Don't Judge a Book...

Gah!  I only have about 15 minutes total today to skim read my emails, reply, and also report numbers and write a letter to Pres. Barry!

First off, congrats to Daniel on another stellar weekend!  What's next, the Olympics?  Howell Power!

Bahaha, Lou, you're going to be cold for a long time if you are thinking of Phoenix the whole time you spend in Utah. Learn to love the icicles....  =P  JK, Logan is close distance from two hot springs that kept me alive during the winter months.  Make sure your chosen apartment complex has a good reputation for a hot water heater too. ;)

Mom, yes, my legs are quite a bit bulkier from biking all the time. Most of what we have is flat lands in Florida and the coastal areas, so I haven't put on extreme mass in my thighs, but yes, I definitely fill out my pant legs a lot better than a year ago.   I also really enjoyed the quote you included; who is The Bhagavad-Gita, though?

Two stories of this week: I saw a few dolphins sounding in the waves of the Beaufort River as we crossed the bridge to Parris Island early Sunday morning.  That was pretty cool.

Elder Cancel and I were biking along Ribaut Rd at dusk one day when we saw two women a couple hundred feet off the road walking through a parking lot. One of them looked at us and waved. I waved back, but kept on biking for two reasons 1) we had somewhere to be and 2) she was dressed like a hooker and it looked like she was beckoning us over for potential business. For some reason I glanced back over my shoulder and saw her still looking at us; when she saw that she waved again and the Spirit told me to stop and go back. (Urgh, immodesty is everywhere in this heat.) So I hit my brakes, nearly causing Elder Cancel to wreck, and we went back. It turns out that Elder Bezzant and I had actually talked with her briefly before back in February and set an appointment, but then she had said she wasn't interested when we arrived the next day. However, her heart had changed in the meantime and she now wanted to learn more. The other woman she was with was her older sister who has a husband and five kids and they too wanted to learn what we have to share. They devoured the few chapters in 3 Nephi we left for them that night and are now some of our most promising investigators. So, moral of the story, even hooker ladies need the gospel and we can't judge the heart based on the outward appearance. (1 Sam 16:7)  Sigh.  It is a whole lot easier to teach ghetto bums, druggies, etc than it is someone who isn't dressed though.

We had another experience where someone approached us last P-day and said, "are you missionaries?"  "Yep, that's us." "Good, I've been wanting to see you for a while. When can I be baptized?"  We've got to take the bishop with us to our next appointment, but hopefully he'll be baptized this upcoming week. It's crazy like that - we can work hard all day and teach as much as we want, but God knows who's hearts are truly prepared and often throws us little miracles like that to show us that it's really His work, not ours.

I spend a brief amount of time on Facebook most every day.  Most of what I do goes on in private messages between me and my investigators and contacts.  Some of the Elders and Sisters are really good at networking and finding new people to teach online, but for me it works best mainly as an assist to my regular teaching.  I can send them scripture verses, videos, or links to other church resources that help reinforce the ideas and principles we've taught them.

I love you all. I hope your mid-April has been fantastic.

Elder M.