My Least Lonely Valentine's Day

It's true! It really was! I had Elder Beacham with me the whole time :) Hello Everybody! This week has been quite great! We had a lot of adventures, we saw a couple miracles, and we've been working really hard to fulfill the Lord's work! Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, Marilyn told us that she didn't want to meet again, which was pretty rough unfortunately. Anthony also backed out and said he isn't ready for baptism at this time. So! We've been diligently working on finding new people. We spent roughly 20 hours searching through old records, calling people, knocking in the cold, facebooking, etc. The mission life is very different than how it used to be. President Leavitt has encouraged us to be innovative in the ways that we find people, and technology really allows us to have those opportunities. We've seen a bunch of success through the area book and facebook use together!

One example of this involved us calling people from the area book. One guy named Michael answered his phone. He had talked with missionaries a year ago, and when Elder Beacham tried calling him, the guy got super excited when he heard we were missionaries. We have a lesson set up with him for later this week! :)

We also took an expedition to Washburn, and a lady (who met with missionaries before) said: I've never seen anybody like you guys before. She seemed like she had at least some alcohol in her, so we just gave her a card and told her to call us if she was ever interested. People are funny. :)

One miracle and one way that I know the spirit is always guiding us was right before we took the expedition, Elder Beacham pointed out that we needed gas. I could have just driven to Washburn and gotten gas there, but instead I felt like I should turn back and go to Caribou. So we did, and we went to the gas station. Luckily for us, George (a potential investigator) was there, and we were able to get his Facebook information, his number, and email! We also got a chance to help Brother Bennett run some errands because he was sick, talk to people at the grocery store, and talk to a member who is recovering from cancer all because I decided to turn around. The spirit is constantly guiding us. No matter where we are.

Later on in the week, we took another adventure to Presque Isle, and stayed there for the day. We met with a bunch of members, potentials, tried to get some lessons set up, etc. We went to this guy named Kenneth's house. The Sister Missionaries referred us to him, and we went to his house, but he wasn't home. We looked through the area book, and it turns out a potential investigator was never contacted, but lived right around the same area. We went to his house a minute away, and the guy let us right in! His name is Nolan. He has had a rough past with drugs and alcohol, but he has a sincere desire to stop, and we talked about it with him for a minute. We gave him a Book of Mormon, he seemed to appreciate it, and we told him to watch the video "The Hope of God's Light." Which is a fantastic mormon message and I encourage you all to check it out! At the end of our lesson with him, he had tears in his eyes as we prayed together. He's really cool, and I believe he will be baptized. His girlfriend said that she would be willing to learn more tonight as well, so we are meeting with them tonight to teach about the Restoration of the gospel.

We also met with another guy named Arthur, who was a member referral. He is an older man that used to be an alcoholic, but has quit cold turkey. He has a few mental disabilities due to drinking, but he understands the message that we share, and he wants to try out our church. It's pretty neat to share the First Vision with people for the first time, and see their whole disposition change.

The gospel really does change peoples' lives without them even knowing it. It's so fantastic!

The weather up here, however, is not so fantastic. It is literally -30 degrees today. Most of the apartments are cold, the weather is cold, everything is COLD! And I love it! I hope you all have a good day! :) Stay warm! Happy Valentine's Day and President's Day!

The First Vision at TAMC