Hey

Hello friends and family,


We have had a long and hectic week with a lot going on.

Starting on Monday we had a pretty cool zone P-day in the Bangor Brewer building.
The Bangor East and west zone got merged so we have a really big zone with a lot of missionaries.
Did I mention that my trainer, Elder Palmer, is my zone leader? well he is.

It was a really fun experience and we went and washed cars and played games in the gym, afterwards we all went and worked the Bangor area and reported back to share the miracles that we saw. with 60 missionaries in one area for 3 hours you can imagine that some really awesome stuff happened. I went with Elder Palmer and saw a few recent converts in the area. We talked about the need for a Savior and why we were here in this life on the Earth.  They were struggling with trails and we shared with them why we have trials and how the Lord strengthens us through them. It was an awesome opportunity and good to work with Elder Palmer again.

After that shenanigans we all went back to the Elder's apartment and slept there awaiting zone conference the following day.

It was a really awesome meeting. President Blair initially talked a lot about the need to prepare for such meetings spiritual to come ready to learn and to apply the principles that we develop there.
Life and living the gospel successfully have a large dependence on not just seeking knowledge but also taking that knowledge and using it to improve ourselves and to serve others.  It was a really pertinent talk and it made me realize how much I need to improve my "execution" of the gospel.
Later President Blair and the zone leaders emphasized the use of the Book of Mormon when finding new people to teach. It is the Book of Mormon that is the evidence of the restoration that we share and our testimony of the Book is integrated with our testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and his prophet Joseph Smith.  The Book of Mormon is the unique message that we share and we need to be using it as much as possible.

After zone conference Elder Broekhuijsen (spelling?) and I went on exchange those days and were able to talk to a lot of potential investigators and schedule appointments with them. It was a great opportunity to share the practicality of the gospel in the lives of everyday people. Not just us weirdos.
This weekend of course was the 2nd annual sea and sky festival. You could certainly tell that it was just the 2nd one because there were some major organizational issues but we were able to pull through and with the help of the branch we were able to set up the festival on time and get our booth up and running. The DeVaney's came down from Pembroke to help us out because they are family search missionaries and they actually know what they are doing. It was awesome and they were really able to hold the whole booth together and help us to make it an effective finding tool. We got to talk to a lot of people and we shared a couple blue floppy-copies with some interested people. It was a great experience to get us out in the community and to be seen doing good.

That's all I have for this week. sorry for the wall of text.  I hope you all know that I love you and that the Savior Jesus Christ lives!  Don't just examine His gospel but learn to use it and to cherish it.
have a great rest of your week, and happy pioneer day!

until next time

-Elder Starr