—We are teaching an eight-year-old boy who is the brother of one of our recent converts, and it's crazy how intelligent he is. We are slowly starting to teach the mom, and I can see a lot of good coming out of this whole family. The Lord continues to bless us. This last couple of days I got to go on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders in Smyrna, and their area is insane with how much work is going on. These elders are teaching and baptizing so much and I learned a lot of important mission skills that day. I know this will truly help me here in my cause, because I feel like the Lord has truly blessed us here; we just have to always continue to improve and do better.—It is amazing to see how much success is coming because of the faith of our missionaries. Our ward has four sets of elders, and last week we had six baptisms collectively, and then this week we are looking to have another six altogether. We do all of our baptisms after church, so these upcoming Sundays our sacrament meetings will be full of confirmations. God is great and truly blesses those who are faithful and "do what He would have us do." Every day something unexpected happens that is just another testimony that this gospel is true and that it must roll forth. It also brings to mind the talk by Elder Uchtdorf, "Lift where you stand." We are doing just that!
—As of late we have two people who are scheduled for baptism. The Lord is merciful beyond imagination and blesses us when we follow His commandments. So last Sunday we needed as a branch at least 130 people at sacrament meeting. (so that when Salt Lake looks at our numbers count for the quarter they are high enough for this branch to get a new building with pews). Anyway, the whole branch is so on fire and ready to get everyone to church. Needless to say, we somehow fit 153 people into that small old bank-turned-church. Man I love this work! Our mission president even dropped in for our sacrament meeting and he he was way happy. I am itching with excitement to see what will happen, and my companion and I are doing all that we can to "lift where we stand." These members are so devoted; they love missionaries and the work as well. There always seems to be new people for us to teach and even when times are hard, it is always worth it in the end. When those hard times come I just think about the fact that "the gospel is not a cheap thing," so why should the work be so easy? Also that "when you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitled to the Lord's help." Come what may!
—So this week we had a really good lesson with a family of four. The father says every time he reads the Book of Mormon he gets the prompting, "Go to church." So, this Sunday they are all going to come. There is Otis, his wife, their fifteen-year-old daughter, and then a three-year-old. He got his mom to start reading the Book of Mormon by cutting off the cover page and placing it in her house. Hahaha, she is of a different religion, but thus far she is loving the Blue Book. So anyway, there should be a lot of good coming out of that.