Taylor - May 2, 2016

Hey! Sounds like a fun week, especially the mashed potato bar, genius! And congrats to Dan and Emily on their awards! So this week was a great week! The district really improved and I saw a lot of progression! We were having a hard time getting people to sacrament meeting and especially giving them the vision of baptism! So I focused on that during the District Training! It was super hilarious though! I did the training on Fear vs. Faith and at the start as a demonstration I blindfolded elder gomez our ZL and stood him up on a chair (by the way he had no idea of what was going on). Then I said, "ok elder gomez this is a trust fall, so I want you to fall backwards when I say so okay" and so I moved back super far and I yelled "ok elder gomez on the count of 3 I want you to fall. Don't worry, trust me man." Anyways I had elder heath standing directly behind him the whole time ready to catch him, but of course he didn’t know that. It took a little coaxing but he finally fell back. He was freaking out though! After he did it he said "little did you know, my worst fear is falling." Haha I felt soo bad and the whole district was busting up laughing but he took it well and he's an awesome ZL!

Anyways for us this week, ya elder craig kinda went back to just being exhausted and depressed and at the end of the week we talked. He is just struggling with some stuff, but really the only thing we can do is just push forward and stick it out. You asked what he is like. He is decently athletic and he used to do a little bit of competitive weight lifting before the mish so he's into that and has a work out plan for himself. Sports wise he likes to play most things so that's cool! He's a big movie and netflix guy, and loves italian food but he won't eat anything with pig so sometimes that's a problem at meal appointments!

We had an awesome miracle this week! We were praying for a family of 3 and we found them! Jessica and her two daughters Janelle (9) and Isabella (3)! They are super cool! She grew up in the catholic church and didn't like it, so she's really into the christian church thing but she hasn't gone because of a recent divorce that she has had. So we showed up at her door and she loved the restoration and totally agrees with it! Though she is a little stubborn and doesn't want to commit to a date until she's come to church and she got called into work this last Sunday so she didn't make it, but she will come this coming weekend! Now we just have to help her understand that the spirit is a quiet and gentle feeling and not super loud and energetic like their christian churches haha!

For the two best conversations of the week, one was with like a primitive baptist or something like that apparently one of the original baptists and he was a super nice guy but he was literally telling us that God doesn't love all his children and that he has chosen who he has chosen. Even if you do works, if you are chosen by God you are good, because "according to the bible" God always had his chosen people. And apparently God can also control our agency which truly ruins the whole plan of salvation! And he was using certain bible verses to prove it and so were we. Honestly it just boggles my mind how confused people can be! The other conversation was with a woman who I believe was a non denominational christian or something who refused to share a prayer because we weren't giving God the glory He deserves. She said she watched a you tube video of a returned missionary that was a mormon who got out of the church because he realized apparently the we cannot earn our way to heaven and that's what we are trying to do through our works in the mormon church. We helped her understand that that was not at all the case and that we are saved by grace and faith but our works are also important. She kinda had a change of heart and said that she would look more into it. Now those two conversations sound like bashing and I promise I don't encourage it and try not to do that. Sometimes I guess I just want to defend our beliefs. But I do not like contention! Anyways those were probably the most interesting conversations!

As for facetime on Mother’s Day, it will be around 6pm our time so probably around 4pm your time, hopefully that's good for you guys! Love you guys a bunch. Thanks for the support every week. It's the best! Stay safe! See you soon!

-Elder Dunn