Week #49

June 27, 2016

Hi Family!

Great week this week! We've been working really hard on finding new investigators and helping the investigators we have to progress and take their next step. It has been great to see them move forward with each faith filled step they take. 

To start out with who I feel it progressing most right now in our area, Bob. Bob is really understanding and loving the doctrine that we teach and he recognizes that there is something missing in other religions, specifically with the bible. He has been reading and doing quite a bit of research on the church. He still doesn't feel that he has had an answer of if the church is true or not but he is really doing great! I can't remember if I told you already or not but when we found Bob, he didn't seem too promising. We tracted his house and when he answered, we were immediately intimidated. He's probably 6'3" and isn't a skinny bean poll to say the least. On top of that, he is beyond passionate about religion. He basically told us that we knew nothing when we met him. In fact he was yelling at us when we tracted him. But because of tenacious efforts, we set a return appointment with him and he's now one of our best investigators! Seriously love that guy!

Nuvola has been reading the Book of Mormon and has been liking it. She really doesn't see a huge difference from her religion, Catholic, and ours. She has told us that she isn't really interested in joining the church but is always willing to listen to us and loves learning more. We're hoping and praying that she will gain a desire to act on what we are teaching her.

Parker has been out of town a lot in the last few weeks but is doing well. His Grandma, whose a member, came to church on Sunday! We are hoping that she gets reactivated and then Parker will stay active once he gets baptized! We will probably start teaching his little brother Leeland as well. He just barely turned 8. Really love that family. So many people here that I want to see get baptized but it doesn't look like any of them will make it before July 13th. That's the next transfer and I would bet about a zillion bucks that I'm going to a new area.

We didn't get to see Victor this week due to a conflict in his schedule but we have an appointment set up with him on Tuesday.

Those are our most progressing people right now and I love all of them!

I just have a quick experience that I want to share. 

As we were tracting this week out in the country, we were walking to the next house when a van pulled up next to us. The man inside was a little rough looking and he started talking to us about the history of Christianity. Anyway, it eventually got to the point where he was yelling at us, telling us that our religion was of the devil and that we were going to burn in Hell. I got pretty frustrated with me and stuck my head inside of the passenger side window that was down and was sure to tell him that he didn't know what he was talking about and then walked away. I felt the spirit leave me immediately as I did so and felt that I couldn't let my feelings of anger go towards this complete stranger who found it necessary to ruin my day. I was prompted to say a prayer and ask for help to love this man. As soon as I did so, I felt the love of the Lord come flooding back to me and had a great rest of the day! Such a blessing to have that experience!

Love you guys so much! Glad everyone is having a good summer! Good luck Coop with Cross Country! Its a blast!

Love,

Jack