More Catching Up...

11/28/11

Dear Famiree,

We had a great lesson with T this last week. We had not set a specific return appointment with her during this last week and we felt prompted to stop by and see her one evening. We found her and her husband, who we met for the first time, at home. We had a short, but effective, lesson with them regarding the importance of reading from the Book of Mormon and attending Church. In the past she has expressed some concern with attending any church because of several negative experiences she has had with other churches. After teaching her and her husband this week she was less reluctant to attend. We invited her family to come and she said that they might be able to come. Her husband promptly said "We'll probably come." He was very receptive and actively participated in the lesson. We were very excited for them to come to Church yesterday. Unfortunately, they did not make it. We have not had a chance to contact them to find out why they did not come, but we hope they will come next week. We also invited them to read the Book of Mormon together as a means of finding peace during an often hectic holiday season which they committed to do.

We had a really good lesson with a new investigator. We tracted into him last week and briefly testified of the Restoration of the Gospel and set up a return appointment. He was not only there, but prepared for our visit with questions! We focused mainly on the pattern of apostasy and restoration throughout Biblical history and testified of the important role of prophets. He hesitantly asked us if we believed there were prophets today to which we responded, "Of course!" He really liked that answer. After the lesson he offered a great prayer in which he told the Lord that he is really interested in our message and wants to know if it is true. We look forward to our appointment with him tomorrow evening.

We also had a great lesson with another new investigator. Her friend was also there for our return appointment. They were very receptive to the Spirit as we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They had a lot of really good questions and we really felt like we helped them gain a greater faith in Jesus Christ as a result of the lesson. We left them with a copy of the Book of Mormon which they committed to read together. We have an appointment with them this evening to follow-up on how their reading has gone.

In my Gospel study I have been studying portions from Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon that I feel would be helpful in preparing to teach our investigators. Having finished reading through the General Conference Edition of the Ensign, I have been reading "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard. I have found many successful approaches to teaching in his book and I have had many opportunities to apply them to my teaching, which I have tried to take advantage of.

For a while I thought it was finally cooling down here...it's back up to 65 degrees today.... The weather here is nuts.

Anyway, I love you!

Elder Elder Raymond