December 14, 2015

Dearest All

We have been blessed by many Media referrals, (no doubt in part to the Christmas Initiative) many of them asking for a copy of The Book of Mormon, and other church media like Joy to the world...we have received one at least every two days and for the first time in my mission each one has been contacted with-in a day or two, (also being in the smallest geographical area I have ever served in helps that, and also means we have no excuse not to contact them with-in 24 hours) and we have 3 new investigators as a result, sincere investigators at that.

K.K, excellent man of faith, ordered a Bible and also welcomed The Book of Mormon, we taught him for the second time immediately following specialized training, feeling freshly spiritually sharpened and polished thanks to President Salisbury's wonderful instruction, certainly carried into this appointment, I was particularly astonished by Elder McClune's powerful teaching as we shared the Restoration with Brother K. We are teaching him again today he has already confirmed this appointment and kept in contact with us between these appointments, we are both every excited to see his progress.

W.T., we contacted and got the ever sought after "wow, that wasn't even 24 hours ago I did that" from this family when we arrived, we set up an appointment the next day, He was outside on the porch waiting for us upon arriving...at first I was skeptical of his sincerity, but he dug out his copy of the Book of Mormon he received years ago and had started reading it upon our second teaching appointment, and then the spiritual cogs began to turn and my hope for him shot through the roof the difference between the first and second teaching appointment was like night and day and I give full credit to power of the Book of Mormon.

Brother B. has also been a joy to visit, He is fabulous in keeping his commitments, and we prepare for our visits with him and the spirit without fail has been there as we teach this wonderful brother. One thing I must note was our hope for him to accept home teachers, which we previously asked him if we could bring his home teacher, to which he said no...now a month later, and 5 visits. We prayed that the spirit would soften his heart as we again extend this invitation to accept home teachers...At the end of the lesson I truly felt a genuine love for this man explaining we will be patient but as we come and go I so badly want him to have a good friend who can come and feel the spirit in his home and look forward to feeling the spirit there as I do...and when we asked the spirit just filled the room and joyfully truly joyfully he accepted and allowed us to bring Home Teachers with us in future visits. Heavenly Father truly did hear our prayer and powerfully sent the spirit upon our hope.

I am absolutely exhausted, soooo tired, but these moments are what keep me going through the thick...

These are the top I feel to mention, there are others as usual, just with not the time to type it all. In other news, Everything is going well for our booth up at the Roanoke Star....however in downtown despite our very best efforts to organize a booth for Dickens of Christmas, I just don't think we are going to be able to swing it this year...simply because we are late in the game, After getting approval from Downtown Roanoke INC. we went to the parking company, which was willing to arrange an agreement with us to use a parking space for the cost of 10$ each night at Dickens, however we needed to provide liability insurance. Working with staff in the Mission Office we obtained a copy of the church's insurance certificate for general liability for stuff like this, took it back to the parking company and they needed another form etc. etc. which there just simply won't be time to do I fear.

ON THAT NOTE...Dickens of a Christmas is a huge success, even with just our presence, however I ache a little at what could have been possible (probably mostly because next year I won't be a missionary and I will envy those who will get to wear the tag and represent the lord at His own celebration)...We have to be ON TOP OF THE GAME next year...to take full advantage of this incredible event....this past weekend there was and estimated 40,000 people present, it was huge. I wouldn't and haven't spared any effort to harvest as much as we can from this event. We are going to be doing a lot after Christmas to insure that missionaries next year can stand on our shoulders and do even more with this incredible event.