August 5, 2013

Mother,  

You took the lessons three times? Wow you weren't giving in without a fight :)

Our investigators have come to church but this week they did not. I know we will get them there consistantly. The problem is that their mother isn't usually home so we can't really get parent involvement :(

One of the missionaries is going home tomorrow and he is from Peoria, AZ. Super cool guy. We had a mini party at the soccer game on Saturday and the Spanish Elders had an investigator there.

We have been doing service of some kind almost every week. It is pretty fun because I never got to do that in my last area. We even got to move someone yesterday because they had an emergency move. It was cool because we got to actually work with almost the entire Elders quorum as we played Tetris, trying to fit everything in the van.

One problem we seem to be having here is this ward is a lack of family-ness. Growing up, our ward was always pretty close, I knew everyone and talked to most of the people. Here, that isn't quite the case. All the members are SUPER nice but it just isn't as close-knit. A member got up yesterday and talked about how she feels alone sometimes. It is exactly what the ward needed to hear but it couldn't come from the missionaries. God prompted her to share her thoughts because it will make an impact. Moral of the story is follow the promptings you receive.

Another cool thing I have just noticed is the tendency the gospel has to make people happy. A less-active members son, we will call him John, just started coming to church. His mother has health issues that keeps her from coming but he decided he wants to come. When John was first coming to church he was quiet and it was a struggle to get him to tell you how he was feeling. Now, he smiles and makes comments in class. He is reading talks in his free time. It is pretty amazing what the simple gospel of Jesus Christ can do.

My companion is getting transferred. It has been really short but I am excited to get a new companion. I'll keep you updated and I'll send you pictures soon.

Elder Engelman