Monday, March 19, 2012


 What a busy week! It was very productive despite two days that I had to be a leadership meeting. The meeting was on Thursday and Friday and it took most of both days to do it. The part I was confused about was I am not currently serving in much of a leadership calling, but President Godwin said that this meeting is for officially called leaders and others he feels have an influence on other missionaries. It is good to know that Pres trusts me and is keeping me in mind. I learned a lot in those meeting that I have already implemented in my missionary service. Another thing we found out is that on the 21st of April M. Russell Ballard is coming to speak with us! So I'm pretty pumped for that.:) This week we picked up three new investigators! The first one is Ken, who we tracted into a couple weeks ago and we have started teaching. Getting the next two investigators was a small miracle. We met a guy named Dean at the post office a few weeks back and he told us that he lived across from the Strebel family in the branch. We next saw him at Jensen's, a small store here in R.S, and we said hi to him there. On Saturday a thought spontaneously popped into my head "let's go see Dean" so we found the Strebel's address on our ward list and drove down his street. Not only was Dean outside shoveling snow but the Strebel's were outside to greet us too! That made it a very casual situation and we were able to help Dean shovel out his driveway. His wife Linda invited us in for hot chocolate and we were able to talk for a while. It turns out that they have investigated before and that she has read the Book of Mormon! We have a return appointment with them next week so wish us luck. It has been great to see the Lord silently lead us where we need to be. Another very funny but sad thing that happened this week was that due to the huge snow storm that just ended last night: CHURCH WAS CANCELED! This was the first time I didn't go to church on my mission, and man I missed it. :) The Snow has not been fun in fact yesterday we got stuck! Snow is a life experience I have assuredly attained out here on the Mish. Well thank you for your many letters and emails! We are still looking ahead to the two baptisms in the first week of April, and we are getting those involved prepared. I love this work. Now I am off to a zone snowball fight being held up here in the mountains! So I'll see ya next week!



Friday, March 16, 2012

We have been so blessed these past few weeks with some great successes. First with Dianna and now with Alex Lundgren. He has been seeing missionaries for ten years now! On Thursday he we set a baptismal date with him for the 7th of April! Seeing him change these last few months has been incredible. We wanted him to set the date himself through prayer. He wanted it to be on March 31st, which is a lot sooner then I thought he would want to do it. Unfortunately and fortunately that weekend is conference weekend, so we moved the date up a week. Along with seeing him change, It has been wonderful to see what the gospel has done and will do for their family. Their two kids will have a rare opportunity to be raised in The Gospel of Jesus Christ. When the time comes they will also have the chance to be baptized by their priesthood holding father. The funny thing about this is that we have decided to keep Dianna's date for the sixth of April, putting both baptisms a day apart. We considered combining them, but our branch president wanted to have the baptisms separate to make it more special for Dianna and AJ. In other news we have a new Branch Mission Leader. Our last one was an older guy named Michael Scullin. His family at one point one more than half of the businesses in Running Springs. He knows everyone in town and we can't go tracting without a few people saying "oh.. you guys must know Mike Scullin!" He has been an amazing resource to have. Our new Branch Mission Leader is one of my favorite members in the branch Earl Purkiss. He has already been helping us a lot in our work. He is very sarcastic and we make fun of each other non-stop, so he's obviously the best guy for the job. :) So we are still working hard here and I hope we can find even more success. I know that the only way that will happen is rely on The Lord. I love all of you and thank you for your letters. :)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Hey Mi Amigo's

It's very rare that I publicly profess that I have seen a miracle. This last week I did. A few weeks ago we started teaching someone who would become one of the hardest people I have taught thus far on my mission. She was a member but she had her records removed from the church a long time ago. She has four kids and she is divorced. Her name is Dianna. When we first taught her it was evident she would be going nowhere fast. She has been indoctrinated with every Anti-Mormon theory out there. She has pushed me to the very edge of my gospel knowledge.:) This last week she said that she had been praying and she knows that this is the path The Lord is leading her down. She wants to be baptized on the 6th of April, which is the first day that she got The Book of Mormon when She was a small girl. Knowing her for the short time that I have has changed my life. There may be concerns yet to be faced while teaching her, but the biggest battle has been won: faith in midst of fear and opposition. I know that this was the hand of Lord in her life. It makes the other awesome activities I did this week seem small in comparison such as riding roller coasters at a small amusement park for a zone activity or even going to The Redlands temple. We are pushing ourselves to do more for this work. I am so happy to have your support.