Testimony Builder Week

Dear Family & Friends:

This week was good. I am nervous that the work is going to slow. It seems investigators leave faster than we get them!

9/26 Monday
Today, Elder Renel left and my new companion is Elder Barton. He is from Colorado and we have a lot in common! He has been out for 15 months and he is a hardworking elder. I am excited to be able to get to know him better and to work with him. I am a little disappointed because it seems that our teaching pool is diminishing and we are not finding people as fast as they are leaving.

9/27 Tuesday

Today we had a lesson with Tina (our investigators that is deaf). it went really well and she showed way more interest than usual! So the lesson went way good, except for the extremely loud high pitched noise the TV was making because of the Skype with the sisters. We had to endure the noise because we have to be able to hear the sisters translate what is going on in the lesson. Haha. After we hung up the Skype, Tina was trying to ask me to do something and I couldn't figure it out. You don't realize how big communication is until you have to figure something out without it. After her little bit of frustration towards my lack of understanding, I figured out that she wanted the children's Book of Mormon on her phone! We got it all worked out! Tonight we had a lesson with a move in, where the mom was baptized in January and her 17-year-old son was baptized in July and she has a 13-year-old daughter that has not decided to be baptized yet. They are a super active family and are such a great addition into the ward!

9/28 Wednesday
Today we were blessed with a new investigator. Her name is Shay and we met her while we were in a park near Diane's house. We sat down with her and taught the Restoration.  She was very interested and asked if she could have a Book of Mormon.  Then she felt bad, because she thought it was the only one I had.... we laughed about it and she gave us her number so we can teach her more. She is living in a home with a friend that won't be willing to let us in so we have to meet her in the park. I hope she will read and pray like we asked her to do. Today, we found out some very disappointing news. Toya and Letecia haven't met with the El Camino Elders and told them that they would text them when they wanted them to come.  Which means pretty much never. They were progressing so fast and well and they were excited for their baptismal day of October 29th. I don't know what happened.

9/29 Thursday
Not much happened today we weekly planned, then we went and found four teens that were playing baseball.  They came and we sat and taught them the Restoration. I don't think any of them will progress but they were really friendly and willing to listen to us.

9/30 Friday
It was another frustrating day of appointments falling through. We were able to meet with Hugh again and he had read the whole first page of the pamphlet we gave him. He is pretty caught up in the political race right now so teaching him is a little interesting! I was in the middle of answering a question about the atonement and he just says, "What do think about Trump?" He then proceeded to tell us how ugly of a man Trump was and how he can't stand Trump’s hair. We get so many people telling us who to vote for and their political views... they don't like it when I tell them that as a missionary my only purpose is on the gospel of Jesus Christ so politics are not an issue.

10/1 Saturday
I am not sure what to even say today... there is NOTHING like hearing the Prophet and the Apostles testify as special witnesses of Jesus Christ. It was a great experience to be able to be fully engaged to the messages which were shared by the church leaders. Tonight we got to have dinner with the Newport’s.  They are great and I am hoping that the daughter will soften her heart and find for herself the truthfulness of the gospel. They are a great family! Tonight we got an exciting phone call from the ASL missionaries that are co teaching Tina with us and said Tina has a baptismal date of November 12!

10/2 Sunday
Today was another great day of General Conference! Many of our investigators got to watch Conference including Tina who watched it in ASL! It was such a spiritual weekend and a super great end of the week!

This Conference is a testimony builder of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As each General Authority closed their talks, they bore their testimony of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more powerful than hearing Apostles of Christ testify as special witnesses! I love this gospel and I love being a missionary! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Call