Letter #89 - Week of 14 Oct 2009 - I love this Area

I was just writing a passionate, enthusiastic email. I guess I must have been too excited as I wrote, because I kicked the power switch and lost it all.

I'm still in the groove, though, so I'll just continue what I was writing, and trace back from there.

Elder Caywood's comments in his letter on his baptism were amazing. I couldn't help but shed a tear as I read them.

Matthew and his friend Wong came to conference and seemed to like it well enough. Wong brought us the news that he had prayed for the first time before a test, and he passed the test (he had failed two the week previous). He has always made comments that have seemed a bit off. We set up a lesson for last night, and when I called yesterday Matthew said that he couldn't come, but Wong still could, so it would be the first time we had him alone. At the beginning of the lesson, he expressed concern that he didn't know if God was real. He said, being in a communist country, he had always been taught God was imaginary. We told him he could resolve that dillema very simply through prayer, if he prayed in the right way. We began by reading the Lord's prayer in the Book of Mormon. After that, something clicked, and some deeper concerns surfaced. I won't go through everything we talked about, but it boiled down to the fact that he has felt, especially since he started meeting with us, that something is missing in his life, that he is doing wrong. He knows that drinking and smoking and violating the law of chastity are wrong and they bring unhappiness, he just doesn't know how to get away from it all. Of all my investigators, I think he is the most socially awqward, but I think to date, what he told us last night was the most clear, direct appeal to the need for Jesus Christ in his life. That sorrow, that desire to repent, is at the very heart of what we are here to help with.

We were kind of stuck with nothing to do on Monday. President Clark has strongly encouraged us to focus on recent convert referrals, so we decided to meet Kelly and see if we couldn't encourage her to find someone for us to teach. We told her about counsel from Elder Ballard: The key to member missionary work is faith. One great way to show faith is to prayerfully set a date to find someone for the missionaries to teach. She was very reluctanct, and wanted to set a date next year. With some encouragement for something much, much sooner, she chose the last day of the month. We expressed our complete confidence in her and God and the power of prayer, and went our way. It was a little surprising even to me to arrive home and recieve a call from Kelly informing us she already found a friend who wanted to learn from us. We taught Sandy the next day, and she also is awesome.

I think Esther will follow in Kelly's footsteps and have some people for us to teach within the next few weeks.

So, here is the rest in a nutshell.

Esther was baptized. She's awesome.

We met a Guatamalan whose house maid is a member. We'll be meeting them on Friday.

General conference was awesome. I especially enjoyed President Monson's talk on service, and Elder Holland and Elder Bednar's talks.

A Nigerian investigator bore his testimony to some other new investigators. He accepted a baptism date after the fact.

I love this area.

Sincerely,
Elder Muffler