from my first India investigator! +1

We also did a lot of planning this week. We had to prepare for Zone Meeting and our segment for Zone Conference coming up soon. Zone Meeting turned out amazing! We talked a lot on Ch. 4 of preach my gospel and about promptings. We shared clips from "On the Lord's errand:Thomas S. Monson" and of Elder Rasband's recent talk. We also had a fire role play and pump-up session with motivational quotes. It turned out really good.

I also went through the apt last night and found some awesome clothes and a suit that doesn't fit me but fits Elder Biesinger really well. He was happy :)

That's all for now!

Elder Henry Blackburn
Texas Houston East Mission