Letter # 4 - Nov. 17, 2008

I left my camera at my house this morning. I promise that i'll have some pictures for you next week. Well that guy Joe, who i bore my testimony to last week, dropped us because he said his wife is not interested. What a punk! Its all good. He was kind of flaky. He'll come around some time. If he doesn't, we taught him and we bore our testimonies. As long as we do our parts then we don't have to worry. Another lady who we've been trying to get to church and the missionaries before us were trying to as well, finally let us in her home to teach her (she finally had a guy there so we could teach her in her home). I taught her the First lesson briefly and then watched the Restoration video. It went well. Her name is Wendy. She has 7-year old and 9-year old. Her 9 year old daughter is evil. My companion and I went on exchanges on Wednesday so he went with another missionary to Wendy's house to teach her. Her daughter told them that her mother's not feeling well and that she's in her room. Then the little evil girl proceeded to hit the missionaries with a plastic sword and say you're dead, you're dead! Then she try to poke my companion's eye out with that plastic sword. So when we went over to Wendy's on Saturday to teach her we were happy to see that her little daughter was not there. As we were watching the Restoration, the little monster came in. She sat right by her mother and sat impatiently. She yelled, "Somebody Say Something!" Then she was making some noises. I was thinking to myself, "oh no she aint trying to ruin this visit!" I then prayed to our Heavenly Father to shut her mouth. She left the house a minute later. I found out that my companion prayed for the same thing.

I had a good week with prayers. On Thursday we went to see a less-active. We had went earlier in the week and when we got out of car to walk to his place, there was a big mean dog in the neighborhood barking at us. I don't know if you knew this but i'm not the biggest fan of dogs. Especially big dogs. I'm terrified of dogs! The dog didn't do anything to us earlier in the week. We didn't see the dog. The neighborhood just didn't feel right to me. My companion decided to park right outside the house where we had previously saw the dog. As we got out the car, the owner of that house told us that a dog is loose in the neighborhood. We still left the car there and we went to find the less-active's home. He wasn't there again. When we got back to where we park the car we saw the dog. IT WAS A BIG DOG! We were like 50 feet away from our car. The Big mean Dog was near our car. He was sallying forth from the house to our car. As we inched closer to our car he would make his way back to the car. He would walk to his home and then he'll look over at our direction. We try to sneak quietly closer to the car but he'll come closer to our car. He was playing with us. This went on for 15 minutes. We then decided to say a prayer. I prayed to our father to make us go into our car safely. About 10 seconds after the prayer was said the dog dissappeared. We walked gently to our cars. I had to get in through the back seat of the driver's side because the passenger side was nearer to the house and dog. We got in. Then the dog appeared. We started trash-talking it! "What you gonna do now? You can't touch this?"

We met this 16-year old boy, young man in the streets and taught him briefly about the gospel. He was very receptive and had great questions. We taught him Friday in his home. After the lesson he gave the closing prayer and he knelt without us asking him to kneel. We knelt in prayer and he asked to know if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. We still have to talk to his parents and ask him if its alright that we continue to teach him. He is so amazing. He's so mature for a 16-year old. I hope it work out with him because he has potential to be a great man. His name is Torron.

Yesterday there was a combined EQ and RS meeting. It was centered on missionary work. Elder Barker and I spoke for 10 mins. I bore my testimony on the work and my dedication to it. I told the ward, "If you knew how Elder Barker and I study in the morning, and if you knew about our prayer on your behalf and the people you teach, you'll have confidence to have your friends be taught by us."

I love this work. I've just finish reading the Gospel of John. I love John chapter 17, the Great Intercessary Prayer. Jesus loved His disciples. He wants us to be one with Him as He is one with the Father. I know that our Father in Heaven loves us. He knows our limits and weaknesses. He will strenghthen us when we come to Him. This is the most joy I've had in my life being a missionary for the only True God and His beloved Son Jesus Christ. Miracles are happening every day. They may not accept this message but I'm doing all that I can. I'm doing my part.