Zone Leader and Investigator

I was assigned to be a Zone Leader as of tomorrow (transfers are on Tuesdays now). I'm staying in the Martinez ward and they are splitting the Zone. I must say, I went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders Friday/Saturday and I decided that I didn't want to be a zone leader on my mission because they have a lot of stuff they get to do that can get boring sometimes that I didn't want to deal with. Not ten minutes after our exchange ended President Cottle called and asked if I'd accept the assignment to be a Zone Leader.... I almost choked on "I accept"... right after I decided I didn't want to do it, the Lord sees fit that I need to grow in that area. That seems to happen in life a lot. (Ether 12:27)

We're going to have a Zone Leader and training companionship in our apartment this transfer. That will be fun. It's a 2.5 hour drive to Macon, GA where we will have our transfer meeting. That is a lot further than the 1-1.5 h to get to Columbia, SC.

One of the LA members (leaving out name on purpose) we've been talking to recently has a strong testimony, just some bad habits and doesn't come to church. His best friend he talks to all of the time about the church and the conversation always reaches some road block because his friend doesn't understand the answer that his is given. The LA member has talked him up to us about how hard headed he is and how he can't get through to him and that he wouldn't accept an invitation to hear from us probably. We stopped by to see this LA member and caught him and his friend John on the porch smoking one of their bad habits. We came up and started talking to them and I changed the conversation to be more of a gospel oriented conversation and the LA member said, "Here it goes!" It was so funny how the LA member was reacting about how we taught his friend the gospel. It was certainly divinely inspired both in planning to go see him and in our teaching John. John started with some walls with tea, coffee, and the law of tithing, and those were quickly resolved: "[LA member] it makes a lot more sense why you do that the way they explained it." We spiked interest in the Book of Mormon and the more we told him about it and the more it taught about some of those prominent truths he already knew the more excited he became to read the Book of Mormon. It was a fun night last night, we taught a couple lessons, even though we biked and got wet again. Would you like to swap weather for a couple of days? You'll probably get more rain than the whole year together you normally get in Modesto if you pick the right couple of days over here.

Love you all!

Good day to you

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker