July 18, 2011 E-Mail

Things are going great here in the new area. My new companion is Elder Jones and he's from Mesa Arizona. He's an awesome missionary and we get along great! I really enjoy working with him. We have been doing a lot of finding. Before I got here they had a few really good people who were so close to being baptized then they just fell off the face of the earth. One of them they haven't seen for two months. Well we tried to go by her house on Saturday because they have tried going by every other week or so. Well her daughter told us she was inside sleeping. So we found there lawnmower and cut there grass for them. Then yesterday morning at church we were outside waiting for another investigator to come to church and I saw that ladies car pull up. Elder Jones was so excited it was crazy. So they haven't seen her for about 2 months then she just shows up. She has a strong testimony already. She told us that she knew she needs to be at church and that this is the right church. I'm pretty excited to see what happens with her. She is a very cool lady. We also found a few other new investigators this week who are doing pretty well. One of them is a single mother. Here in this zone we do church tours. It's a program approved by the first presidency and it's really cool. It helps people realize that we are focused and founded on our Savior Jesus Christ, then we talk about the importance of the sacrament and also baptism. Well we met that single mother on Thursday then invited her on a church tour on Friday. She came and loved it. She also accepted a baptismal date. We are praying a lot for her. She has a daughter who is about 17 and her daughter has tons of friends that come over. Yesterday we taught her daughter and some friends and we have another church tour with her them tonight. The church tours are a great program. They just started not to long ago so this is the first time I have been able to do it. The spirit is so strong during them. The first people I met since I have been back in this area are also a really great couple. Elder Jones met them a while ago and felt prompted to go back and see them. We have had a few great lessons with them. We are seeing things picking up here. Elder Jones and I have a crazy goal that we are going to do this transfer. We are going to do an 80 hour tracting week... It's something that Elder Jones' dad did on his mission. The following transfer they had 11 baptisms. And his dad is always rubbing it in to Elder Jones. So we also are going to do it! It's going to be crazy but I'm excited. It means we will have to get up a couple hours early so that we can still get our studies in.

It was really weird coming back to the area. Many people just told me welcome home. I saw lots of people that I knew at the funeral of Sister Critchell on Thursday. It was a really good funeral. And I was also given the opportunity to be a pallbearer. That was a good experience. It was sort of sad but she's a lot better off now. Yesterday the speaker in our sacrament meeting spent a lot of time with Sister Critchell. Well about two weeks ago Sister Critchell told this lady the things that she would say if she spoke in church. So that was pretty much the talk that the speaker gave. It was really good.
I really don't have much to say because we have spent so much time trying to find new investigators lately. And we also have spent quite a bit of time just doing paperwork. But things are great and I love the area. We live in a really good place too. It's just a little tiny house behind a members house. There house is for sale though so we will see how long that lasts. I love this church and I'm so grateful to have it in my life. I'm so grateful to have the word of God in the bible and the book of mormon and also through our living prophet. I know this church is true and I love sharing that message! I love you all! Have a great week.