Work Picking Up in Gainesville

Hi Mom!

Glad to hear that you found a new place to live and are not living in a U-Haul truck. That's pretty remarkable how you were able to load  the truck in faith and sign for a new place that evening and move in. God will always provide a way!

Hurricane Sandy passed us by without too much more than a lot of clouds and some cold weather.  I don't remember it getting this cold until December last year and I was 250 miles further north in South Carolina. You're right though, people are telling us that it will be pretty bad when it hits up around the D.C./New York area tomorrow. Lots of flooding, lots of damage.  A good time for people to be humble, remember God, and repent.  Also a good opportunity for lots of love and service and opportunities for hearts to change.

This week has been a lot of fun.  I was on companion exchanges in the 3rd Ward with Elder Lisonbee and they've really been struggling lately with finding new investigators and not having anyone to teach.  We headed out on bikes and just started contacting everyone.  By the end of the day we had four new investigators - a single father looking for a better life; a young woman who has never known peace even though her dad is a Baptist pastor; and a great couple where the wife had grown up in Ogden, had gone to seminary for four years, and already believes most of what we teach!  God is good.  The next day I went on another exchange with the Zone Leaders and had a blast re-uniting with Elder Grant in the 5th ward. He's one of the best missionaries I've ever known - down to his last 3 weeks in the mission and still 100% focused on the work.  We stepped it up a notch and had several back to back lessons that brought the Spirit so strongly and were able to set 3 baptismal dates that day alone. Great day.

Elder Chadwick and I were able to start teaching a young man last night who had gone through bad experiences with missionaries in the past. Apparently they had pressured him a lot and he threw up a lot of barriers.  That was last year.  In the past few months, he read through the entire Book of Mormon and had a change of heart.  He's still not entirely sure, but he approached us with the idea of being baptized in December around Christmas, so we take that as a positive sign.   ;)  Once again, it shows the power that is in the scriptures.  The Book of Mormon changes lives!  (Or more accurately, the Spirit changes lives and the Spirit testifies as we read the Book of Mormon!)

I'm down to my last 3 weeks in Gainesville (I suspect) and Elder Chadwick and I have some bold plans to finish up his training.  We're hoping to have 2 baptisms (possibly 3) before I leave with the progressing investigators that we have.  One of them is named Gabriel.  I contacted him on Facebook about a month ago (he's an online friend of a recent convert) and we started talking online. Two weeks ago he randomly called us and said, "Elders, I need to change my life.  Can we meet?"  YES!  So we started meeting at a Burger King and have taught him a lot about the Atonement and Repentance.  He's been heavy into drugs and various other sins for most of his life, but that night after our first lesson, he dumped out all of his narcotics and flushed them away and has been clean for the last 10 days.  I've been very surprised and overjoyed with his comprehension of total repentance extending to all aspects of his life.  We hadn't even taught him the law of chastity yet, but he told us that since our first meeting, several women have tried to hit on him and he flat out refused telling them that his life is given to Jesus now. Whenever he feels tempted, he turns to the Book of Mormon and finds great strength from it.  He was blown away by the Spirit as we read Joseph Smith History with him and that's when he told us he wants to be baptized.  We have his date set for the 11th of November.  I've really gained a witness as a missionary that no matter what a person has done or been in life, if we truly want to repent, Christ allows us to change and takes the burdens of the past away.  I've seen it time and again.  "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

God is great, missions are amazing, and I love being a part of this!

Elder M.