Week 48

Mon, May 20, 2013 at 9:38 AM

Hey family,

Life's going well for me here down in Southport

This past week, neither Elder Mickelsen or I received any mail that we are aware of, minus the mission newsletter. So, it's possible that the mission office is super behind.  They just had one of the sisters go home early due to health reasons...I liked her too :(

So, time continues to fly mightily speedily if you know what I mean.  We saw a lot of success this past week and found several new investigators.  We had 2 investigators in church, and they both had a really good time I think. 

I have some funny advice from a missionary in my district:

We have so much food in our fridge...

We're working with 1 young man who is making a lot of progress.  We've been working with him and his family for about 5 months now.  His grandmother is a recent convert of about 6 months.  He is making great strides though.  It's definitely amazing to see what miracles the spirit and the Lord can work in the lives of our Heavenly Father's children.  Us on our own? Yeah, we're failures...us with the spirit?? Yeah, that's unstoppable ;)  Nothing can compete with the feelings that people have as they read the Book of Mormon, attend a simple worship service, and pray to their Father in Heaven.  He'll be baptized next month sometime...we don't have the exact details worked out yet. 

This lady, one of our investigators, the other day when I was talking to her on the phone told me that she was the reason I was sent here.  She said that I've done a lot to help her get on the right path and change her life.  Not including this to try and boast or anything because we all know as I said before...me alone...failure...me with spirit...slightly less than failure... :)  but regardless, it made me feel good that my hard work is benefiting at least someone.

The other day, I asked Elder Mickelsen why everyone can't just join the church (or I should say, join the gospel and be active in it).  It's sad to see -- we meet a lot of people as you can well imagine.  And we meet some ridiculously nice people and fantastic individuals, who want to do what's right and have a strong faith in Christ, but various life experiences have inflicted sundry wounds on their willingness to change/listen/search for more etc.  We met a very nice lady yesterday, who firmly and unalterably believed that it wasn't possible for there to be a 100% true church.  So many people after many years of dealing with other religions and faiths, just settle for a broken system.  They turn to the bible and then just go to church for the kicks, I guess.  Or we meet many others who are simply turned off from religion because of the childish fails of other religions trying to tear down one another or other religions being very hypocritical / conflicting / confusing etc.  I just want to make people understand sometimes, but that's slightly against God's gift of agency. 

Overall, life's good though.  It's hard to believe I've been here in Southport just as long as I was in Morehead City. 

oh,

ps. We went to the Oak Island Lighthouse last week.

I'll try to send some pics

Thanks for being the best stinkin' family in the whole world.  I love you all so much.  Don't blink too many times...my mission is going by fast enough as it is :)

Love,

Elder Patty