Last Day of February

Everything here is going well. We were able to have our baptism on Saturday. Everything went well with it. He was baptized and confirmed at the baptism. The story I told y'all a few weeks ago about the kids who's dad went apostate and wouldn't let them get baptized is still not over. We sent him a copy of the baptism record on Thursday and received a call from him on Saturday saying that he sent a consent form on Tuesday to the Bishop. So we cleared that hurdle. But the thing is, is that he wants to be at the baptism and the family doesn't want him to, so now we have to wait until they let down their pride. It's kind of funny how they're the ones holding him back from being baptized now. Other than that nothing new has happened. We've been doing everything we can to find new investigators lately. We've found a few spanish people. But they're pretty prideful. And they really love their virgin of Guadalupe. So we haven't been able to get them away from that. So that's always fun. But the work keeps going on. Something I've noticed and seen a lot is pride. I've seen how big of a stubling block it is for everyone. It's what keeps missionaries from reaching their potential. It's what keeps investigators from giving up their past ways. It's what keeps inactive and less active members from coming back to the church. It's what keeps active members complacent with where they're at and reaching their potential. It's so sad to see all the effects that pride has on people. But it's a universal sin and as the scriptures say, either you can humble yourself or God will humble you. It's a pretty scary thought of having God humble me, so I'm working on humbling myself. There was a referral we received a few weeks ago and we finally contacted him on Monday. This guy had been married and now divorced to a member of the church, and used to receive home teachers. But he never got baptized. So we went by him and started talking to him. And he seemed pretty focused on finding out who sent us. He thought it was one of his friends he talks to a lot. But we assured him it wasn't and told him who sent us. And he was surprised and said he hadn't talked to him for a while. We come to find out that earlier in the week, or last week he was diagnosed with cancer. And so we were talking with him and told him it wasn't a coincidence that we showed up that day. And we talked to him for a while he was trying to find out how the answer would feel and all that. He was kind of shut down to it the whole time. Then before we left we offered to give him a blessing. He agreed. We gave him one and after that his countenance changed and he was more receptive to us. So we're planning on visiting him again this week to see how he's doing. It was pretty sweet.

What a Week!

Things here are great. On Valentines day last week we treated ourselves to Tucano's. It's a Brazilian steak place. It was a pretty good day. It's been a good week though. We had a baptism on Saturday of a 15-year-old kid named Dylan. He's the brother of the girl we baptized a few weeks ago. It went great, everything went smoothly. And yesterday we had the baptism of Maddy and Chloe, the 2 girls we've been working with in Randolph. So we spent all of Sunday up in Randolph and Woodruff. We went to a PEC meeting up there and for the first half hour we talked about how the girls basketball team won state in the 1A division. So that was fun talking about sports for a long time... not really. But the baptism was amazing. I think every baptism should be like this one. We had everything set up in the Relief Society room for the baptism. A few minutes before it was scheduled to start we had to switch it to the chapel because there were so many people there. The older girl, Maddy, was so nervous about it all so it was fun watching her be stressed out about it. But everything went smoothly with it as well. The only thing we had to do as missionaries was bear our testimonies. They're such a great family. So we were able to have 3 baptisms this weekend. We've truly been blessed. Follow up on the miracle from last week about the kids whose dad wouldn't let them get baptized. They had their visit and we wrote up a consent form, but he wouldn't sign it because it wasn't the official one from the church. So we're working on getting that done, and hopefully getting it to him as soon as we can. And the other girl we've been working with, Kayla, is struggling. She knows it's true and has felt the Spirit in the lessons, but I think she's afraid of the answer she'll get. But she's keeping most of the commitments, other than praying to know if the things we've taught are true and praying to know if she should get baptized. So that's a little tough, but the Young womens president is helping us out so much. She's answering her questions, encouraging her, and helping her out. So we're hoping to see a miracle with that. This weekend we have a kid preparing to be baptized and confirmed as well. And we're hoping that the other kids dad will let them get baptized this week. So when I write home next week I'll be telling y'all about the two baptisms we had. The work is going along great. I love it. I love this gospel and I know it's true. I know this is the work of the Lord. I love y'all, miss y'all, and pray for y'all. I hope y'all have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentines day!

Anyways things here are going great. Right now we're down in the valley at the Gateway mall. One of the missionaries has to take a driving test so we had to come down here. I definitely don't miss it too much. I love it out in Coalville. The work is going well. As y'all saw we had a leadership training. So those were a fun couple of days. This weekend I think I've been the most tired and most exhausted in my whole mission. So there's this kid we're working with that's wanted to be baptized for a few years. But his parents are divorced and the dad won't give him permission to get baptized. So we felt like this weekend there was going to be something different. So we went over on Wednesday and had a lesson and the Spirit was really strong. We promised him that if he talked to his dad at the supervised visit it would be different than last time. So we went by Saturday to pump him up and they said the car broke down and they weren't going to go. So we felt a little discourgaed but had him call his dad right there. He called and the dad didn't answer. So we had him call at 6 p.m. The whole time I'm praying my heart out. I think it was one of the most sincere prayers I've prayed during these couple of days. We called them and they said they talked to the dad and he said no. So we figured out all our options and thought about what we could do. Then we called the assistants and President Winn. One of them told us to call the dad, and the other told us not to. So we were kind of confused and kept praying Saturday night. Then Sunday we were seeking revelation in sacrament meeting. We felt like we should call the dad. So we went to a janitors closet and prayed. The Spirit was strong again. We gave him a call and talked and he agreed to talk to the kids about baptism on the next visit and would consider signing the consent form. So it was a pretty big miracle. The baptism we were planning for this past weekend got moved back to this weekend. So we'll be having 3 baptisms this weekend. I'm excited for them. They should be good. I think that's about all that's going on here. Just working hard trying to help everyone come closer to Christ. It's the best thing in the whole world. I love it. And I love learning new things about the gospel everyday.

Happy Birthday, Stacy!

GOOD MORNING! And Happy Birthday to Stacy!


Around here it got pretty cold earlier on in the week. On Tuesday we started off in Evanston, and there were strong winds and it with the wind chill it was around -30 degrees. So we started exchanges and my companion stayed there, I went back to Coalville. It wasn't as bad here. While we were driving it was around 0 degrees. Then we went up to Evanston the next day to end exchanges and the car said it was -18 degrees. So it's been a lot of fun. While we were making our visits on Tuesday, we'd heat the car up right before we got out, ran from the car to the door, then ran back to the car. It was freezing. Monday night, we were able to put those two girls, Maddie and Chloe, on date for baptism and confirmation for the 19th. We were talking to them and committed them to be baptized and they said alright. They said they were nervous/scared about it. So I told them to pray and ask God if it's what he wants them to do and Maddie, the older one, said "I already know the answer." It was amazing. It's actually her birthday today. She's the same age as Stacy. So right now we have 4 people preparing to be baptized and confirmed. All of them are solid and prepared. We have a goal for 5 during this month. We were in a council and theygave us the assignment to give a training to all the leaders of the mission on helping people get married. So we've been preparing that a little bit. We'll be giving it either tomorrow or Wednesday. It'll be good. Our zone is doing great compared to the other zones in the mission. All the zones in the valley (6 of them) all have three districts and around 24 missionaries, we have two districts and there are 16 of us. For the amount of people on date to be baptized and confirmed we have the third most right now. So we're pushing forward. We have over 30 people. I love this work.

Friday night there was a big rivalry game here in town between North Summit and South Summit. North Summit is in Coalville, and South Summit is somewhere in the south mission. So we don't like South Summit because they're in the south mission. But we made plans and they all fell through. So we went out to visit some of the members. But nobody was home. Everybody was at the basketball game. So we called up President Winn and got his permission to go to the game, because we wanted to get some referrals. So we went and talked to the people working the concession stands, and then caught people leaving the game when it was over. It turned out to be pretty productive. Everyone was excited to see us and it got our faces out in the community. We were also able to receive 5 or 6 referrals and set up dinner and correlate with a ward mission leader. All in about 30 minutes. It was great. Well that's about all I can think about going on right now. I just love being in this work and being able to see the changes in the lives of those we're teaching. There's no greater thing to do than proclaim the gospel. As I've been out here my love and understanding for the gospel has gone way up. And I know as y'all continue to study the scriptures, individually and as a family, your love and understanding of it will increase as well.