Week 85

Hey!

Can you send me that picture? haha Brother Juker showed it to me and I told him he had to email it home! They are a great family! Glad to hear things are going well! I just want treats for my B-day. I want to get fat. 

This week was good we set 2 new baptismal dates and yeah things are progressing! This week so funny/cool experiences. So we were asked to visit a member in an assisted living place and it was super high tech and we didn't go in the right way and I tripped the alarm and yeah it was bad but all worked out.... the older lady we went and visited as elder Vaughn shook her hand she didn't let go so they held hand for like a solid 5 minuets till we left it was soooooooo funny! A miracle we had this week was on Wednesday. were were walking on the street and were stopped by a lady in probably her mid 20's and she said it was a sign she had seen us walking in that neighborhood that day. She has been receiving promptings all week that she need God back in her life and she knew who we were because she has investigated the church about 5 years ago! So that was great! the Lord really does place us exactly where we need to be! Well I love and miss you guys! be safe!

Elder Howard

THE COMP

Hello everybody! This week has been pretty good! On Saturday we got to go to a musical! That's right everyone, a musical! It was a church musical. The whole Kirtland Ohio stake put it on it's called "This Is Kirtland!" It's just about Kirtland and the things that happened here, except it kind of forgot all the persecution and bad things that happened. But that's okay it was really happy and fun and pretty good. Joseph Smith did a backflip so that was pretty cool.

We've been tracting the Amish a lot lately... It's been interesting. It's pretty funny when we tell them where we are from because I say Utah and they get really excited, which usually isn't people's first response, and then when Elder Howard says "New Zealand" they just kind of look confused. Most of them just don't know where it is! Anyways, they're really nice and they let us teach them but it's mostly out of generosity, they usually don't really listen to what we are saying. That's okay though. Elder Howard has a pretty good idea to monopolize the Yoder Toder business in a few years and then he will only employ Members of the Church so that they can slowly convert them. It will put himself out of business but I think we can all agree it's for the greater good.

Miracle at church everybody! A former investigator just showed up! He is pretty cool we met with him later and set a baptismal date! It was all good, except when he spat chewing tobacco into the church garbage can. He said he knows he has to quit though so that's always good.

We also set a baptismal date with our investigator Tiffany! She has really good fellowship with a family in the ward and she lives with a member. (their the ones that we tracted into and found the lost member)

I forgot to mention the highlight of The Fourth of July... We were cleaning up and there was a little kid pool on the cement next to the garage. So we were carrying chairs into the garage (ask an English person to say that) because it was raining and Brother Pitts (Cool member that plays basketball with us sometimes and is just cool) fell into the pool! Oh man we were all laughing so much. It was classic.

A few weeks ago we found a family with 9 kids! Yeah! 9 of them! That has Future Mormon written all over it! Well anyways, we stopped by again super excited and we had been praying and even fasting that we would be able to teach and baptize this family! I was so excited and a little nervous. The kids answered the door and we just talked with them for a while and it just built our excitement because they were so cool! We got talking with the mom and......Not interested at all. We tried everything! And we were just trying as hard as we could it was probably the most effort either of us had put into a contact but it didn't work out. I was crushed afterwards. I honestly felt like crying because we wanted so badly to bring this family into the Gospel. We knew we had what they needed and we had fasted and prayed and everything! We got back in the car and I was feeling so sad. Well I turned on the car and we were listening to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD "Peace Like a River" and track 6 is super good, I don't know what it's called but I love it. Anyways, right when I turned on the car the Choir sang "This is my Father's Work, why should my heart be sad?" And it hit me like a peaceful river. This is my Heavenly Father's work. It's not that families time right now but that doesn't mean they won't come in someday. He had something else for us to do that night and so we kept going. The Lord put is where we needed to be and I know that everything will work out. I know that this is My Father's work. Disappointment may come, but I don't need to let my heart be sad! "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." -Elder Holland. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve! I'm not perfect, not even close! But I know this is The Lord's Work because he is able to use even me to bring others to him! He is willing to work will any and all of us. His love is perfect. His Grace is Sufficient. I know this and I'm excited to keep on going!

I love you all!

-Elder Vaughn