Another Amazing Week!

Familia!

So this has been another one of those weeks as a missionary. They're all amazing so we can't complain. I had some great insight as we visited a less-active couple that we've been trying to get back to church for a while now. We were with their home teacher when we stopped by, so we had a lesson and talked about coming back to church and going to the temple. I realized that their home teacher had been working towards the same goals that we had been working for, but as we came together for a lesson on this occasion it made all the difference and they finally made the committment to come to church. Often times it is frustrating because we thing that our efforts go unnoticed by the ward, but that is kind of hypocritical of us because often times we don't recognize the efforts that they make. It was so cool to see the spirit of missionaries and home teacher combine to bring someone back to church. We need our member active, so that we can hasten the work. There is all the excitement that we have over 80,000 missionaries, but there were over 80,000 back in the 1840's. Today we have over 15,000,000 and we need them all to accomplish this great work.

A while ago we ran into a super nice guy named Tom. He's a bit older, but he's one of our nicest investigators and he's always available to meet which is such a blessing. We've been going over pretty frequently to read the Book of Mormon to him and discuss the missionary lessons. His eyes aren't the best so he can't really read super well, but he loves hearing the stories and the message it contains. He also came to church yesterday which was really cool to see. He's had a lot of problems with other churches he's been a part of, so we're happy to see that he's found the Church of Jesus Christ. We see a lot of good things in his future.

One of the biggest blessings we have is that we are teaching a family right now. The parents came to church last week and loved it, but the kids aren't quite as excited. We met with the parents last night and had an amazing lesson about eternal families and modern-day prophets. There were so many people who talked about that last week in testimony meeting and it was almost like it meant just for them because they had so many questions about it for us. They now understand priesthood authority and are talking about baptism and the temple. They are such miracles and will strengthen the ward so much.

Ha so we knocked into a Jehovah Witness lady this week and had a fun conversation. She was a super nice lady, but obviously doesn't believe everything we do. She kept calling us babe and the scene in Hot Rod kept screaming into my mind. Ha it was pretty bad, but hopefully she'll read the Book of Mormon because of that conversation. I was surprised at how well versed she was in the Bible. Now she just needs to add the stick of Ephraim to that knowledge and get the ball rolling.

Oh and one other good story. We knocked into a guy named Jim, who was a nice guy but wasn't interested. He had been to one of the jails that Joseph Smith had been in and knew a decent amount about the LDS faith. He said it probably wouldn't be worth our time, but we were able to leave him with a prayer. We knocked on the next door, but kept having the feeling that we needed to go back. Finally we discussed it and prayed about it then decided to go back. He came to the door with the "what the heck are you doing at my door again" face, but somehow the spirit guided the conversation and we ended up talking to him for like half an hour. He said we could come back, and we were able to leave him with the restoration pamphlet.

Well this has been a great week. There are always miracles around us and Elder Park and I have worked hard to notice those. Heavenly Father plays a huge roll in our life and is always watching out for us. I love you all so much. HFF!

Love,

Elder Hoddy