Week 81 - "We Saw Miracles"

Hola!!! How y'all doing today?

CONGRATULATIONS, JUSTIN!!!! That's awesome!!!! I'm excited to hear
about how things go with BYU-I!! Especially about which track, and
about what you'll be studying...have any ideas yet?

Well, this has definitely been an interesting week! We've been working
hard, and have been seeing a lot of blessings. We're especially
excited for the wekend in white coming up, and we'll really be doing
all we can, "earnestly striving" as is the Standard of Excellence, to
find and prepare the family who the Lord has placed in our area for
baptism. Right now, we have a family of two or three, as well as their
neighbor, who have the capability to be baptized. They still haven't
been to church yet, but the church building, starting this week, will
be just three streets down from their house. We're excited to see them
progress! We still have other people who are preparing for baptism,
but they are the only family (The Dastro family).

This weekend, we also saw miracles. We were able to visit a
less-active member, who has been less-active for most of his life.
He's gotten into some things earlier in life that haven't been good,
but as we talked to him, he told us that he was really looking to come
back to church. He also told us that his friends were planning on
going out later and drinking and that he didn't want to do it, but
that after we left, the tempation became very strong. So we invited
him to come out and teach with us, right then and there. He said
"Okay"! From 4:00 that afternoon (and it was a miracle to find him at
home, too!) up until our last appointment at 8:30, he accompanied us
to lessons, even getting in to teach a less-active family that we had
been trying to visit for a long time. The next day, he got up in
sacrament meeting and bore a powerful testimony of the Church and the
power of example (He has a little sister who is a member as well -
She's been a big example for him to fight to come back to Church
activity). In all honesty, this has been one of the most spiritual and
filling experiences of my life!

The ward is doing pretty great, and the sister missionaries are
working hard as well. It's great to have them as part of the ward. As
for the Christmas phonecalls, we're still kind of looking for a member
who has a landline that you can call to, but almost everyone has cell
phones. By next week, though, we'll have calls and call times set up.
It's really weird that it's come up so fast! Time really does fly!! We
actually have a dinner appointment with the Bishop on Sunday, so
that'll be pretty exciting. We've been getting fed pretty regularly,
which is good, but rarely (except in the case of part-member families)
have there been investigators there who can be taught. We're working
on it, and I guess we'll see how it goes! We have a calender filled
out for most of the month, to go by and visit people. The ward is
coming together, and it's great to see all the work people are putting
in to improve and help out, especially because there is so much work
to do!

Things are going well - there have been some days when we get food a
few times in a row - and all within 3 hours. I've been trying to work
on the Tongan crunch, but haven't quite gotten it down yet. I'll have
to work on it, just in case.

We'll be having our Christmas devotional for ALL of the mission
(instead of just half one day, half the next) on....drum roll....the
24th!!!!!! It's going to be so cool!! We're all going to spend
Christmas Eve together as a mission!! And then the next day, we'll be
able to spend time together as a district, just having fun, talking,
maybe having an activity, and just enjoying the Spirit of Christmas!
It's going to be great!! How are the plans for Christmas going in your
neck of the woods? Another Christmas Eve dinner of pizza and sparkling
cider? Hey...that's actually a good idea!! Maybe we'll do that, too!
I'm excited already!!

I'm trying to think of what else has been going on here...We have some
people who we're working with for the Weekend in White, and President
Saylin, in the last Ebenezer (mission newspaper, of a sort) gave a
talk about not letting discouragement get to you. It's a great talk,
and really helped to lift me up. This is going to be a great Weekend
in White - because we're all looking for families in white!

Well, I've got to go. I love y'all SO MUCH!!! Have a great week, don't
be too hard on Ryan, and I'm super excited to hear about all the great
things that are going on this week!!

Les amo, a infinidad, y mas alla!!!

Elder Devin Collins : D