January 4 - Letter

Hey guys! I love being able to e-mail you guys this much :) We got 55 Baptisms in 57 days.

 On Monday we had a short P-day and then we went to work! We tracted and met with some Potential Investigators, it hurts everytime someone tells us they aren't interested because they don't know what they're missing out on. That night we had dinner and met with some more investigators. One of them his name is Jayson, he's started to read the Book of Mormon, he's still trying to understand the wording and the storyline of it but we explained it to him and now he's understanding it.  

On Tuesday we did Family History, and gave a lady named Linda Thacker a church tour! It was good. We met with some potential investigators, one of them I haven't met but I wish I did, I was on exchanges in Elder Quick's area when Elder Coon tracted into this guy but this guy thinks that Osama Bin Laden will come back to life. Something about where it says the 7th leader will be the 8th leader, something along those lines and he thinks that the helicopter that crashed after they killed Osama Bin Laden, was the Helicopter that had his body and now they have his body and the Pakistans, since they're so good at Brain Surgery will bring him back to life. This is only one of his many conspiracy theories. So that night we went out with the Bishop to go see some people, the first person we saw was a guy named Charlie. We've been talking with Charlie for a while now and he's the guy that's always smoking or drinking and tried to offer us one. We went over their pretty excited to teach him Word of Wisdom. Everytime we ask him to come in his house he, he doesn't really want us to and plays it off and says no but in a nice way. This time he wasn't home but his wife and kids let us in, we went in and talked and before we started the lesson Charlie came in with a pack of beer and that would have been an intetresting lesson had we started the Word of Wisdom lesson but we decided to wait :) We taught them a very good Plan of Salvation lesson, just went over it with them again, and that Plan of Salvation puzzle Rob and Melanie gave me is useful! The kids love playing with it and the parents like to look at it, and they understand it better when they can look at a visual. At the end of the lesson Charlie asked us about the Vault in Cottonwood, we explained it to him and told him that's where all the Genealogy records are and it turned out to be very good because now him and his wife want to do Family History and they are really excited about it and we told them they can come use the Family History Center at the Church. After that we went and met with Mike Fish and his family, they are a good family and need this church bad. We had another good Plan of Salvation lesson with them. It was a very good night!

On Wednesday we had District Meeting so the Zone Leaders, and IU 1.3 came and we had a good District Meeting, it's always fun and them Elder Freeman and Elder Weitzel stayed with us and Elder Weitzel came with me and Elder Coon and Elder Freeman went with Elder Quick and Elder Palmer. The night before me and Elder Coon used this tactic where we both say a personal prayer and then we look at our map and pick 5 streets we are inspired to go see, once we both pick our 5, we trade papers and say another personal prayer and we pick 3 out of the other persons 5, and those are the 6 we go see. So one of those streets was a street called Jackson St. Me Elder Coon and Elder Weitzel(who used to serve in Martinsville) went tracting. We met a man named Bill usually it's hard to teach in a trio, but we were very good at it! We bounced off each other good and we all thought after, that was a good lesson, he was very nice and receptive but he had a little bit different views, but at least he heard about the true church once :) After that we tracted into a miracle, a family, they let us in, it was a mom, an Uncle and 4 kids. We sat down and just started talking about their church and then we started to share what we had to bring. We started teaching them about the Plan of Salvation and in the middle of it her husband comes in, so he sits down and we start talking to him, the 3 kids come and sit right in front of us and it's just us 3 sitting on their couch teaching them the gospel with their whole family around. We got to the spirit world and that's where they got hung up, they think that every person will hear the name Jesus Christ on this earth. We tried giving them examples of kids in Africa that never hear about it, and people in China that don't hear it either because China won't let missonaries in, and they still thought everyone would hear it. Elder Weitzel even gave an example and told them about how he is on IU campus right now and their are a lot of Asians and they don't know anything about religion or Jesus Christ. So I started talking to their dad and said to him You're a good Christian guy, I can tell, but their our guys out there that never want Christ in their lives, and live pretty bad lives and I told him, God, being a merciful God, gives them the Spirit World, as another chance for those men to accept him. They still didn't believe it but before we left we said a prayer and Elder Weitzel left a prayer at the home that was perfect. And we left to Plan of Salvation pamphlets on the table, they have the truth right there. Another good thing was Elder Weitzel took us to all the people he taught while he was in Martinsville that we didn't know about, and we met them and now we're teaching them. One of them is Tory Tumey, I'll tell you about her in a second. So Wednesday night we went to Los Reyes, a mexican restuarant and after that we went out with Brother Stumpf. We went and saw a lady named Linda Taylor, she has bad anxiety and can't talk to people and we talked to her and invited her to Baptism and she told us she is afraid of water. So she's afraid of coming to church, and water, so we're gonna have to figure out something with her. After that we went and met with a in-active man and his wife, Bob Gano and Carrie Gano, we showed them the video A Savior is Born and got them to commit to read the Book of Mormon and they're having us over for dinner on Wednesday, they love to have dinner with the Missionaries. That night Elder Weitzel and Elder Freeman slept over with us.  

On Thursday Morning we woke up and played basketball, listened to a talk called Feed my Sheep by Holland and then we went to Sister Banks farm. After that we went to Bloomington and we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the Clemson Oklahoma game and after that we went and had a New Years Eve Party at the institute with Elder and Sister Strong, a Senior Couple from Kaysville, Utah. After that we drank some Apple Cider and watched Joseph Smith a Prophet of the Restoration. That night we slept over at Elder Freeman and Elder Weitzels. We woke up on Friday, it was our P-day and played basketball all day and went to the mall, it was a fun day :)

On Saturday we were back in Martinsville and we went to the Farm, met with some investigators and tracted and that night we gave a lesson to Jeremiah Cash and his family. We went over there, they let us in and his mother in-law was there and we sat down and taught them all about the Plan of Salvation, Jeremiah and his wife were very interested and there eyes were just locked on us listening to everything we say. At the end of the lesson, the mother in-law just starts saying all this stuff about what she believes and then asks where does it say that in the Bible, about the 3 degrees of glory, and me and Coon just smile and he flips right open to it in Corinthians 15 and we just let her finish talking and read that scripture to her :) It was a very good lesson.

 On Sunday we had church, and after church one of the Young men, his name is Noah Vaught, he came out with us. We went and saw a couple potential investigators and then we went to Tory Tumeys house. It was a miracle the timing that occured. We knocked on her door, a lady was sitting outside in her car and said "She's not home, she'll be home in a minute" so we went over and stared talking to her and taught her about the Restoration. Tory Tumey pulled up and we met her. She had a house fire and her whole house was burnt. All her couches were black and sitting in front of her house and we helped her Salvage anything she could and help their family move the big stuff to her new apartment. She told us what happened and it happened at 3 in the morning and it was a fire that started in her furnace and it was a miracle because she didn't know a fire was burning but her brother that slept over that night was the one that woke up and when she woke up she said she could see the fire in her vents in her floor. After that we went and showered and came up to Bloomington :) That is my week! I love you guys so much!