March 26, 2018

 Family,
Tuesday was a pretty good day. We had some really good district meetings we went to. They were on how to receive revelation through the Book of Mormon. After our district meeting we went on exchanges with the assistance. I went to Kent with Elder Jacobsen who is also from St George. His parents just moved to Draper, Utah. So that is were he will be going home to. Kent is wild. It's the city and I haven't ever served really anywhere close to the city. It is a totally different kind of missionary work and there are just so many people to talk to! It's so nice. You can talk to people all day long.

We taught a lesson that night to a guy named (M) who is from Kenya. He was taught by the missionaries in Kenya. He moved here 2 weeks ago and told the missionaries in Kenya that he hopes he would be able to find the church here in the US. He moved within a half of a mile of the church building!! Pretty sweet. So he showed up at church and wanted to be baptized. He has a date for April 14. It was pretty cool to be able to teach him.

Wednesday I was back in my area. We did a lot of tracting and found a pretty sweet potential. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. Kinda the same deal as last week we were able to answer all of her concerns about it and she accepted a book of Mormon and we get to follow up with her next week!

We also had our last lesson with (K) as well. We taught her about fasting and fast offerings and reviewed the baptismal interview questions. She will be getting baptized on March 31st!! In between conference sessions so that Saturday will be full of a lot of good events!! It will be exciting.

Thursday was full of our weekly planning and then a bunch of finding. We found another sweet lady named (D) that we taught the Book of Mormon to. As we have been going out tracting we have been focusing mainly on the Book of Mormon. Ever since Elder Costa came to our mission. Most people here know what the Book of Mormon is or have heard of it I should say. Mostly from the play. So we have tell them there are a lot of misconceptions about what the Book of Mormon is. So we teach them what it really is. It has been cool. We have learned that people don't really know what the Book of Mormon is about. So we teach them that it is about prophets and apostles testifying of Christ many hundred of years before he actually came. People have been more interested. It's funny we will read them scriptures and they will be like "wait what? That was In the book of Mormon??" Then we will say yes and show it to them and we have had several people ask us this week for a Book of Mormon. Before we even offer one to them ha ha. So we have been super blessed this week as we have used the Book of Mormon more in our teachings!!

Friday we had dinner with our investigator Sister (N) which was super fun. We got there and the food wasn't done so we helped her cook and get everything ready and set up. It was fun. She's like another grandma to us. She reminds me of Grandma Stucki. (sorry hopefully grandma doesn't get mad I wrote this ha ha) but while we were there Sister (N) dropped something and swore and then she covered her mouth and said sorry like 5 times then started laughing. It just reminded me of Grandma because she does the same thing. ha ha

We also had a lesson with a recent convert family that was baptized about 9 months ago. We try and work with them pretty frequently because they can definitely still use the visits and just the boost of faith.

Saturday I was on an exchange with an Elder in his area. The Elder is struggling so there wasn't much that happened...

Sunday was fun. An early Easter Sunday. Troy Stucki gave a talk in church he is the one that wears the crazy suits. But he gave a talk and he used a lot of story's out of John S. Stucki's journal and it was kinda funny because he mentioned me and said how I am a direct descendent of John S Stucki. He is not directly related to him. But it was a good talk and he shared a lot of good stories.

Speaking of good talks next week is General Conference!! What a wonderful opportunity we have to listen to the Lord's chosen Apostles and Prophets and to hear the guidance and council that they have for us right now in this day and age!! I think of King Benjamin, he said something that is very applicable to us for this upcoming conference and for every conference for that matter, back when he gathered all of his people before he passed away. 

Mosiah 2:9 he says,

"My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together, you that can hear my words which I shall speak unto you this day; for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view."

I invite all of you to spend this week thinking and preparing for General Conference. Think about any questions you might have whether it be a spiritual question or something that you are needing guidance with in life or just any question you might have. And then do as King Benjamin said, and open your ears that you can hear and your hearts that you can understand and your minds as well and I promise that the mysteries of God will be unfolded to your view! You will receive answers you are looking for as you prayerfully ponder the words of our prophets! I hope each of you do this and I'll be looking forward to hopefully hearing about some of them!!

Other then that we are just looking forward to this week. We have 6 return appointments to go back to of people we have found this last week tracting. That is the most appointments I've had yet in this area so we are stoked. 

Thank you all for the love and support. I love you all!! Make sure you prepare for conference and watch it and learn!!

Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki