Good morning from downtown Cincinnati! We're at the library down here today because we are going to see the sights in and around Cincinnati! I'm pretty excited, and I will take plenty of pictures too. Glad you enjoyed the ones I sent last week! We've been downtown a couple times when people were headed to a Reds game, and boy was it tempting for me to follow them and maybe try and sneak in. Thankfully I didn't, but I'm still hopeful that I can go to a game before the mission is over. There are people who stand around holding signs that say, "I need tickets," and I think it would be funny if I held one of those and took a picture with a really forlorn look on my face!
Thank you for your heartfelt and informative e-mails this morning!! It sounds like a lot is going on in everyone's lives, both spiritually and temporally speaking. I suppose that the same could be said for here, although there isn't much in the way of temporal things. That is crazy that Jordan gets home in 12 days and that Donovan is about to get his mission call. I'd laugh if he got called to Norway like Cameron and Jordan did. Heck, I'd probably fall over if he was sent here!!!! Not a high chance of that, but it's got as good of a chance as all the other missions.
Pres. Robbins sent us all some notes from a talk by Pres. Benson about member-missionary work, and so of course I took the time to write them down in my planner. They now join the billions of other notes I have on the subject of member-missionary work! Speaking of which, we were successful in reaching the goal I set of 3 FMP set-up/follow-ups per week. They all went extremely well, and one of the families was able to successfully follow-up on their friends' reading of the Book of Mormon, and received a positive response! I don't know what it is, but I just get really excited when I see people applying the things we teach and then seeing it work out, whether they are members or investigators. This past week was probably our most productive of the transfer so far, as we taught 23 lessons (high quality too) and found 4 new investigators. The Lord has also blessed us with several referrals to visit, so we certainly aren't lacking in things to do right now.
We set a new baptismal date with Shawntae for May 15th (significant date, isn't it?) to give her something to work towards. She had digressed a bit after her original date fell through, so we felt we needed to do that so she has extra motivation. Michelle Baker has good and bad days, meaning the days she uses crack cocaine and the days she doesn't. She really wants to overcome this and is supposed to start treatment on the 15th. We gave her a flier for the fireside in May, and she posted it on the bulletin board in her apartment complex and wrote her phone number on it in case anyone else is interested. Non-member missionary work, now THAT'S what I'm talking about!
Oh yes, I suppose I'd better expound on what I said about a fireside in May. Well, on May 6th, the Saints Unified Voices choir, under the direction of Gladys Knight, will be at our stake center to give two evening "performances" for anyone within the tri-stake area and whoever else wants to show up. It isn't a concert, but they are asking us to refer to it as a fireside instead. We will be able to go to that as long as we have investigators there, and we know of at least 5 people that have already committed to it! I'm rather excited for it! This choir has performed in other places in the States and the result has been a whole lot of referrals for the missionaries. That's what I like to hear!! Man, first the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert last June, and now this!
All in all, things are moving along rather smoothly here in Cincinnati. We'll see how this week plays out. We're having our Zone Conference tomorrow rather than next transfer, and this time the WHOLE mission will be there! That is going to be really good, I just know it! Aren't they all? I really love this area!! I know I say it every week because it's true!!! I believe we are on the verge of seeing a lot more success, if we will only do those things we've been asked to do. I look forward to seeing what other valuable pieces of knowledge that the Lord is waiting to give to us, and I hope that He is doing likewise for each of you. Have another great week!
" If at this moment each one of you were asked to state in one sentence the most distinguishing feature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what would be your answer? My answer would be divine authority by direct revelation."- Pres. David O. McKay
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