WEEK 3 OKEMOS (WEEK 63 OF MISSION)

Hey everybody! how are you? another great week in the mission field!

i love being a missionary! it is the life!! the peace the gospel brings is real! it fills voids in people's lives and helps them to become more free! i havent updated you on our investigators at all lately, so i figured i would today!

we have been so blessed to find many people who want to meet. not all of them want to be baptized right now, but we are teaching a lot more than a few weeks ago! one of our investigators, kevin, is soo awesome. he knows the bible better than anyone i have ever met. he bible bashed with us after we knocked on his door for about 20 minutes and then something unheard of happened. he agreed to meet. after a bible bash. haha! so we have been teaching him and he is reading the BoM and DISECTING it. he is so cool. every time we teach him it is SO INTENSE. just because he knows so much and DOES NOT want to be deceived. but he is sensitive to the Spirit. like he was really combative our first lesson, until we shared the first vision with him. then he leaned back in his chair and was calm and agreeable the rest of the time. he is soo cool! we love him so much because he is just a down to earth, hard working guy who wants to know the truth.

we are also teaching a catholic lady named julie. she is a truth seeker and is about 50 and has 4 teenage children. she is soo cool. she is really funny and energetic. she keeps every commitment we give her. she has had a struggle believing in joseph smith, but she realizes that he probably is a prophet now. she is still seeking for an answer from God.

i really do love these people and we are so blessed. wish i had time to tell you about everybody we are teaching! but i dont right now.

faith comes differently than you expect. alma 32 is more than a cool analogy. it is perfect for describing faith. if you feel down and like you could use some hope, then read the Book of Mormon and begin to believe what it is telling you. if you do not cast it out by your unbelief, it will begin to grow within you. it may be subtle. but pay attention. you will feel hope. you may not know why, but that is part of faith. just keep reading. don’t extinguish the faith and hope you feel with doubt. cast out doubt. the seed of faith will begin to swell within you and will begin to enlarge your soul. these statements sound like abstractions, but when you feel it, you will know what i am talking about. it is enabling. it is freeing. it is hopeful. it comes from Jesus Christ and pure intelligence. continue on that path and you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

love you so much!!