Great Week in Washington

Family!!!!!!!!

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GOD IS A GOD OF MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This week has just been full of meeting new people that are prepared to listen to us. I think we came across about 8 people who really wanted to learn and even accepted baptism.  Most of them were found just in crazy awesome ways. The first of the week we ran into a kid that we actually have been trying to get ahold of for a long time. We tracted into his friend's house, and he just happened to be there.  He is 13 but is always so busy with sports and school things that we can never seem to teach him.  He has been taught a little in the past, but then moved, and we just recently found him again. We had a great lesson with him, and he said he wanted to work towards baptism.  Unfortunately, his parents are pretty against it and usually don't even like to talk to us. We are planning on going by his house to get permission to continue teaching him. Not sure what will be the outcome. This kid is full of faith though, and I am sure the parents' hearts will be softened.  What is also amazing is we kept on seeing him at random times during the week. Usually we never see him, but this week he was put in our path multiple times.

When we were tracting, we met a really great guy and his family.  He has been with a lot of churches in the past but hasn't really quite felt right in any of them. He has a brother that is a member and just recently they have been talking about the church.  Then we knocked on the door.  He has some really good questions and truly wants to learn.  Read a little in the Book of Mormon and plans to continue reading.  After we left the trailer complex, I had a feeling there was someone else there that needed to be found and taught. It was really late, and we had to get home though.  The next day the spirit was still prompting me to return. I told my companion we needed to go back. Later that day, we returned and the second door we knocked on a girl of about 16 answered.  She was prepared!  We taught her, and she said that she had been looking for something like this.  She has had a pretty hard time recently in school and such.  The Lord knows where you need to be and who you need to talk to.

A kid of 14 that we have been teaching for awhile asked us when he was being baptized.  He missed a baptismal date once because he has a hard time getting a ride to church (something we are trying to work out to be solid this week).  He really wants to be baptized and is always excited to see us. His prayers changed also I noticed from "help me know if I should be baptized" to "help me prepare for my baptism."

A bunch of other really neat experiences happened that I can't even write about because of time. Literally, we were just finding people like crazy this week. We were so blessed.

We did make it down to the other zone this past week.  I got a map and some general directions to a couple places that would be good for us to go, and we headed down there. We couldn't spent to much time down there, but in the short time we did have we found many people we may start teaching.  Our best experience was actually with an English speaker.  We tracted into him, and he let us right in. He has had an up and down life with different addictions and being able to stop them.  He has a strong desire to change though, and I could sense that in the lesson that we had.  A very open man though, so it was really easy to teach to his needs. Really a powerful lesson with him.

Well, sorry I don't have time to write more.  Got to go.

Elder Howell