"and mine angels round about you"

We are grateful for the Lord's ability to protect His servants, as you'll read below:

Dear Family,

Talk about an absolutely crazy week!! At least things are still going well out here, but man was there a lot of stuff that went on. Zone Conference was on Tuesday, and it was really good! The best part was when Sis. Robbins called each of us up individually and handed us these big, thick envelopes. I honestly had no idea what was in there, but I opened it up and WALLAH!! There was a bunch of mail from you!! I was so excited to read those, it made my day! I enjoyed the thoughts, feelings, and stories you had to share which I will always remember. So that was an overall good day, because Wednesday brought with it a very scary ordeal.

I don't know if the mission office told you or not, but I was involved in a car accident on Wednesday night. I was on an exchange in Hamilton with Elder Scholes, who serves up in Oxford on the Miami University campus, and we were returning to our apartment for some dinner when it happened. I wasn't driving or anything, but it still shook both of us up a little bit. Thankfully, no one in either car was hurt, but Elder Scholes was at fault because he made a left-hand turn in a lane where you can't do it. The road system out here is WAY different than what both of us are used to (he's from Idaho), but it didn't make any difference of course. The left side of our car was pretty much totaled, but luckily the car that hit us didn't fully smash into the driver's side door, it was only damaged to the point where you couldn't open it. Like I said, no one was hurt at all, and I'm so thankful that the Lord continues to watch over us....even when we're in a car accident.

So that was pretty crazy, but on the plus side we got a new investigator that day so it wasn't all bad. In fact, we have 3 new investigators now in addition to the 4 that we are currently teaching. It isn't all shiny and golden though, as we have decided to push Joey Riddle's baptism back to January 10th. He was going to get baptized this Saturday, but we have too much to teach him and too little time, plus his schedule is pretty crazy. We will be meeting with him this Thursday, and quite possibly his grandparents as well. Joey's family is Catholic, but his grandparents are not very happy with what the Catholic Church is doing, so they've decided to take the discussions from us. So that was pretty cool to find out, and I'm sure Joey will be a big help to us since we've been teaching him for over a month now. In other exciting news, Bernard Taylor is scheduled to be baptized on January 3rd, and he is definitely ready for that. If I could, I'd have him get baptized THIS week, because he's been taught almost everything and is very prepared to make these changes. We are going to review all of the stuff with him, though, and make sure he understands it all. We are reading out of the Book of Mormon with him from the beginning, and he is fascinated by the fact that Lehi and Nephi saw the Savior 600 or so years before He was born! I thought it was good timing in sharing that story with him, since this is the season of the year where we celebrate the birth of Christ. We're having FHE with him and a member family tonight, I think Bernard is really excited for that! So to sum it all up, this was yet another very productive week for our area.

Looks like winter has hit both of us, but then again, all the snow we got last week is gone! It does get pretty cold, though, especially at night!

Also thank everyone that sent those letters, I'll try and respond to them as soon as I can. Especially thank Uncle Michael for those CD's, I absolutely love them!! Your thoughts and prayers on my behalf have made every moment so much better, and I hope mine have for you as well. I am confident it will continue. Hope this week is a good one for all of you, and it's my prayer that each of us will find ways to share the one-of-a-kind message of the Savior's birth with anyone we see.....'cause you never know who the Lord will prepare! Best wishes to you all!

Love,

Elder Isaac Livingston