Haggai! Haggai!

Monday, April 20th, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

It is pretty interesting working in a trio. We are able to have fun when it is appropriate and we are able to work hard. This week has been a good one. But before I get to that, just a couple of things.

I'll make sure to honor Sister Savannah Short's request (to hug her Mandarin Chinese Speaking brother serving in this mission).

I do like the apartment; it is big and spacious. It has a beautiful view of trees, which is a lot more beautiful than the ocean. I also found a book called "They Knew the Prophet." I found two names in it that we are related to: Daniel Duncan McArthur and Benjamin F. Johnson. They share their own personal contacts with the Prophet Joseph Smith. And I found out that we have ties as well to the Prophet Joseph Smith. One of the wives that Joseph Smith married was Almira Johnson, sister of Benjamin F. Johnson. When I send things off, I will definitely send that home.

Oh, and for Mother's Day, there is something I would like to mention, regarding family history.

This week, like I said, was good. We were able to work hard and nearly exhaust ourselves.

Monday, we explored downtown Staunton. There were a few places that were closed on Monday, but we were able to see a fair amount. A lot of it were some antique shops (I love antique shops) and other small shops. It was fun to walk around. Plus, we visited this graveyard for the fun of it. It was an interesting place. Not much else happened that night, despite our best efforts in finding. 

Tuesday, we had district meeting and we began looking through our area books. Yeah, for some odd reason, we discovered that we had not only one area book, but four. Plus, we found a really old record that dates B.P.M.G (Before Preach My Gospel). We talked to one of the Ms. Mary students, the one who is a bit dramatic (okay, Elder Todd is a guy and what guy truly understands girls). She was going away for a while, so we prepared her for the short time she would be gone. That night, we headed to Verona, a nearby dot on the map to try to find people there and to contact potentials and formers.

And Wednesday, we did service. We helped a man (a less active) who reminds me a bit of Uncle Joe [for your information: his first name is Joe] (Uncle Joe is Hispanic, a little scary but a very lovable guy); he has a lot of wisecrack comments, does not care what he says, and if you are offended, well, that's your own fault (that would be true of Uncle Joe). He is a character. He had a small yard for us to clean up; it was for his friend that gave him chain link fence. Well, now it involved raking. You may wonder (as he did) how I forgot, but I forgot I am not supposed to rake. In fact, it was not my first thought to not rake. As I was raking, I was like, "Oh yeah, I am not supposed to rake." (Side note: In fact, in Gayton, Greek lady called us to help her get her car unstuck from snow. Others were there to help before we showed up, but I nearly grabbed the snow shovel in an attempt to help.) But, I kept on raking until he asked for help lifting some bricks. I then told him that I had a herniated disc and he asked me, "How the hell can you forget that you are injured?" He, too, has an injured back. So, for the rest of the time of service, I just stood there. Now, I see why I am not supposed to rake, because I am still recovering. Now, I am resting from doing some raking; I still feel the effects. I have it under control (right).

We got home, changed, and saw one of our investigators

with a member. We shared a video with this investigator. She is mother of a child, though she does have the father there to help her. I know she felt the Spirit in that lesson. Yet, I am not sure how much she wanted to progress or change. This video was about a mother who wanted to visit her cousin, but she ended up helping a lot of people throughout her day. She ends up not being able to see her cousin and it is not until the family prayer that she realizes all the good that she had done. We related to her how our choices affect others; we related this to church attendance and how much a difference attending church will make in her life. We are not sure what else to do at this point with her.

Dinner was great that night for two out of three of us. You know, Mom's baked spaghetti? Well, we had something similar to that. It was delicious. Well, as we were leaving, Elder Day started to feel sick. We, fearing that he might throw up, gave him a code word to say if he needed to spew out what he needed to: "Haggai." As we were driving along and approaching a gas station, he started to yell out, "Haggai! Haggai!" Well, he-- and were pretty sure on this-- had food poisoning. At dinner, there were two pans of baked spaghetti. I ate from my pan while my companions had the other pan to eat from. Elder Hansen got the sides while Elder Day got the entire (and most likely, uncooked) middle; Elder Day probably spared everybody from illness. After him upchucking dinner, we had a lesson with the most recent convert of Ms. Mary, but Elder Day needed to go home after that.

Thursday, we needed to take it easy for Elder Day's sake. We did weekly planning. We had to give Elder Hansen to the Spanish Elders, because he was needed by them to help lift a wood stove. Yeah, no way could I do that. We went to a member's house for dinner. Poor Elder Day, he could only drink juice that day. 

Friday, we did the progress record. We organized our area book and called "formers." From that alone, we were able to set up lessons.

Saturday, our wisecracking less active needed some more help with cleaning a chicken coop. He had me sit down and rest, so that I would not injure myself or aggravate my back. Chickens, by the way, are hilarious. They are the most silliest of all creatures, or at least the ones that I know. We fed them bread; we helped fix the fence. As we were trying to fix the fence, Elder Hansen was holding a metal bracket. One of the chickens kept on trying to eat it and peck at it as if it was food. After that fun service, we helped give a blessing to somebody in the hospital. Then, we had more service. It involved bending, raking, shoveling, and gardening; things I could not do much of. I had fun sitting in the sun.

Sunday, we woke up exhausted. I was sore, I could not function at full capacity. We had a meeting at church at nine with the ward mission leader. After our meeting, we went over to the car and took a nap. Church was great; we had this one member come who lives in a nursing home. He is no longer senile(?); he is a bit crazy. He told some jokes during class and to us: "What did the crocodile do to you? Jaws!" "What is happening when you hear thunder? God is moving his furniture around." "Where was Moses when the lights turned off? In the dark." He is a character and he is great. After church, we talked to a few people, tried to go for a lesson, but things did not work out.

We had dinner, tried to contact a few people, and headed to a less active's home. From their mannerisms, it was evident that most of them did not care too much about the Church anymore.

We had a good week. Things went well and things are going well. We are pushing forward.

All is well! Tout va bien!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Adapting to Change: Mind, Body and Spirit

For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape; and there is no eye that shall not see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart  that shall not be penetrated. 

-Doctrine and Covenants Chapter 1

Monday, April 13, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

And yes, I do know of an Elder Short. Since he is a Mandarin Chinese elder, he is serving in Charlottesville. That is where all four Mandarin Chinese elders serve... for the entire two years. I want to say his companion is Chinese, or at least he is Asian. If we have a zone conference, I will make sure to say hi. We are bound to have one soon.

I am glad that my card was sent. It was big and I was not sure if multiple stamps were needed. Really, really glad they were sent. And really, really glad that Dad got it in time for his birthday. Sean must have gotten his, too.

 Where am I? Who am I with? What has happened in this past week? Stay tuned and keep on reading. This week has been a fun one, because of my companions. Oh yes, I said companions.

Monday, after email, we decided to meet up with some other missionaries in our district. Elder Jensen wanted to play soccer with them. As it usually happens, I was talking to the one missionary who talked to me a while back about musicals and such. We were talking this time about general conference and transfers. He, too, was being transferred. I wished him luck with his next companion and with his next area. After our P-day, we went out to Goochland, so I could say good bye to the Bible Study host. He absolutely unloaded on the problems out in Goochland; I so wished I could do more, but I know that I did all that I could. Good luck to Elder Jensen. (And please for anyone out there: love one another; look for the down trodden and love them.)


Tuesday, Elder Jensen and I said good byes. We went to transfer meetings. There was a special musical number played, which should not have been played. This elder decided to play "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again." That is one song that should never be played in transfer meeting. It was funny; as soon as the people going home recognized it, they just put their heads down. The sisters were crying, though. Then, the

announcement came. So, I am in Staunton (pronounced as Stan-ton) in the Waynesboro Stake, bordering Franklin, West Virginia. Who am I with? Well, the missionary that I told good luck to is my companion, or at least one of them. His name is Elder Day; since he has only been out for under a six months, he still is fresh and eager to work. He is motivated, nice, and happy. He really does talk to everybody. The other elder is Elder Hansen. He has been out for ten months. He was companions with my old companion, Elder Avison, but that took him down a bit. He is a hard worker. I am trying to help him out, if anything, because I care. Our district leader's companion is my old companion Elder Taylor; it is awkward, because he does not talk to me and I try to (sort of). Part of me just wants to ask what happened, why did you do all that you did. It is difficult.  I do not see him too often.

In other news, I found some good news and some bad news. I found that the recent convert in Appomattox was anti-ed by her family; now she is less active. It is unfortunate to hear, but I have a feeling that she will turn around. I am not overly devastated or upset. Not sure why; you would think I would be.

The good news is that my other convert in White Oak [Tim Hartley; missed out on his baptism] is going to the temple. I may be able to go, because that looks like the same day I might go to the temple. I will have to talk to President about that. 

After a long ride up to Staunton and trying to help elders get their companions, we had dinner with some members and an investigator. He was going to be baptized this past Saturday. We shared "Because He Lives."

Wednesday. Now, please do not panic or call Sister Hendrickson. Buckle up your seatbelts and be still. I am alright. By this point, you already are panicking and are probably ready to lunge to the phone. The morning was good. I got up (didn't exercise due to a lack of a properly equipped gym and having to revert to non-gym exercises) and had a nice breakfast. Since I could not have usual Greek yogurt, I settled for a bowl of cereal, having a knock of "Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cereal" and "Honey Combs." That was what we had for cereal (please note it was very, very sugary); I had that about 7 or 7:30. After studies, we decided to go to Wal-Mart to pick up food for us to eat. All was good. I bought my items first and I waited for my other two companions to pay for the food. All of a sudden, I turned pale, my heart rate increased, my breathing increased, and I had lost strength. I held on to the cart, because I was not feeling that good. Plus, all of my symptoms. I had bought croutons and as soon as I got in the car, I began to eat, thinking my body needed some kind of sustenance to fight off what was going on. In fact, I thought diabetes and I needed that food. Elder Day wanted to go to the Dollar General, so we did and I bought orange juice for that reason. I called the mission nurse and she said that I either had an anxiety attack (due to the stress of transfers) or I am hypoglycemic. I noted the fact of the sugary cereal that I had; plus, I noted that when I eat (for example) breakfast and skip lunch, I start to get shaky. (You do remember that, right? You wanted to prick my finger and I absolutely refused. I stopped saying I was shaky, because I knew I would be pricked.) Signs are more pointing to hypoglycemia. I have to cut back on sugar, which is alright with me; in fact, I am cutting it out altogether and getting it from the good foods to eat (e.g. fruit). To put me back in balance, I had to eat protein, which I did. So, again, please do not panic and please do not call Sister Hendrickson. If you have any issues, please talk to me and if anything, I will talk to the mission nurse. I am alive, although sugar nearly killed me. (Okay, I had to add that exaggeration in there, because of its truthfulness).

After this circumstance, we talked to a less active who we were given to by the assistants. Not sure about this man's full story, but we will get there soon.

. 

Now, a brief break, to talk to you about Staunton. Staunton has old buildings, but not like Petersburg where things are falling apart and there are scary neighborhoods around each corner. No, Staunton is old, but it is beautiful. It is green; it is amazingly beautiful. And I can see the hills... I mean, mountains from our balcony. Plus, there are a lot of hills here in Staunton. Thank goodness we are in a car. Plus, we have a big area, some of which we cannot access due to miles. There are farms with green grass. BEAUTIFUL. And there is the Mary Baldwin College, which is an all girls college. I have to keep my two companions focused. We have some recent converts that are students in the Mary Baldwin College. One of them, we met with on Wednesday. She is dramatic, but a nice, spirited person. She is crazy (figuratively), but she is still learning.

Thursday, we weekly planned. We had lunch, we tried contacting people, and then we had a lesson with an investigator. She is a young mother and is into anime. My two companions can get along with her; I have a hard time relating with the anime stuff. I never was too much into the comics and anime, except for Batman and that one show. We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its importance. I believe the lesson went well. She seemed to have understanding of it and was able to grasp the concepts. After dinner, we had two baptismal interviews that our district leader had to perform. Two people got baptized this past Saturday. Both passed their interviews. We picked up their baptism suits and dropped them off to the respective persons. 

Friday, we accomplished our progress record, which has not been done in quite a long time here in this area. Not much else happened on Friday that is noteworthy. 

Saturday, we helped move some furniture and got a referral from the people that we helped. Then, chaos splattered upon us. Ms. Mary [for your information: that is what I will deem the college here] decided to put a roadblock into our path; the students had to pick their dorms at different times that were assigned to them. One of the people being baptized that day is a student of Ms. Mary, so her time was the same time as the baptism. Through much prayer, we were able to push it to four and get people to come to it to support her. But, it meant filling the font sooner than thought. So, we did that, got her baptized, and the other person baptized. It all worked out, despite the stress that was placed.


Sunday, we nearly were late to church, because we decided to pick up the now dried baptismal suits. You see, the Staunton Ward goes to the Waynesboro Ward building, but they have baptisms at the Staunton Branch building. I thought we could do it and be on time, but we were slightly late. My fault. We had church, which, for us, was all over the place. In fact, one of the more dramatic moments, I wish to tell you, but not at this time. We had a lesson with an elderly man; I was with a member while my other two companions went finding. I taught the entire lesson, because the poor member wasn't adequately prepared. We contacted a less active and shared some spiritual thoughts.

It has been a crazy, wonderful week. I love the area. It is amazing!

All is well! Tout va bien! Alles wohl!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Mormon Missionary Does "The Twist" While Others Watch

If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Yes, I am  transferring for what appears to be the last time. Who knows where I will end up? I had a feeling for a long time inside that I am being transferred and told my companion. He argued against it, saying that I was going to stay. Well, lo and behold, I am transferred.

Easter was great. I received my packages and I am grateful to have a backpack once more. Thank you for sending that and for the items and goods for Easter.

I had a good week some of it being interesting in its own right.

Monday, a member took us out to see the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It was a beautiful museum that had actual ancient art and a mummy. Of course, there was modern art in there. I do not understand modern art; I understand the idea of abstracts and such, but I get nothing from it. Perhaps it is too simple for my complex thinking. There was amazing ancient Egyptian items. I loved the ancient Asian cultures and their various arts. I always find it beautiful. There were items from Africa and some of it was odd. I had a fun time. 

Asian Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

That night, we went to Goochland for
dinner. We checked up on the less active who had a Shiba Inu. He was actually lively and happy. That was good to see.

Tuesday, we had tracted one area. We went straight into the neighborhood where the president of the management was. She was actually friendly and just warned us. She knew what we were doing. We finished that area before we moved on. We went to another neighborhood that my companion felt good to go to visit. I was against it, because I did not feel right about it and it had been recently tracted. I usually leave areas alone that have been tracted recently, unless I feel prompted to go there. Not wanting to be a tyrant and going against it (though I have stated my opinion against this for a while), we went. One door and we were kicked out.

I felt impressed to tract in Goochland. We did; did not find anybody, but had a lot of success contacting people. That night, we went out to find a less active member whose address is given, but not her apartment number. It worked out, because we found her, though we never have actually seen her. Her roommate and neighbors helped point out where she lives. We will have to follow up soon.

Wednesday, we had a lesson with the investigator in Goochland who finds the Book of Mormon and the Bible too dark. We explained justice and mercy to her to help her to understand the things that she sees in the scriptures. She put up many, many boundaries, which did not allow us to strike at the heart of the issue. She loved her "Jesus books," which explains the ideas of Jesus and shows him to be more loving. We left on a good note, though, and we will return. We went over to the Bible study host's house to help put down his kitchen floor. There was no Bible study, but lots of good service. He now has a kitchen floor after a year and a half of not having one. It was a really good time.

Thursday was the interesting day. As I was get dressed, I heard my companion say something, but did not understand. When I finished my task, I got out of the bathroom to notice the door was open. I did not know what was going on nor did my own companion. Well, as it turned out to be (and this is the honesty of the situation), Elder Clifford's companion was going to the temple that day since he was going home. The zone leaders, who are in a trio (the third member of the companion is dubbed "the zone baby" and is not a zone leader), were planning to have one of them go with Elder Clifford and the other two stay in their own area. But, the third member of the zone leaders (the zone baby) had to be in Washington D.C. as well for medical purposes for the day. Not wanting to pass the chance of going to D.C., the zone leaders asked Elder Clifford where he would like to go for the day. He chose my area, so we ended up with Elder Clifford for the day, though the zone leaders did not tell us. So, to our surprise, Elder Clifford was with us for the day. We did some finding that day and found a Chinese woman. We stated that we were missionaries, or teachers. Thinking that we were actually teachers, she was excited to have a lesson. Well, by the end of it, partially due to our language barrier, she told us that we needed to go back to school. One thing that I find interesting to note is that she had the basic questions of life as a little girl, but when she went to school in China, they answered those questions for her. She "believes in science."

Bingo that day was interesting and thank goodness Elder Clifford was with us. The activities committee for the place were either out of town or taking care of their own sick people. That left Mama in charge of bingo and us to help out.

It was a rough beginning, because there was contention over the cards and what people wanted and such. Elder Jensen was the one calling the numbers, because I thought he would be the loudest and I thought he could entertain the people. The elderly still had a hard time hearing him. "B 14!" "Did he say B 44?" "B 14!" "What!?" It went well and there no more contentions after that.

We had a lesson that night with the part member family and tried to get the wife more involved. We were able to understand her background some more.

Friday, we had a zone meeting. We went over to our ten year old investigator's home to teach him, but we had to wait until that night. When we arrived, he was playing Mortal Kombat with his mother. It was obvious that we were going to go nowhere with that. 

We had more service to do at the health center. They were having an Easter social and were understaffed, which was why we helped. I was in the kitchen-like area, preparing food. My companion was checking up on the people, seeing if there was help to do. At one point, the man playing music and singing, decided to do his own rendition of the song that goes along with the dance "the Twist." This one person, who can still walk and such, got up and started to do the twist. My companion was near by and she was like, "Dance with me!" Not wanting to turn her down, he did start to dance, though not with her per say. I was laughing, but it was good to see. 

We did return that night to our ten year old investigator's house to teach him. Candy does indeed work wonders; he seemed to focus a lot more. Little coincidence there.

Saturday, we finished our planning for the coming week. We headed over to watch conference. I was surprised to not have President Monson welcome everybody, though I understood, beyond health, why he did, in a sense, welcome everybody on Sunday. President Boyd K. Packer spoke during that session and he gave a really good talk; it was really a good talk. I enjoyed Elder Dallin H. Oaks and others that morning session as well. When it came time for Saturday afternoon session, I was really looking forward to it. Like probably everybody that did not know what was going to go down, I was shocked to hear the "opposeds." It is saddening to see. I could not help, but think of a video I saw recently in the Doctrine and Covenants church videos. In this particular video, it involved the early days of the church and defecting apostles due to hearts hardened. It was talking about Lyman Johnson and Thomas B. Marsh. At one point, Lyman Johnson and others met in the temple to call somebody else as prophet and to denounce Joseph Smith as prophet. Brigham Young was there and openly rebuked all who were there. He told them that only they could destroy their authority and stated, "Cut the threads that bind you to the prophet and sink your souls to hell." The reasoning behind why they did what they did does not matter; they were allowed to do so and they made their opinion known. The apostles handled it quite well, especially President Uchtdorf. What matters for us is to continue to strengthen our own faith and to sustain the prophet, not just by raising our hand, but following his counsel. If we know that President Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet of today and that God speaks to us through him, then what else matters?

Before priesthood session, I took Elder Jensen out to eat and yes, used personal funds. I got the call seven minutes before priesthood. Priesthood was great. I really enjoyed it, especially Elder Ballard's talk. I really enjoyed that talk. Sunday, the sessions were great. It is so amazing to hear three new temples announced. I loved Elder Holland's and Elder Neil L. Andersen's talks. They were truly touching. More especially touching is Elder Brent H. Nielson's talk, because it was so personal and for us (you and I), it really hit home. I cannot help but say, I hope you listened to that talk. If not, watch it and watch it again. I absolutely love President Uchtdorf, who after one of the Spanish Seventies gave his talk, he got up and started speaking in German. That was truly funny.

I have to review these sessions of conference. For me, what stuck out is there was a lot of advice for return missionaries. I am staying focused, but it is good to hear such advice that I may be able to "stay weird" as Elder Bednar said last year to us missionaries. 

On Sunday, I said good bye to Mama and other families. It was great.

It has been a good week. I have pushed things along and blazed the trail for growth here. Great things will happen.

On to the next trail to blaze. All is well. Tout va bien.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Forks In The Road

And it shall come to pass, that if the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks -1 Nephi 14

Monday, March 30, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Happy Easter (#BecauseHeLives)! Happy Passover!

Believe me, I try to not be late to anything. One thing that always stresses me is time. I make sure that we are early to church, seeing as I am the designated driver. The hard thing though is Elder Jensen has a faulty memory and I forget from time to time. We have not forgotten anything too majorly important, but it is something that I try to catch before we forget. Writing things down definitely helps. But, I am not perfect. (Elder Todd's parents work with missionaries in California and recently two sister missionaries were 35 minutes late to a dinner appointment to which they were reminded that they have cell phones for when they know they are late)

Yes, I remember the youth in Tappahannock. (Two young women from the recently created Tappahannock Ward requested to be "friends" on Facebook. His parents monitor his Facebook until he returns home.)

And the elders were not informed? Yeah, that happens. I have heard stories and I have seen it happen. President Wilson reads off some names and one person stands up, his or her companion missing. Then, somebody who knows the person being transferred is like, "Uh, they were not informed that they were being transferred." I pray that I am not one of these people that are not informed. With transfers coming up, it is going to be interesting to see what happens. (Two missionaries found out the day before transfers that they had been on the list but were not informed.)

Does my dog wake you up when she hops in bed with you? Or do you wake up in the morning to her close to one of you? (His parents have four Boxers and his jumps up on their beds in the wee hours of the morning.)

It has been a good week. I do enjoy my companion and I strive to continue my efforts in treating him nicely. He is a really happy, energetic soul. He is eager to do the work.

Monday, after P-day, we had dinner with members who are service missionaries (Service missionaries can be assigned to teach, work with military families, work in prison ministries, hold addiction recovery programs, humanitarian service, etc.). They talked to us all about it and the organization that goes on behind the scenes. It is a lot to recount. Well, we decided to share our thought after we ate, which we did. My companion spoke and I bore testimony. I did not say much, because that chance was gone as soon as I spoke. The husband went off on a random tangent that I have no idea how it connects to our thought about missionary work. He was going on and on about where the Book of Mormon actually is (the actual engravings on metal sheets). According to some people's diligent efforts, they claim the Book of Mormon is here in North America. [For Dad: They talked about how they found Hebrew writing, the Hopewell culture, etc.] It was just an odd tangent, but he was really willing to share. So, we listened. (Probably reminded him of his father who likes to tell stories.)

Tuesday, I finally got permission to go to the baptism for the man in Tappahannock. The bad thing was I did not have a ride; the person that has taken me in the past would not be able to do what he has done. He could take me back. I concluded that there would be no possible way for me to do get a ride, seeing as I had found Sunday and did not have permission until Tuesday. President suggested two names of senior missionaries nearby that might help, one of them being the Sopps. I did not feel like bothering these people and press upon them for my wants and desires. After an internal conflict, I called the Sopps, who more than happily took me there and back. The baptism was great. The man was ever so happy to be baptized. He bore his testimony, which he essentially told everyone to prepare to meet God. The person who baptized him had to do it three to four times to get it done correctly. He kept on saying the prayer wrong and then, the man's hand did not go down all the way. Elder Sopp, when the prayer was not said correctly and he was baptized, said, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." It was great, nonetheless. I am really thankful for the Sopps to be able to take me, especially at last minute. Oh, and there may be one more baptism yet to come.

Also, on Tuesday, we taught a nice lady who is very open-minded, despite the two certificates she has from one of the local Baptist churches. She liked what we said and thought about coming to church. Yet, she did not. We will meet with her soon.

Wednesday, we had district meeting and I was asked to give a training. It was nice. During it, we received a referral. Well, it needed a Urim and Thummim to translate. There were squares and all sorts of symbols. So, we headed to the next best thing, seeing as we did not have a Urim nor a Thummim, which was the computer. We contacted the referral. 

We taught our part member family that "cancelled" on us the previous Sunday. We had members with us and it went well. It was a good lesson the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have a feeling that we need to help the investigator, who is the husband of the family, be more centered on Christ. Plus, we need to go over the lessons again, except the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We taught our less active recent convert who is trying to figure out which of the two commandments ("keep the Sabbath day holy" and "honor thy father") to obey. He has yet to pray nor has he fasted. We again encouraged to keep on praying. We also told him that if he keeps the Sabbath day hold and progresses in the gospel, his father will be impressed by the changes that he will make. It is interesting that still calls the Church "your [referring to us] church" and his father's church "his [referring to himself] church." Yet, he is conflicted about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Perhaps, there is something deeper here.

Thursday, it was supposed to be thunderstorms and hot. It turned about to be sunny, hot, and 80 degrees. It made Mama happy, because it was her birthday and it was what she prayed for. We helped with Bingo when the fire alarm went off. We stayed there in the room until the sound went off. Once the sound went off, they kept on playing bingo, despite the lights still flashing. Eventually, the alarm died down. 

In other good news of the day, we finally got in contact with the referral from Woodbridge for the recent convert who has moved down here. We finally made contact after nearly two transfers. It has been great progress. 

Friday, it dropped down to the low 40s and even dipped into the high 30s. It was raining and did rain some slush. We taught a Catholic woman, who did not express too much interest, and even expressed during the lesson, "I am not interested in changing religions." My companion still gave the baptismal invite, which in some ways is good. We also taught a man from Iraq along with his friend. The man went off on us in trying to expand our views. He himself was not a strict Muslim. The reason, he said, that most of these people from Iraq come to the United States for is peace. He talked a lot about peace. He talked about culture and other things. He is an excellent man and it was good to hear that.

Saturday, a lot of our plans fell through. We helped out with the ongoing "March Rescue." We helped the woman who wants to be taught as "a Gentile," or one who never has heard what we have taught. It was interesting. We tried to explain things simply and she added all these variables. We used analogies and scriptures, but she added her view in it. As her mother put it, "You took them over the river and through the woods to get to Grandma's house when Grandma's house was across the street!" We only got a fraction through the lesson on the plan of salvation.  Later that night, we also went over to see the other woman who needs help in understanding the Book of Mormon.

Sunday, we helped Mama with understanding her tablet to do family history. The ward should be involved with that soon. We taught the investigator who, when invited to baptism, always says that he already has been baptized twice and will not change. We read the Book of Mormon with him, talked about Christ, talked about priesthood authority, and invited him. He said those things, but he changed a bit by saying that if he came to know, then he would. He has made good progress.

We did teach our ten year old investigator, but little progress has been made.

Definitely, a good week. It should be interesting to see what will happen coming up.


All is well! Tout va bien!

Love,

Elder S. Todd