Joshua's email - 12/3

The district

The illustrious Elder G

That's our boy!

WOOOOOO! Week 6 down!  Transfers are this week!  We're getting a few new missionaries, I think like 8.  Most of them are sisters, which is weird because I came out with 15, and only one sister.  We got a call from President J last Saturday.  We both immediately tried to think of something we did wrong that he was calling to chew us out about.  Haha, but he was actually calling to ask my companion to be district leader.  So now Elder G jokingly refers to himself as "the Inspired, Heralded District Trainer Elder G."  This will be interesting because now we have to go on exchanges every week! I've only had to go on one exchange before, so it'll definitely be different.

So this week Elder G and I have been working hard at trying to help our investigators understand and receive a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Sometimes it's difficult trying to figure out exactly how to help them, but we know that it brings blessings.  We had lots of appointments set up this week with members to help us teach investigators, and for some reason or another, every one of those appointments got cancelled.  Elder G says that the ward has kind of forgotten what it's like to be a part of missionary work since earlier this year a pair of missionaries were very successful.  The missionaries afterward didn't work quite as hard and didn't see as much success, so he feels the ward has forgotten a little bit of how to help us and what that feels like.  But lately, everyone has been noticing the people we have been bringing to church, and EVERYONE wants to be a part of the work.  It's just hard finding times that will work for everyone.  We definitely work with what we have though.  We're doing our best to help our investigators progress towards baptism.

We also did quite a bit of tracting, and got lots of return appointments from that.  We met a lady named E who seems very interested in our message, so we'll definitely be working with her.  We also met a guy named V, from Africa, who seems to be interested as well.  We set up a return appointment with him the other day and he dodged us.  We felt bad, but we left a card with our number on it and decided to try again later.  We came back a few times over the next few days, and finally on Saturday night, we were able to catch him.  We just wanted to set up another return appointment, but he told us to come in right then.  We sat down, planning on teaching him the Restoration, but right off the bat, we knew we had to teach him the Plan of Salvation.  It was crazy because he seemed to be saying things that went right along with what the scriptures say, and what we wanted to share with him.  He talked about how he felt that he had a purpose in life, but he wasn't sure what it was.  We referred to Alma 34:32.  After that he explained how blessed he is to be able to have the gift of choosing for himself.  We referred to 2 Nephi 2.  Afterwards, we talked to him about those labors that we can choose to do to prepare to meet God.  We took him to 3 Nephi 27:19-20.  After this short 20 minute lesson, we invited him to be baptized.  He has a date set for December 29.  So we have four baptismal dates right now, and one that is very very close to deciding on a date.  V told us that he was diagnosed with cancer, so today he is in the hospital having surgery.  Hopefully everything will go smoothly and without complications so that everything can fall into place.

Sarah came to church again yesterday and she has a great desire to learn more.  We talked about the Word of Wisdom in Gospel Principles class yesterday, and she was very interested in learning more about that.  Tonight we have an appointment with her at a member's house, so we're hoping we can set a baptismal date for her then.  She texted us last night and said "Elders, thank you so much for all that you do. :)"  So I feel that she really appreciates us and is willing to learn more.  She wants to learn more about the Plan of Salvation and about temples.  She's pretty golden, as are some of our other investigators.

Anyway, I hope everyone's week was great.  We watched the Christmas devotional last night, and that's always really good.  Remember the true meaning of Christmas this season - God's perfect gift of His Son.  It is through Christ's atoning sacrifice that we can continually repent and progress to become more Christlike, to be able to be clean, to enter into the Kingdom of God.  Don't take the Atonement for granted, it is truly one of our greatest gifts.

Elder Whicker