2/9/2015

Howdy everyone. This week was pretty legit. Got alot of teaching done and Brandy asked me to baptize her!! pretty stoked.

Im just trying to work my tail off before the end of the transfer. Im pretty sure im outta here. Also some less-actives who havent come to church in years came!!! They also brought their granddaughter who is a investigator of ours.

We also got some meeting outta nowhere. We have a Zone Conference this Saturday which is cool but we gotta drive for car inspection so thats a 100 miles down the drain. Also Elder Christofferson is coming to speak to us next Friday! This will be the second time I've heard from him on my mission the first being in the MTC. The word is we are finally getting IPads but i doubt it. haha

So super weird story for the week. So we were at an investigators home and the mother informed us that her mother was practicing satanic rituals. They are hispanic and the grandmother had a shrine to Santa Muerte or Saint Death. The mother was telling us about some weird things that have been goin on and it was really freaky stuff. They had already taken down the shrine but the spirits stayed. We we went to the back room where the shrine was and I felt a presence. From there we re-dedicated the home and the spirit was there. Hopefully the family does all they can so the purification process and be done.

In Elder Jeffery R. Hollands talk "We are All Enlisted" given in the 2011 Priesthood session of conference he talks of this. How in the church we dont speak of evil spirits or satan more than we have to. We often brush over Joseph Smith's encounter before the First Vision in the Scared Grove. How we was taken over but a force from a world unknown to him. We may not speak of such things but they ARE real. Its scary but needed. Without evil there is no good in the earthly state. And when we do feel the enemy's influence and overcome is we make out make that much closer to Christ.

Brother Malone our WML who is thankfully back form vacation spoke to us this Saturday while we were at his place.

He spoke of the Holy Ghost and how it touches us. How its not about the baptism numbers and anything like that. The number that matters is how many times the spirit touches you or the people you are teaching. For every single time the spirit is felt we are changed and the more its felt the more we better ourselves. And I think thats the purpose of the mission to do all we can to constantly invite the Holy Ghost so we can better ourselves. And also those we come in contact with that we make either introduce or re-kindle those feelings and if they have the HG in their lives conversion, re-activation and so forth will come naturally. Everyday I grow happier. The more I learn of this gospel and more I teach it, experience it and witness is work in others my testimony is fortified.

OK now one more thing. This week we were invited to a Episcopal church for their weds. service and communion. People call us a cult! holy crap! It was cool but weird. Lots of scripted prayer and such. But the people were great. We helped them make food bags for the homeless then they had a big dinner. I LOVE SOUTHERN COOKIN'!!! Seafood gumbo, homemade red beans n rice SOOOO GOOODDDD! and we got sent home with alot of leftovers. its great.

We'll I love ya'll and will talk to ya later

God Bless