Quick and challenging week

This one is from the hike today. The view of the ocean and of Moorea was absolutely stunning. Magnificent.

Hello family!

Wow it has been a quick week. In fact, this week was one of the more challenging weeks for me, but it seemed to go really fast! Challenging, why? A lot of lessons fell through this week and we just didn't have anything planned to do. So we did door to door contacting in an apartment complex for the first time ever on my mission. Haha. Yes, I am now a missionary who knows how to knock doors. We found some good potential that we will go see this week. Also, fun story. We went to visit an old investigator when a lesson fell through, but she wasn't home. Her family member was home though. Apparently she has talked with the missionaries before, a long time ago. She wanted to be baptized but couldn't quit smoking. I felt prompted to ask her when was the last time she tried to quit smoking? She said "I fasted yesterday and didn't smoke for 6 hours." What? So we told her obviously God had sent us to answer her prayers for help! We will work with her for the next few weeks. She is really potential for baptism. It's amazing, God knows each one of his children and uses the smallest, most random situations to answer prayers. On a mission I have the chance to see little miracles like that more often than the average person. I'm grateful for that.
What else is new... oh, yesterday we were fasting for an investigator, so basically we were entitled to the spirit. The weekly report is due each Sunday at 2pm. Yesterday after church (around noon) we realized we needed one more new investigator for the week to fulfill the "standards of excellence" (weekly goals for each companionship). So we prayed that God would lead us, then we went to see some potential. We went to see a lady who we have talked to before, but she has never let us fix another time to come back. To count someone as a new investigator, you have to do at least one lesson with them and fix another date for another lesson. So we stopped by and she was home. She actually lives with her parents, who are members. We were talking and she told us she wasn't ready for the lessons. She comes to church often and knows all the doctrine anyways, etc. She kept telling us no when we asked if we could come back another day. Then I had the thought to ask if they do family home evening as a family. Inspired thought by the Holy Ghost, glory to God, and long story short we are teaching the lesson tonight at their family home evening! Cool! When we work hard and rely on God, he helps us meet our goals.
What else is new... the hike last P Day was cool, but our zone is wimpy! Everyone got tired quick, we only hiked for about 2 hours. And up high it got foggy, so there wasn't much of a view. It was cool though, it was actually kind of cold! I miss being cold sometimes.
This P Day we did another short hike above Punaauia. It had a killer view! I'll try to send pictures, sorry if it doesn't work though.
Other news.. oh yeah! I'm a district leader now! So I have to lead weekly meetings and give formations/trainings and stuff. I also take the weekly report for my district each Sunday, etc. Fun stuff. That's about all the news I can think of this week. Thanks for all of your emails, I loved seeing all the pictures too! When I opened my email today, the inbox was full of emails from family. Those are my favorite emails to read. So thanks.
 Love you tons, have a good week!

Elder Barlow