Good afternoon everybody!!! How are you all doing? I love Monday emails because I get to hear about the family and how things are going there. It sounds like things are going wonderful back home and that makes me happy. We had an awesome week last week as well. This transfer we have been doing a lot of finding. Going through former investigator forms, tracting, and going through the ward roster. We have made a lot of progress, and we have found some great new investigators.
We found a family with the last name Tso. They are Native American and recently moved to Washington. They are super nice, but the parents weren't really interested at first. It was their daughter Deidra, who wanted to learn a little more. When we came back for another lesson, (I was on exchanges so I wasn't there, this is what they told me) the spirit was super strong and at the end the father agreed to say the closing prayer. We have another lesson with them this week.
We also picked up David as an investigator. David was a former that we had tried contacting for a couple weeks now, and finally caught him home. In the past, it seems he had taken on the role of "saving" the missionaries and had some anti to give them, so we were pretty cautious about talking to him. We talked to him about his previous experience and bore our testimony about Christ, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. He totally felt the spirit and agreed to go on a church tour this Tuesday.
Saturday we had the baptism of the Frostads, and it was way awesome. The baptism had a great turnout from the ward and at the end, Austin, the older brother, bore a powerful testimony of why he chose to be baptized. He listed a number of reasons, but one that really stuck out to me was when he said, "I want the responsibility." As I thought about that statement, I really thought about the responsibility that comes with being a member of the church and the blessings that come from magnifying that responsibility. We really have the greatest responsibility in the world to carry a message that nobody else can, and how awesome is that? President Mullen has reminded us so many times through scripture and testimony that this is the way, and there is no other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved. So how great is our responsibility to give every person an opportunity to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, because they cannot be saved without it. I definitely did not understand that fully when I was 18 years old, and to hear that from a recent convert was inspiring to me personally.
We had a lesson with Robert Batson this week as well. I don't know if I've talked about him, but he has been an investigator for some time now, and has gone through several sets of missionaries. The main concern he has had is whether or not God is even there and if he cares. This week we had a training on the importance of prayer, so we felt to apply that training to Robert. We had a great lesson with him and we promised him that if he would commit to pray sincerely every day, that he would be able to feel Gods love and have a greater peace in his life. He said the closing prayer for the first time with missionaries and at the end we just sat their for probably a minute, not saying anything. After a few moments he told us, "wow, it does work". The spirit was so strong in that moment, nobody could deny it. He committed to pray every day after that, and so far he is doing great.
Dennis is so ready for his baptism. He comes to church, makes a point to meet more members, has a goal to finish the Book of Mormon before his baptism, and is well on his way to that, and is just excited about it. We make sure to contact him as often as we can to help him understand what he's reading and keep that enthusiasm.
So things are going great in the West Terrace area. I have learned so much these past few weeks, and I am so happy to be out and working for the Lord. I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week.
P.S. This week at our training meeting, we got a challenge from president Mullen, to take a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon, to read the Book of Mormon, and highlight certain passages in different colors. One color for every time a name of Jesus Christ appears, another color for whenever the Doctrine of Christ is being taught, and a third color for whenever Christ says something or a prophet says "thus Saith the Lord". An optional color can be used for whenever an attribute of Christ is stated. I would love to invite you all to take this challenge as well. This was a challenge that I extended almost exactly 1 year ago, and I did it too. It was a very special experience reading the Book of Mormon with that focus and to see just how much it testifies of Christ. Like last year, the challenge is to be done with it by Mothers Day.
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