December 18, 2017

Family,

This week was a really good week for the Zone! We found 6 new investigators which was much better then last week. We also have 8 people on date as a Zone which is really cool! We set a goal in district meeting this past week to have 8 baptisms this transfer. It was a goal that was set by the whole zone and something that we prayed about and everyone felt good about as well. We are all excited to work hard for it! 6 of the individuals on date are for this transfer as well so we need to find 2 more!

The finding festival went pretty good! We set a goal to have 13 mini lessons and we only ended up at 4 or 5. But each area found some potentials which is good! Potentials become investigators! 

We had a miracle that happened this week in which I learned a really good lesson. I was out finding with Elder Maughan and we were tracting some apartments in the Surprise Lake area. We knocked on the door of this Samoan family who let us in and we started with a prayer and shared the Light the World video. After I started to tie it into the restoration of the gospel and started talking about Joseph Smith. As soon as I did the Grandpa that was there, his name was A. interrupted me and mentioned how they were catholic and they have a good belief in Christ. He said they appreciate what we do.

It is a little embarrassing to admit this but me being of little faith in a weaker moment thought, "Oh, I've seen this before they were just being nice and letting us in to share something but are not really interested." 

So we closed with a prayer and left. (I'm thankful for Elder Maughan) After we left he started asking me a lot of questions of things maybe we should have done before we left and we came to the conclusion that there was a lot we could have done.
So Elder Maughan full of faith said let's return and give them a Book of Mormon and tell them our testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it will bless their family!

So that's what we did. The Lord definitely had prepared them because as we were walking back they were out on their porch and we bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and they accepted one and we now have their phone number and they want us to come back and continue to teach them! They have 3 generations living in the apartment right now that all want to learn!! It was such a miracle!

Sorry this email is long but the lesson I learned is that I feel like I have lost faith in people at times and that I give up on them to fast! How sad it would have been if we didn't return to bare our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and get a time to teach them more! I'm Grateful I was with Elder Maughan.  We talked about it after and he mentioned how being new he just feels like everyone is prepared. That's the kind of faith I want to have as well and the mind set I want to have as I continue my mission.

Also another miracle that happened is A. is doing so good!! We taught him a couple lessons this week and he loves it and he also came to church on Sunday which was exciting! We stopped by on Sunday just to drop of a bunch of left over food from our ward Christmas party and there is this awesome member in our ward Brother M. He is Hawaiian and is just an awesome missionary and he always goes and visits with our investigators and he was there with A. just having a lesson with him. Brother M. is such a stud.  We visited with them and as we were leaving I looked over and noticed his shelf was empty and got so excited. Elder Delp and I started yelling and he was like What? We were like you got rid of it all!! 

Just so you know the times previous when we went over his shelf was a big display of alcohol! We kept mentioning that one day we would ask him to get rid of it and he just did it on his own! He is so awesome and so prepared!! This week was great!!

I love you all and thanks for all of the love and prayers!

I will face time at 11 here so 12 there!

Have a good week I love you all!!

Elder Ethan Stucki