September 24, 2012

Hey parents! It's good to see everything is going well. Just email me Elder LaPlant's address when you get the chance. And also I don't need vitamins anymore so if you haven't sent them then return them or keep them for yourself. Thanks so much.

1. What is your street address there? I'm not supposed to share my exact address over email but I live off of Mack street. I'm not quite sure where Fork drive is but the chapel is on the corner of Sunset Blvd and Whippoorwheel if you want to look up those areas.

2. Does Doctor Collins have a recipe to help heal nerve damage? I'm not quite sure but I might see him tomorrow with some investigators and we have some really good teaching opportunities in his home. But he's literally like a genius so I'm going to ask him for sure. Can you tell me all the details of your surgeries and stuff just so I can give him more information if he needs it next week?

3. Do you have a southern drawl? Haha no I don't have a Southern drawl but y'all like rubs off on you really easily. So I do find myself saying that sometimes.

4. Are you saying, Sir and Mam? Yeah, for the most part I do. It's one of those things that you just get accustomed to really quickly out here.

5. Did you get your bicycle and how is that working out for you? My bike's working great so far. No problems yet.

6. Give us a list of people to pray for and tell us a little something about each family?  For example, who is Rebekah?

These are some of the people we are working with right now.

Rebekah- She's been investigating the church for a couple months before I came out here I think. She's married and has a daughter who's two and a son who's 2 months old. She's getting baptized this Saturday and she is way awesome. She was in the army for a few years and is wonderful. I'm so excited for her. Her husband Paul is on date to be baptized in October and we're working with him to help him stop smoking.

Mike and Paige- Mike decided to move his baptism up to this Saturday! It's so exciting because our zone goal for the mission was 16 and we were sitting at 15 people on date to be baptized this month. Last week our whole zone prayed and our prayer was answered this Sunday when he decided to move his baptismal date up. So Mike and Paige will be getting married this Saturday and then Mike and Rebekah are getting baptized right afterwards. I'm so excited for all of them! They're really on track to be life-long faithful members of the church.

Jasmine and Tammy are new investigators that we saw last week. They are both expressing sincere interest in the gospel and they really felt the Spirit when we taught them about the Restoration. They weren't able to make it to church this Sunday but they are reading the Book of Mormon and we'll probably see them again this week.

Jesse- The aunt of a recent convert Marvin. Marvin's this cool 17 year old guy who got baptized about 5 months ago. It's been tough because the family he lives with isn't too down to changing and accepting the gospel yet. But Jesse came to church last Sunday and we taught her a lesson on Wednesday I think. She's really interested and she invited us to come back this Thursday. We put her on date for October 20th. Her fiance agreed to join us this Thursday as well so hopes are high this week.

7. How is Sis. Frye doing?  Who are her visiting and home teachers? Sister Frye is doing well. We're still working on getting her to church. She doesn't want visiting/home teachers yet. We're probably going to see her a couple times this week. We have an appointment to teach her daughter who we tracted into who's not a member. But her son who's fifteen has been wondering about the church so we're going to teach their whole family. Last time we saw Sister Frye which was probably about 4 days ago, her husband talked to us and he's given the previous Elder's the cold shoulder for the most part from what I hear. So we're going to keep at it and hopefully get her to church this week.

8. How are you getting so many good leads? God has prepared people for us to be honest. As we do everything that we can and do our best to be exactly obedient, Elder Memmott and I have the Spirit in our companionship. We've gotten quite a few leads from knocking doors and testifying of truth and being friendly and open with people. There are hard times in this work but just not letting those hard times discourage me has kept me going and the Lord is blessing us. I'm excited to follow up with a lot of people this week. Definitely some great potential ahead of us. 

9. Who is the Bishop in your Ward and what is his family like (i.e. how many children, what ages etc.)? The Bishop in this Ward is Bishop McHugh. He's awesome from what I know of him. I haven't gotten much of a chance to meet his family but I've been able to talk to him and get to know him. He owns a pharmacy down the street from us and just gave me some vitamins for free so that's why I don't need them anymore. He's got a son who's the deacon's quorum president who I don't really know that well. But I'm hoping we can visit his house sometime so I can figure out who exactly is in his family.

Things went really well for the most part this week. Again I'm excited for all the people we're going to try to see this week. I hope all continues to go well for Brandon and his family. It's so awesome seeing the gospel change peoples lives. My mission has already been life changing and I know that it will continue to be lifechanging as I continue doing my best to do the Lord's will. And dad if you can email how your mission experience went I'd love to hear because I've always heard stories about it but I've never really gotten the whole story of it. I love y'all and appreciate your prayers! -Elder Nair