November 14, 2011

Dear fam

Yeah some hot choco would be great. It’s not very cold here yet though....

was up in the 60's a couple of times this week, and the snow, well it didn’t

fall. What’s up with that Minnesota and no snow?? (I am happy there’s no snow, don't get me wrong!)

I haven't gotten the sd card yet, but I have learned that these dumb

Computers can use a card reader and it will work. For some reason it doesn’t acknowledge my camera. Next week I’ll have pictures if I can remember to get both. E. Marks has a card reader so no worries.

This week I had worn out a pair of slacks as well as Elder Marks.  We went back to jcpenny and got another pair. There was a 28w /30l that I thought I could fit in. I’ve done it once I can do it again. Plus they were 80% off

15 bucks for them. Needless to say I am chunky and they didn’t fit.

Monday we continued to help out Brother Dorset with his tree project. I got

some good pictures of all doing our specific jobs kinda... Dorset kid Cody

is 4 and he was running the hydraulic splitter.  He did really well. There’s

about 5 cords of wood when all is said and done. E Marks doesn’t know how

to stack so I had the blessing of moving and staking just about all of it. It

brought back some memories of uncle Ricky’s. Tuesday we finished the job of the wood I think.

Wednesday whole lot of nothing exciting.

Thursday was a RS progressive dinner.  Our investigator was going to go and

we had everything set for rides and all the sisters knew about it. This

would have been perfect for the investigator, but something went hay wire

with her ex boyfriend and they had to talk....she didn’t come.   Ugh!

Friday there’s a program called better chance. It’s a program where kids from

the inner-city who have tons of potential, fill out an application and they

either get it or they don’t. If they do, they will go to a place where they

have a better chance. Some members here are in that program. It’s at a

federal level so they pay for the housing and food while the "host" is

mainly there as the father/mother figure. There is a tutor that helps all

the kids. I think there’s 8 in this house. It’s a huge house! That was a neat

experience to go have dinner with group of rowdy teenage kids.

Saturday, this is what makes the last almost 3 months of knocking doors

worth it. We had a meeting with the bishop right before a member baptism, but bishop is a busy man and forgot to pick us up. We didn’t want to bike the 30 minutes in our suits. Bishop comes and gets us, we meet the sisters at the church. The rule of 3 is a pain some times, sometimes I am extremely thankful for it. The meeting was basically to say he didn’t want us to come to ward council any more. He feels we need to use our wml (Ward Mission Leader) more. We told him why we didn’t use him.  But we will try doing it his way. The bishop knows the circumstances and he calls the shots but coming from Egan where the missionaries don’t go to ward council, the missionary efforts go downhill.  Maybe this time it will be different.  After the meeting the baptism was so intense. Some members brought some friends. We talked to the friends - super nice but not a ton of interest yet. Our investigator was there with her daughter who is 13. It was a perfect experience.  Buckets and buckets of the sprit. Afterwards we had a lesson with the investigator. The spirit was already intense, how could it become more pure?  I don’t know but it did!  There were 7 other sisters that joined us (lots of crying it was great). Before the lesson, E. Marks and I said lets set a date for December 3rd. we prayed about it and yup, let’s set it. In the lesson we asked if she knew the church was true. She told us her shortened conversion story and said she wanted to be baptized. It was perfect! we hurried up and asked her to be baptized and she had this look of  “ I’ve been waiting for you to ask” kinda look. So there you have it. We have one investigator and she is getting baptized. That night was a gold mine for finding future investigators.  We got 3 and all of them were interested enough to give us their phone numbers.  Soooo I’m feeling a change around :)

Well Sunday was awesome it was the primary program. The Dorset’s sat next to

us. They are an awesome family. As their two kids where singing, the parents

where having a good time laughing and smiling. Great Sabbath.

Well peace, gotta do my pres letter. Where does the time go? like not only

email but the last 15 months as well?

Found a member, Sister Rowse knows Jeremy Haws. They were buds back in the

day .

lots of love going your way

elder baker