Weekly Email of Love :) (Sept 20 email)

Dear Family, Friends, and Everyone (and your dogs too!),

Hello from cyberspace! This week was great! After our experiences last week, we just told ourselves, “Let’s just keep working! Whatever happens, happens.” So that’s exactly what we did this week. We just got out and worked a lot. We tracted a lot to find new people and the Lord blessed us with people to talk with! We had a neat experience on Saturday with that.

We were biking from one part of town to another. We had just finished tracting a street and were headed to the apartment for a quick resupply stop. As we biked home, a man on a bike going the other way stopped us and started talking with us. We listened and it didn’t take long to realize that this man was crazy. Literally. (I really think he’s certifiably insane, but that’s not my judgement to make). Anyway, we did the polite thing and talked with him.

As we talked with him, one of our investigators was driving by. He stopped and talked with Elder Jackson for a second (I had the privilege of being the main person the crazy guy talked at since earlier I told him I’m a Marine). Elder Jackson told our investigator, Raymond, about the crazy guy talking to us. Raymond said, “Well, that’s good. It’s common courtesy to listen to someone.” So we scored points in Raymond’s book! Raymond has a sister who’s Mormon, but he’s Catholic. He likes talking with us though, so hopefully his heart is being softened more and more to our message.

So the crazy guy kept talking at us and telling us all sorts of conspiracy theories and then another great thing happened! A truck of young men stopped and the driver leaned out and said, “Hey! My parents just got into town and they’re looking for a church to go to. Can you help us out?” Um… let me think… YES! So he gave us their address,we finished the crazy guy conversation, and went back to the apartment to get some water and stuff.

Later that night, we stopped by the referral the young man had given to us. They’re the Hix family, and they’re from Kansas. They are VERY nice and I love the people from the Midwest a lot. We taught the parents and one of their sons, Van (who is about 14 years old), and they all committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and committed to be baptized on November 9. We went back yesterday to follow-up. They had read, but were confused about it all. The husband is legally blind and the wife is diabetic, so she doesn’t have a good memory. The son, Van, read aloud to them, but they were just all lost in the sauce. We spent time yesterday reading along with them and stopping every two or three verses and explaining what was going on. At the end of the lesson, they said they understood what was happening as we explained it, so we’ll just have to keep doing that a lot. It’ll help me explain scriptures more and expound on them more than I usually do, so it works out great!

So this week, overall, was really good and our area is alive a lot more than before, so we're excited to keep on going! Elder Jackson is going to a Leadership Training Meeting from Tuesday-Friday. All of the leaders in the mission (Assistants to the President, Zone Leaders, and District Leaders) are getting together and are going to be trained on the new core lessons for Preach My Gospel. Then they're going to train all of us. Long story short, I'm going to be on exchanges with an Elder Smith during that time and I hear he's pretty crazy, so it should be a good time :) I'm be going to Chickasha (sp?) on Thursday and Friday (that's his area), so it'll be fun to go someplace new.

Elder Jackson is having nose surgery (so he can breathe better) next Monday, so I'm not sure when the next email will be. I hope all of you are reading your scriptures and praying and going to church! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass! I know this is THE true Church of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is true. I know President Thomas S. Monson is a REAL prophet and that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Restoration. Remember that and everything else will work out :)

I love you! Thanks for all of your prayers, love, and letters! I love hearing from you! Have a great week! I love you! :)

Love,
Elder Woolley :)