Joshua's email - 3/25

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOO!

This week was pretty good!

Last Monday, we had another lesson with T and J C.  It was SOOOOO awesome seeing them at church on Sunday.  They seriously look like members of the church already and it makes me so excited to see them take steps like that! We taught them the Plan of Salvation with another member, and it went really well.  The Plan of Salvation answered a TON of questions that they had, and they said that it seemed like everything we taught was what they already believed was true!  So we were just refreshing their memory. ;)  J is almost through 2 Nephi! Tim is in 1 Nephi, but he's really starting to enjoy the Book of Mormon, and it's become insanely sincere and open since we've resolved his small concerns.

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder F in ***.  Elder H (the only other kid from Montana in the mission) went with Elder P to Elkhorn.  We had a pretty good exchange!  Elder H is AWESOME.

Wednesday we had another lesson with the C family!  We re-taught them the Restoration with emphasis on modern day prophets and how God still speaks to us today.  It was a really spiritual lesson, and we ended it by watching the shortened version of the Restoration movie.  I looooooooooooooooove the Cs! They'll be baptized soon. I know it. :)

Thursday was awesome too!  We went to a member family's home for dinner. Half the family is kind of less active, but the mom/wife is very active.  The parents are trying to prepare to go to the temple... [Tana's note - I deleted some personal info.]

Afterwards, we went to teach a lesson to a couple in their 50s or so.  Their names are R and J.  I didn't really know what to expect by visiting them, because Elder P said that they had read the entire Book of Mormon.  I thought it might be possible they had bent the truth a little bit, but I was excited to see if they had actually read it or not.  We went with the Bishop's wife, who reminds me a ton of Sister H!!! She was the perfect person to have come with us!!!  We walked in, and I talked with R and J for a little bit and we got to know them really well.  They're probably one of the most humble people I've met on my mission!  J is anhealthcare administrator, so he's really busy, and on top of that, he has a similar position to the bishop in his own church!  We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and resolved some concerns they had.  It turns out they have both read the ENTIRE Book of Mormon within the last 2 months or so.  They both LOVED 3 Nephi, and they both agreed that Ether 12 was one of their favorite chapters in the entire book.  Their concerns were very few and small, and the things they liked from the Book of Mormon far outweighed those concerns.  We talked about how the Book of Mormon is either entirely true or it's not.  It either had to have been written by just another man, or it was truly written and translated by prophets of God.  We shared 2 Nephi 33:10-11, and I think that really hit home with them.  We asked them if they believed that the Book of Mormon was God's word, and they both agreed that it was.  I think they'll be baptized soon too.  I'm not sure when, but they were incredibly spiritual and humble.  They admired Elder P's testimony of the Atonement, and they told us that we were the first people they've ever met that they feel equal to in terms of spirituality.  That was pretty cool too. We quickly gained a great love for R and J, and we'll be seeing them again soon! :)

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we did a little bit of tracting.  We visited some member families for dinner appointments and they were wayyyyyyyy cool too! I love the H family!  Brother H was a hippie back in the 70s and he traveled by hitchiking and by hopping railroad cars all over the country, including Montana! Hahaha!  But anyway, we found 7 new investigators (standard of excellence is 3 ;) ) this week, and we taught the entire Restoration to a guy named T on his doorstep.  That was pretty sweet.  We also caught S and her boyfriend again! So we taught about the Atonement and how we can know if the Book of Mormon is true.  This whole week has been awesome, and we got to teach lots of lessons! Hopefully we'll have some more solid baptismal dates set soon!

Anyway, that's pretty much everything that happened this week! I love you all and hope everything is going well!!!

Love

Elder Whicker!