I don't have a bible, but I have this Book of Mormon my friend gave me.

Email #86
Area: Oaklands Park
Companion: Elder Turcotte

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!

This has been a pretty good week I would say! We have had a lot better experiences in the work already this week then we did all of last transfer. We have spent much more set aside time for finding to build up the area more since most of those we were teaching were not progressing anywhere soon.

We found two really great people this week! The first was a women named A..... who was such a joy and surprise to come across. After knocking door after door this day with no success, suddenly you find someone who is so prepared by the Lord! The Marion Sisters are now teaching her and we feel she will love the doctrine of the temple especially! The second was our friend B......! Again another huge joy to come across. We knew he was prepared when he said "I am pretty open to the idea of religion. I don't have a bible, but I have this Book of Mormon my friend gave me." He at this point didn't know that we were actually from the same church his "only good religious friend" was from. As we taught him, he just soaked it all in with amazement! I'm really excited to teach him honestly!!! It is funny how we have sought the spirit to guide us where we go finding this week. We have prayed that we may know where to go and a thought later of a name. Turns out the name was a street name we found B...... on. Later I woke up with the thought of my favorite Disney movie, Tarzan. While looking on a map I saw the street name "Jane" and thought we should go there. My companion had a similar thought about a play he was in in high school and one of the main characters named Jane. Kind of strange revelation, but on that street we found A......

New transfer, new start! I think we are all ready for a fresh start especially myself! My companion and I discussed a fresh start with one another at the beginning of the week and it has gone great with only a few bumps. One large thing that has brought a nice change is the reliance more upon the spirit. Bruce R McConkie made the slogan of the Southern Australia mission years ago "Seek the Spirit" because in 3 Nephi 19: 9 says "And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them." That was their goal and I want to make that my personal goal going along with our current study focus.


Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!!

Here is something that I have learned in my studies this week. This is all having to do with Recognizing the spirit and revelation. Our potential- Doctorine and Covenants 76: 5-10, Isaiah 58:9 "Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am."

Joseph Smith said, “A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas … and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”
This is what I seek, to be in tune with the Lord. It is like a radio where if we can find the right channel, we can tune in to what the Lord wants us to know. We can fine tune to the right channel through scripture study, prayer, and increasing spiritually. It has been fun for me to try to do this week and I have honestly learned a lot. I want to continue in this area especially because it has helped us find new people this week. As we have shared what we have learned with our zone, we doubled the amount of new people found this week as a zone.

Well in addition, I was reflecting on the influence a father can have this week. H..... who I mentioned in Mom's email had a very hard relationship with his father that had a bad effect on him. Talking to him about it caused me to reflect. Looking back through scriptures we see the effect a father can have. For example, Nephi when he said "I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father”(that father being his wise father, Lehi). Look at Alma the younger when he was in pain remembering his mistakes of the past but then “remembered also to have heard his father prophesy … concerning the coming of … Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.” His Dad probably did not think that was having much of an impact on his son at the time, but look how it turned out. That one moment of sharing his testimony with his son Alma later saved him spiritually.

Again, love you so much and I will talk to you soon!

District hike

Someone got a haircut