Elder Mitchell's Mission to Tennessee: Chick-fil-A was Inspired

Visiting the Sun Sphere in Knoxville

Buenos!

Well, we had a rockin' week here in Johnson City! This week we had lot of meetings. On Tuesday we went down to Knoxville for my first MLC (mission leadership council). It was also the last MLC with President Griffin. It was such a powerful, spirit-filled meeting. We came up with a Vision, Goals, and Plans for the mission to help with the arrival of the new mission president at the end of the month. Then President Griffin bore an incredible testimony. He had us think about all of our areas, companions, and investigators, and I basically had a flashback through my mission. It has been about one year now since I was switched from the Nashville mission to the Knoxville mission. As I thought about all the experiences I've had over the last year, I was just amazed. President told us that there was no way that any man could have organized for hundreds of missionaries to be in the right spot at the right time, with the right people, but that our missions are orchestrated by God himself. It is so true. I have loved the last year of my mission so much. Then later in the week, we had our last Zone Conference with President Griffin, and it was pretty incredible. We were just on a spiritual high this week haha.

Awesome experience this week: So, every week we write an email to our ward council just letting them know what we did that week. Well, we were about to go write it and we were like, "Hey, let's go write our email at Chik-fil-A!" So, we went, got some food, and as we were about to eat, one of the workers came up and just started talking to us. She asked why we were dressed so nice, so we explained that we were LDS missionaries, and she told us she had known some LDS people in high school. Then, pretty out of the blue, she was like, "So tell me about the Book of Mormon." Uh, ok! We basically ended up having a mini-lesson with her right in Chik-fil-A, and it was so cool. Her name is M, and she is so cool, and wants to know everything about what we believe. We are super excited to go back and teach her more this week, plus she said she would probably hook us up with some free Chik-fil-A sometime haha. It was super cool experience, and you just never know when God will put someone in your path. It was awesome.

My ponderizer this week is Luke 9:23 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." During His Atonement, Jesus Christ suffered more than we can comprehend. On His way to Golgotha, he was forced to carry His own cross. On the way however, the Romans selected a man named Simon out of the crowd to bear the Savior's cross, just for a little bit. Each of us are like Simon. At some point or another, life gets difficult. When we are engaged in the work of the Lord, we have moments when we feel the weight of the Savior's cross. But no matter how hard things get for us, we should remember that Christ suffered even more, and that if we endure our small sufferings in this life, God will bless us with glory. That is the life of a disciple of Christ, to take up His cross daily, and follow Him. I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell