Monday, March 24, 2014

March 24, 2014

Hi again!

Life is good here in sunny San Diego.  I have to admit that I don't feel quite so superior being here in this wonderful weather now that the rest of the nation is getting better weather.  We have totally enjoyed missing the snow and cold this year!

Things are settling down with the golf tournament over and we are enjoying the calm.  We have visited with many ward members this week and love the association with them.  We are blessed to be in the ward we are in.  We are excited that we have had an assistant ward mission leader  called and another ward  missionary to help in our efforts there.  Our assistant ward mission leader is a newly returned senior missionary who was also a counselor to the mission president while he was there.  He is fired up and knows the programs and we are thrilled to work with him.

Our missionaries are starting to see more success.  There is a couple in our ward that has come out to church two weeks in a row.  The wife was an inactive member and her husband is not a member.  In the rescue effort of inactive members she was found and the missionaries have been teaching her husband.  She said that she wanted to come back to church but didn't want to do it without her husband.  He has been looking for a job and the missionaries have asked the ward to pray for him.  He just found a job and is thrilled.  They actually will be moving out of the area but tell us that they will be going to church in Texas where they are moving.  They are a darling young couple, she in an attorney, and they will be a great asset to the church there.

There is another man who has just accepted the invitation to be baptized!  This is the first baptism in the ward in over a year.  He used to be married to a single mom in our ward who was the last baptism a year ago.  They were divorced after he got heavily addicted to drugs years ago.  Since then she has found the church and is preparing to go to the temple in a few weeks.  He has been to church for the past three weeks and is planning on getting baptized in April.  We are excited.  He has gone through years of rehab and now is 5 years sober!  It is fun to see this little family come together.

We are seeing the members work harder at inviting investigators for the missionaries to teach but it is a slow process.  As members we pray for our missionaries to be lead to the "pure in heart" or to "those whom the Lord has prepared".  Our prayers now must be for US to be lead to those people so that WE can introduce them to the missionaries.  It works so much better that way.  What a fun time to be a missionary.

We had a father of a missionary come through the Battalion the other day and he was sharing how the internet is being used in his son's mission to spread the gospel.  They spend several hours a day doing "internet proselyting".  They have Facebook pages and can set up a "meeting" on Facebook where many can join to learn different things about the gospel.  One of our returned missionary sisters has been joining those conversations and helping with the teaching of the gospel on line.  Some missionaries are putting videos on youtube and are spreading the message that way.  It will be fun to see what these technology savvy missionaries come up with next!  Check out Elder Brad Witbeck's Facebook page to see a bit of what they are doing.  The face of missionary work is changing.

The Mormon Battalion has been busy this week with people from Arizona again on spring break.  This weekend we are seeing a lot of people from Boise, Idaho.  We are also getting about 60 4th grade kids about 4 days a week.  It keeps things hopping and fun.  We keep thinking that we should spend more time in our ward.  It is easy to let the Battalion take over our time.  We are trying to plan and prepare better to be able to fit everything in that we should be doing.

We were able to have a dinner for all of the MLS missionaries in the mission.  There are now 5 couples with the same MLS calling in the mission (Member and Leadership Support) .  It was good to be with them and get ideas on how to support the missionary program in our wards.  We serve with such wonderful people and they are all so creative.  We will be using what they taught us in the future.

Thanks so much for all of the prayers for us!  We feel them.  Each time I put on my missionary badge I am humbled with the joy and responsibility it represents.

"Carrying a grudge is a heavy burden. As you forgive, you will feel the joy of being forgiven. “ –Henry B. Eyring



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