On the verge...

Hard to believe that I will be talking to you on the phone again this coming Sunday! Seems like Christmas just happened, and yet, here we are moving through May!

All right, now to get down to the nitty gritty. One of the greatest spiritual witnesses I've seen time and time again since I've been here is knowing that my family is being blessed and well taken care of. With that priceless piece of knowledge, I am able to go through the day without any concern or fear as to how you all are doing, I just know deep down that the Lord has you in His care.

Now I'd like to see the Lord help our investigators get to Church! This is an area we are really struggling with right now, it is probably the one thing that separates most of our investigators from being baptized. Yeah, they are THAT prepared and interested in learning about and accepting the message of the gospel. I just really hope we can get them to see how important it is to come to Church each week, it is absolutely essential. However, we have nonetheless seen great blessings from God in having many opportunities to teach, and this is a result of planning and praying with faith. Planning with faith works!! This past week, we decided during our nightly planning that we would plan our indicators based on what we wanted, and not merely what the following day presented....hopefully that makes sense. In short, we planned by faith and not by sight. :) The result was that we taught 15 lessons, the most I've taught in Wilmington during a week, and found 9 new investigators! Pretty much all of them are families, and this is what we've been praying for this transfer! All of them seem really interested, and are looking to find a solid foundation to build their families around. Boy does patience pay off as well!

All this time I've spent in Wilmington, I've felt that this area is on the verge of really opening up. I haven't seen it quite yet, but am starting to see how important it is to be patient with the Lord and His timetable. The focus this week will be on a LOT more member presents, more progressing investigators, and more investigators at sacrament meeting. Currently, we are way behind on our goals we set for those indicators, so they will be the big focus these last 2 weeks. We've realized that the biggest thing that's keeping us from achieving our goals is, predictably, ourselves! I'm just so grateful that the Lord is willing to bless us continually in spite of all the weaknesses we possess.

Stake Conference was great, I really enjoyed all of the talks that were given! We had a special satellite broadcast from Salt Lake, and the speakers were President Beck (the new RS president), Elder Jensen, Elder Perry, and finally Pres. Monson. It's really interesting, though, to see someone in your ward as one of the speakers. They all did very well, I felt the confirming witness of the Spirit that what they spoke on was what we all needed to hear. I am grateful for the knowledge we have that God still speaks through His chosen servants in these last days. That knowledge needs to be declared to everyone whenever an opportunity presents itself. One of the things I tell people about the Book of Mormon to help them understand it's value is this: "The Bible is proof that God spoke. The Book of Mormon is proof that He speaks."

I have discovered the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, in a way that I never have previously. It is such a priceless, powerful gift that God has given us! And as Pres. Benson has said, we need to "flood the earth with the Book of Mormon." It is my prayer that each of us would set a goal to give away a copy once a month, maybe even once a WEEK if you feel that confident. As a missionary, I don't really have a choice. We've got tons of copies, and they serve no purpose sitting on the shelf. In fact, there's one right next to me now, with the hope of presenting it to someone during the day.

In my mind's eye, no other family or group of friends comes close to the ones I've got. May our Heavenly Father strengthen and help you, especially when you need His presence the most. As we've been told a lot these days, God will NEVER leave His children alone, but we must do all we can to come unto Him....and He has promised to do the rest. God bless you all!