Week 5....Boy Howdy

(I can't believe my son is already into the Texas slang, his use of y'all made me smile)

 Things are still going a bit slow here, but overall we have seen some pretty cool miracles this week. So far since we have been here we have been going down the ward list meeting all of the members. Now this list doesn't show who the less active, and non members are, so we are just going through it. Brother Lutzel was next on our list. We dropped by and knocked on his door, and no one answered. So we were just getting ready to go. My companion was plugging in the address for the next house when Brother Lutzel walks around the corner. We just started talking, and we originally thought he was a member because of how friendly, and how open he was talking with us. We asked him if we could practice teach the lessons with him and his wife, and he said if he was home he would be ok with it. Well it turns out that his wife is a less active member, but he is a non member. So we may have a chance to practice teach him. We have been practice teaching the lessons with members and less active members because of the fact that we don't have any investigators yet. We also found out that Brother Lutzel was a professional racket ball player, and because our apartment has two racket ball courts, he has offered to come over and teach us how to play. So we will have a great opportunity to get to know Brother Lutzel. We also found out that the stake presidents wife is Sisters Lutzel's visiting teacher. And she has always told the family that if the need anything to let her know.  Brother Lutzel has been having some medical problems, so he got a blessing from the stake president. I am not sure how everything will all turn out, but I think some great things are beginning to happen.

     We also were able to practice teach the Restoration lesson this week to a part member family. We went into this lesson wanting to really have the spirit there. Gary is the father, and he isn't a member, but we were able to meet with him for a little while. It was awesome being able to teach them. The spirit was so strong, and at the very end of the lesson we asked how can we improve. They really didn't have anything to say. But Elder Brown asked was the spirit here while we taught? Every one in the family nodded, even Gary. He felt the spirit, and we explained what the spirit felt like during the lesson. He is such a nice man, and we have been invited back to practice teach the other lessons. We are excited to be able to have these chances to teach. They have a son going on a mission to Guatemala, so there family will be blessed.
   

 The members here in White Oak are so generous and so kind. They are always willing to allow us into there home and feed us and let us share spiritual thoughts. But they even help us fix up our bikes if they have problems. Like on Saturday night we were biking and my companions bike chain fell apart while we were biking. So I had to tow him like a mile  or two to the ward mission leaders house(Brother Stone) . We knew that he had experience fixing bikes. So after we arrived he took us to some stores to try and find a new bike chain for my companion. This is at like 8:00pm so most places that would have chains were closed. So Brother Stone drove us home that night and picked us up for church the next day  and also fed us. Then he drove us to another members house that was able to repair the broken chain, and we were able to get on our way. We really have been blessed to have members in this ward who can help us out. And it will be through the members that we will find people to teach. So thats why we are focusing on getting to know the members so well.

      In my personal study this week, I was reading in D&C 112, and there are some really cool things in this section.I would encourage Y'all to read it. But particularly vs 10-11 and 14. Now these are things that can be done to help us be better missionaries, and member missionaries. We need to be humble and love others as we love ourself. And if we do this we are told that God will lead us by out hand, and will answer our prayers. But then I love in vs. 14 when it says Arise gird up your loins, take up your cross, follow me, and feed my sheep.  As we follow the example of Jesus Christ, and we are humble, we can help so many people out and help bring an increased happiness into there lives. I know it may seem hard to love some people, or hard to talk to others about the gospel, but I know and I testify as a representative of  Jesus Christ, that as we are looking for others to serve, and others who are ready for that gospel, and as we follow christ and feed his sheep, we will be blessed, and we will find those who our Heavenly Father is preparing.  Just like in vs 19 the lord will be with us, and we will be happier as well. I want to encourage Y'all to find others to serve or share the gospel with. Get to know others, and help bring the light of Christ into their lives. It may not happen right away, but you will have those opportunities to share the gospel and have those missionary moments.

Another thing I would encourage Y'all to do, is to look into family history a little more. There are some amazing blessings that come from doing it, and so I also want to encourage you to find a family member who needs temple work done, and to help do it for them. You will be able to have your testimony grow as you do this. And if you are not yet 12 and can't go to the temple you will still be able to see those blessings as you search for you ancestors who are waiting for the work to be done. This is a cool thing and I can't wait to learn more about it out here. 

That's all for now, I hope you have an amazing week.  

Here are some pictures.  Texas is beautiful!

Josh also added a brief email to me, I will include the relevant parts below...

... This last week we had zone conference, and that was kinda cool. We learned more about how to find people and stuff like that. And that happened on Tuesday. This week was a busy week with service, but I had the chance to give a blessing to a man in our ward. He thinks he has a stomach parasite, and his wife just had a baby like a week ago, and the baby was born with a broken collar bone. But even though I sometimes am nervous about giving blessings, I know that the power of the priesthood is and incredible thing. I haven't had a chance to see how he is doing, but I was gonna call him later and see how his family is doing.