August 22 E-Mail

This week has probably been one of the best weeks of my mission. It started out on Tuesday when we went to Spokane to listen to L. Tom Perry. That was way awesome. He went through and taught us the restoration in detail. He also had Elder L. Whitney Clayton and he taught us about the Book of Mormon and prayer. The coolest part of all of it was that we got to shake Elder Perry's hand! We introduced ourselves and he told me he thought I was from Logan when he heard my name. So somewhere down the road he know's some Schvaneveldt's. The spirit was very strong as we sat and listened to them speak. It only lasted a couple of hours. I wish it could have been more. Then on our way home from Spokane Alma texted us and told us she had her tithing all ready to pay to the bishop. That never happens from people who aren't baptized yet! And she was baptized on Saturday. It was great. I was given the opportunity to baptize her and it was awesome. She was so prepared. As I have said before I have never seen someone so prepared. We set a baptismal date for her on our second visit and she went through with that date. And she gave up stuff and made some big changes. And she is doing great. I can't wait to see her with a calling. She is a great addition for the ward here.
Right after her baptism yesterday we had another great opportunity that a lot of missionaries dream of. The Sisters in the area next to us are teaching a spanish guy named Oscar. Well he is a radio show host and basically famous around here. Everyone mexican knows him. Well he was doing a grand opening for a restaurant and invited the Sisters and they invited us because they were a little bit worried about there spanish. So we got there and go to introduce ourselves on the radio. Then he took us in and bought us lunch and we thought that was it. Then he called us back over to where he was hosting the radio station and gave us the mic and turned the time over to us. So we were able to invite everyone on the radio to church and also on a church tour. It was sweet! We are hoping to see things from that.
Then immediately after that we went and picked up a kid in another ward to go team teaching with us. Well we had planned to do all spanish work but he didn't speak any spanish. I told my companion we should go and try to see Angela since she speaks english. She is the one who fell off the charts forever and we have seen a few miracles with. Well we went over and she let us right in. She dumped all of her concerns on us again and then she said but it doesn't even matter. The night before a kid had showed her some anti stuff about the church and she found herself defending the church. She told us that helped her realize that the church is true. And that the book of mormon is true. And she set a baptismal date for the 3rd of September. It was amazing! Then she came to church on Sunday and of course Alma was confirmed.
This has been one of the best transfers for sure. I have seen tons of miracles and worked my butt off. We did get our transfer information last night and Elder Jones and I will be staying together. But we have been given a little more responsibility. We will do some work in the singles branch here too. So that is pretty exciting. We are also getting a priest this week from Spokane and he will be with us all week. There young mens wanted to do a mini mission thing for a week. So the stake president got with the mission president and put it all together. We pick him up tomorrow and he will be with us until next Monday. I love this gospel and I know it's true! I'm so grateful to have a living Prophet and look forward to general conference that is coming up. I hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Schvaneveldt