Hot, humid and happy

Zone Conference was a lot of fun, I really liked being with missionaries and just relaxing. Then again, I spent the whole time running around and sweating like crazy, so I was anything but relaxed when it was over. It was fun to see Pres. Robbins playing basketball with other missionaries, he wore them out! He said we'd have to play one-on-one sometime, although I don't know when we'd get the chance!

We had a great experience of answered prayer this past week, due entirely to the fact that we put our faith and trust in the Lord. We had failed to get any appointments with our investigators, so we faced a day that was extremely wide open. We were in desparate need of getting at least one member present lesson, but we didn't have any appointments. As we were planning, a member called us and said he was off work the next day and wanted to come teaching with us. That was the Lord doing His part. Now we needed to exercise our faith, which we did. We decided to stop by each of our investigators with him in a 90 minute period, and hopefully get a lesson or two out of it. One by one, we went to each of our investigators and found them home! In fact, each of them were outside almost as if they were waiting for us! The last ones we stopped by, Ryan and Kim, invited us in. We had found them at the park the week before playing basketball, so of course we went over to talk to them. They had many questions for us, and they accepted a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. The day we stopped by with the member was our first real chance to get a lesson with them. We spent the whole lesson answering Ryan's questions from 3 Nephi 11 and the pamphlet, both of which he had read thoroughly. The pamphlet had questions written all over it, and he had written his questions from the chapter on a notepad. He told us that he stayed up one night until 4 in the morning reading what we'd assigned! When we initially gave them the materials, I asked them to pay attention to their thoughts and feelings as they read, and then afterwards to get on their knees and pray to confirm those feelings with the Lord. Ryan told us that the same question came across his mind when he read and then when he prayed: "Could this really be true?" They, along with Kim's brother Britt, are seriously investigating now. In fact, Ryan and Britt came to Church yesterday!!

I firmly believe that this all started with the faithful prayer of two missionaries seeking the Lord' s guidance, all the while trusting in His purposes. I don't think it was a concidence that we found them playing basketball, and not simply knocking on their door. We had a similar experience by doing service at the Taylor's these past couple weeks. They have a construction company remodeling part of their house, and they were surprised to find a couple 20 year olds who wanted to help for free. To make a long story short, the company owners (father and son) both have copies of the Book of Mormon now. Elder Remington and I have discovered that our best contacts have come through means other than tracting. President Robbins asked us to use our talents, and I'm finally realizing that you can do that and still keep the rules. You can talk about the gospel no matter what you're doing, as long as you create the right environment.

This promises to be a great week, and I am excited to see what can happen as we continue to have faith. We truly worship a God of miracles, but faith has to precede the miracle. Throughout the course of my mission, I have changed from someone who was frustrated at talking to so many uninterested people, to being someone who understands that they are not prepared yet. I am grateful to be a part of this mission, and to be serving in such a neat area at this time for as long as I have. I hope that my efforts will have at least laid a foundation that future generations of missionaries can build on.

I really enjoyed what Mom wrote about, boy do letters strengthen me! I imagine the basement is much more comfortable during these months, but just be glad you don't have to face Ohio humidity. It's crazy, even at 6:30 AM!! I loved your reading experiences from the Book of Mormon, there is so much we can apply from it. I am getting ready to start studying Alma 32-34 this week, really looking forward to it. A big thanks to Kent, Carol, and Co. for their letter last week. I don't know if that house can fit anymore kids! I think that's everything for this week, so I will leave my blessing and prayers on each of you as I always do. Keep the spiritual experiences coming!