Dear Everyone,
Thanks for all of the pics. Except the last Bean Museum one. YOU KNOW I DON'T LIKE SPIDERS!!!!@!!!!@!!@!@!!@!
Anyways, it sounds like things are going well for all of you, and that Michaela had a good Birthday. I'm glad that things are going well, and especially that Mei-chan can finally get some of her points across. I hope Jeffrey had at least a little fun at the dance; I always did, and he always has had more friends than me.
As for me, things have been going well. It's been a whole lot of Hastening the Work list searching, but it's still been good. We go around and try and track down a lot of the potential elders, the part-member families, and families with children that are unbaptized, over 8 years old. Usually, we'll get a polite if not positive response, and we've been able to make a lot of contacts with people that had been on a Do Not Contact list in the recent past. Two of them were even positive, and one family accepted home teachers!
On that note, allow me to rant just a little. PLEASE, EVERYONE DO YOUR HOME TEACHING!!!!!!!!! You have no idea how much we have to work with people who have no idea where their families are, and what their situations are. We constantly run into people, active members even, that haven't been home taught in months, some even since they moved into whatever ward we're working with. On the other hand, the families that have consistent home teachers, even if they aren't active, all love them. The less active and part-member families with good home teachers are more open to anything that we propose, and would give their left arm for their teachers. Not to mention most of them eventually return to activity. So, please, make your missionaries lives easier, and make the visits!
Now that that is taken care of, you may all return to your seats from the various things that you were doing during that rant.
Some of the cool things that happened this week involved a family that i'm pretty sure that I told you all about, named the Kilmers. Sister and Dan Kilmer are both less active members, and they both have weaknesses with the Word of Wisdom. However, Sister Kilmer allowed us to do what all of the past missionaries had been trying to get her to do since they started talking to her; she let us take her cigarettes. And then she has stayed off of them!! She is working with the bishop and other members of the ward to fight the addiction, and has a huge support group in the members. When we went over last night, one of the first things that she said to us was how much better she was feeling, and how much she was able to do without having that in her life. In addition to all of that, Dan has told her that if she does stick to this, he will quit his own addiction. It's so cool to actually see people who are willing to give it a shot, and to kick these things that just hold them down. It makes it even cooler to see when I know just how hard it can be to overcome things like this, and I know how much work it takes.
So, there was one of the major stories this week. The other really cool thing happened on Saturday. We finally got to meet a former investigator named Megan Cameron. She is a young woman, in her early 20's, and she has had all of the discussions in the past. All of one side of her family are members, and most of them chose to be baptized later in life, showing that they understood what they were covenanting. Megan really is so close to baptism, she just needs to come to a knowledge herself, and even before that, to make the decision that if it's true, she will do it. I really feel like she will, too. We were able to leave a commitment for her to read the Book of Mormon, and to pray to know if the church is true. On top of that, I don't think that I've felt the Spirit as strongly during a lesson as when I gave the part on Joseph Smith's first vision, at least not since the last time I gave it to someone who'd been prepared ahead of time. Now, things really are in her hands, and I know that if she wants to know if the church is true, she will. I know that she will be able to make the choice even before that, to be baptized if it is. In other words, this is gonna be good.
Well, I think those are the major stories that I'm going to tell this week. Thanks for everything that you all do, and for all of the prayers that you say for us.
Love, Elder Stuver
P.S. I come home on July 7th. That is less than 5 months away. AAAAAAAARGH!
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