Week 70

Today at 9:46 AM

Hey family and friends,

1st off, no, there is not a number to the apartment.  I live in a sort of 4 plex thing.  Let's see...what else...Oh, I think the mail system here blew up or something.  We just had some switcheroos in the office which made have led to some complications, but I know of at least 1 letter that got sent to Wake Forest after I left.  One from Rachel.  Then, this week, I got letter 69 from mom.  I'm not sure if the office is eating mail...perhaps...they get hungry sometimes, but either way...it should all work out in the wash eventually :)

Hmmm...This past week has been really good.  First off, we have a baptism this coming Saturday, which is really exciting.  It's for 6 related kids ranging from 9-15 years old.  Some are siblings, but they're all at least cousins.  The one side of the parents is from Micronesia, and they're all fantastic.  We love them to death!  They're the best!  So that's going to be an exciting day.  Not to mention the fact that this coming Saturday, we are also having a Mission Conference, where the whole mission gets together, as 2 Seventy Members will be speaking to us.  Then in 3 weeks, we are having another Seventy Member come for the official mission tour.  This one this Saturday is just out of the blue because they happen to be here to train Ward Councils. 

We are also teaching some other absolutely wonderful people!  We had a really powerful lesson yesterday with 2 of our investigators.  We taught them the Restoration and it went really well, and the spirit was definitely present, and as it says in Doctrine and Covenants 50, we were all edified and rejoiced together.  At the end of the lesson, I testified to them and something really clicked in me; I told them that the only reason we come out here for 2 years is so that everyone can have the joy, the anchor of eternal truth in their lives, the peace of mind that comes from the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That's all I want for them.  I just want them to have this and to allow it to affect their lives in the most miraculous and amazing way imaginable.  What I realized was just how much I want that for them.  I want it SOOOOOOOOO bad.  Seriously.  There is absolutely no reason anyone should not accept this into their life.  I even got choked up as I told them that.  That's all I want.  That's why I'm here...

The Lord is blessing us in many other ways here.  Just in the first few weeks, I've realized just how much I love working with the Stake Leaders.  We have an amazing Stake President here and an amazing High Councilor over Missionary work.  They are both soooo missionary minded.  They're incredible.  Every week we have a conference call with them.  It's the best. 

Last night, we had a cottage meeting at Bro. Catlett's home, the High Councilor over missionary work.  It went great.  To define cottage meeting for all y'all, basically we had missionaries, investigators, recent converts, Less Active, and returned less active there.  We introduced ourselves, as I played, the rest of the missionaries sang to the group, I am a Child of God, then we watched a Mormon message about the Jamaican Bishop in London.  So good.  Following which, Elder Mortensen and I shared about a 7 minute thought on the enabling power of the Atonement, after which a Recent convert and recently returned less active from our ward shared their experience.  We then ended and had refreshments which was a beautiful opportunity for everyone to intermingle and kindle friendships and love amongst each other.  It was great :)  We had several people from our ward come including a family that we are going to begin teaching their 9 and 16 year old sons.  We're excited.  Really, we are :)  The Lord is wonderful.

We also had Zone Conference this past week.  That went really well.  :)  I love President Bernhisel and Sister Bernhisel.  They're the best.  Elder Mortensen and I taught for about 30 minutes, including a role play, on following the spirit in order to use our finding "nets" more effectively with a focus on members.  It went really well.   We highlighted the fact that in an district that has 30,000+ people or even 100,000+ people, having 8-10 people out there finding the elect, gathering Israel, is pretty dang difficult.  Having an extra 300 would help tremendously :)  But where do they come from...hmmmm...*wink,wink*

I also went on exchange with my old Zone Leader; we switched positions at transfers :) haha...it was good.  He's Spanish speaking, and we taught a lesson in Spanish, and I followed decently, and I even shared a scripture in Spanish on my own :)  Ah yeah, Chris, you're going to love it.

Oh, side note, the Jetta has sport mode and also a turbo button on the pedal.  Good stuff :) 

Oh, also, I have way too much stuff, and I'm not sure where it all came from...moving was ridiculous, we barely, and I mean barely, fit it all in the car when we came down from Wake Forest for transfers, thus, I am sending home a large flat rate with a bunch of stuff that I won't need on my mission.  I am also going to be sending the flash drive with some stuff on it.  You can take that and enjoy.  It will be inside the argyle sweater (we can't wear light colored sweaters). 

Oh, and about Elder Johnson, yes, I'm his Zone Leader; He's also my brother in that Elder Jensen trained him.  Additionally, he's from Durango and knows Sis Nelson :)  Good stuff. 

Economy? Who knows.  Hope Mills, suburban, but not far from Fayetteville which is pretty big.  life is good

Love,

Elder Patty