Last Weekly Update from SLC

Wow. It's kind of crazy. I'll keep things pretty short since I'll just be able to update y'all in a couple of days. But things here have been pretty crazy. I've been getting ready to leave and starting to do all my goodbye's. It was kind of crazy on Sunday. I gave a farewell talk. They had the dad's with missionaries out talk, and then I talked at the end. There wasn't much doctrine taught. It was mostly just me up there reflecting on my mission. It made it harder because I saw so many people from a year ago that I taught and they were all there with their church clothes on, preparing to go to the temple. And that's what true joy is. Saturday I had my departing interview with President Winn. It was great. It helped me feel more ready to go home. So it helped me calm down a lot. Then today I said bye to the Lopez family. They might be able to get sealed the weekend we're up here. Hopefully. Well today is p-day, tomorrow I'm going to the temple and out to lunch with all the missionaries that are leaving, and then Wednesday transfers, then that evening will be the devotional. I'm still kind of in shock. But I will see y'all soon!

End of the World

Hey! I'm glad I'm able to write to y'all today especially considering I thought the world was going to end on Saturday. Pretty scary stuff. Friday a bunch of people walked up to us and asked us if the world was really going to end. That's how we figured out about it.

Everything here is going well. We have a baptism on Saturday of the Puerto Rican girl. And we're working to get the family baptized. We'll be able to do it. This weekend was kind of crazy. Sunday came and we were pretty mad because the family that we're trying to get baptized, didn't come to church on Sunday. Neither did one of our converts. So we were mad standing at the doors greeting people. Then we saw a lady that we met the day before that we didn't think would come. And she came. So I was happy right there. Then half way through the couple we were helping to get married showed up. We ended up having 8 investigators to church which is the most we've had since we've been together. So we were pretty happy after church. Then after church we get a call from the couple we were helping to get married, and the woman said "I'm not getting married today we're going to have to cancel it. We've been having problems lately.." and just went off. So I told her we were on our way over. We called the branch president and he came. We ended up staying and talking with them for around an hour and a half, with them planning on getting married. It was great. So at 8 we had the marriage. We asked members to help with food and to make it a little special, and they pulled through. It turned out being really good. Oh and she said that she wants to get baptized, so we're going to put them on date this week. That's about all going on here.

The Real Mormons

Everything here is going well. The family that we had on date for the 20th is now on date for the 29th. We're going to help the kids get married when the girl turns 18 on the 25th. This week we also started teaching a little 10 year-old girl from Puerto Rico. Her mom is less active because she always worked on Sundays in Puerto Rico. We talked to her and gave her a Book of Mormon picture book. After the first day she already read half of it. She's great. She's so smart and catches on to everything pretty quickly. So she'll probably be getting baptized on the 28th. We're going by (to see) her today. We're continuing to try to find more people to teach. As we've been knocking doors we've ran into some interesting people. A lot of doors getting slammed on us. It's great. The other day we were on our bikes going through the trailer park and we saw these two girls on bikes, one of them with a Wal-mart bag. And they said they were "playing Mormons." They had 2 Book of Mormons in the bag. And when they saw us they said "Hey it's the real Mormons!" It was great. One of the things I won't miss is all of the stress that comes on Sundays of trying to make sure investigators get to church. It's such a stessful day, and always ends up being one of the busiest. It's getting harder and harder to wake up every morning. I'm just a tired worn out old man. I think that's about all that's going on for me right now. I can't really think of anything else. And if there is I can just tell y'all when I see y'all in a few weeks.

Happy Mother's Day!

Everything is still going good. Nothing new to report. I hope y'all have a great week and that everything goes well for y'all.

Finding the Elect

Well things here are going great. Like I said last week we were able to put that family of four on date. We're just trying to figure out how we are going to get the kids married. They're both underage and the parents of the girl live in Rock Springs. So we might have to wait until she is 18, which is on the 25th. On Saturday we were able to meet with some new investigators. They seem pretty interested. They're names are Jessica and Jose. They're living together and need to be married, so we're planning on helping them with that. We're also hoping to get them baptized on the 28th. They'll be ready by then. We were talking with them and she started talking about how she doesn't want to go to Catholic church because a lot of things have happened lately to disgrace it. So I think that they've been prepared. We'll see I guess. Their next appointment isn't until Friday.

We've been doing so much finding lately it's crazy. We're trying to make sure that we work with the elect. People that are really ready and prepared to hear the gospel.  So if they aren't progressing by the 3rd lesson we are just dropping them. Other than that there hasn't been too much going on this week. We met a guy that served a mission and is less-active now. He said that he found a book that was twice the size of the Book of Mormon. I guess he thinks that he found the sealed portion. It was kind of weird. Because he believes in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson, but he believes there's another prophet on the earth. It was just really weird I don't know. I think he just learned too much and thinks he's above the church now or doesn't need it. I think that's about all that's really going on. This Saturday a family I baptized a year ago is going to be going through the temple to get sealed. I'm excited for that. It will be good to be able to see them do that.  I think that's about all that's going on right now.