Nov 2, 2009

Ryan's Letter:

Subject: Who do you know who could use the message of the restored gospel?

Happy Halloween!
We had a great week this week. It was one of those weeks where you wish a camera crew could just follow you around all week because you don't want to miss anything when you are writing in your journal. However, we also had quite a few high stress, very tense moments. But through it all Elder Haines and I rose victorious and even made brownies while we were locked up in Sister Moss's home on Halloween night.
The good news is that after a lot, seriously a lot, of work and counseling, Garrett is going to be baptised into our singles ward. Originally, our Stake President had told us that he wouldn't be able to be baptized here because he lives in a different stake, but his fellowshipping family that had introduced him to the church was not very happy. Elder Haines and I found ourselves in the middle of this mess and ended up being the people to blame from both sides. The family seemed to think that we were just looking for excuses not to teach him, and our leaders seemed to think that we were just trying to teach him so se could say we baptized him. After three days of knowing that everyone was mad at us, our mission president finally stepped in and worked it out. We are very happy to be teaching Garrett because of his amazing testimony and knowledge of the gosple. Hopefully, we will be able to get him on a mission because he has such a wonderful way of explaining principles of the church. We will be setting a baptismal date with him tomorrow.
I think I told you a little bit about Mary Hall who is one of the inactive members who we have just started to teach. We had our first lesson with her on Wednesday with Jared Perez and it went perfectly. She was very open and honest with us and seemed to long to have the spirit in her life more. The spirit was strong throughout the lesson and we could tell she was touched. Afterward, she showed us around her house that she has turned into a daycare. She seemed so happy just to be talking with us, I could see her as a strong member of the church very soon. All the members of our ward love her and she has a strong family to support her as well. It is amazing to me to see how many people are ready out there, they just need to be invited.
That same night while we were out in Lincoln, Jared wanted to stop by and see another person who we were told would be interested in taking the missionary lessons. She has been coming to church most of her life but she is struggling with her testimony. We pulled up into her driveway right as she got home and our first thought was that it was going to be really akward to ask her right then to take the lessons. But as we got out of the car and stood talking to her in her front yard, with almost no lights, the spirit suddenly gave all us the confidence we needed and we all felt very comfortable. This morning in my prayer, I felt a strong impression to ask the Lord to use us to answer someones prayer on that day. I don't know why because I have never prayed for that before, but I do believe that my prayer was answered; and in turn, I think her prayers were answered as well. She was very grateful that we had visited her that night, and I think that the simpleness of the gosple taught in the missionary lessons is exactly what she needs right now. As a matter of fact, we all need it. I was soo excited this week to find out how many members of our wards are studying Preach My Gospel either as families or individually. I know Scott challenged us to read it while he was on our mission, but I challenge you to do it again. I believe, aside from the Book of Mormon, that is should be one of our main study materials. It is amazing!
Now Halloween. Elder Haines and I decided that we wanted to find a Holloween investigator this year, but instead, we found two. While tracting earlier this week we met Deedee who at first was not interested. After talking for a while though, we convinced her to let us do service for her on saturday. It's funny how we have to practically beg people to let us do FREE srevice for them. But we came and ended up meeting her 25 year old sone Tim as well and helped them pick Pomegranates. Then we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them. That is my favorite movie in the world, it makes me want to be perfect everytime I watch it. They both enjoyed it, Tim asked if he could maybe look through a Book of Mormom, we thought we would be nice and give him one for free, and we are going back next week to teach them the PLan of Salvation. Exciting huh?
Halloween night we spent with Sister Moss, we tried trick or treating her house but she found out it was us and wouldn't give us any candy so we made brownies instead. Then we got to watch President Hinckly's interview with Larry King and go to bed early and get an extra hour of sleep. Life just couldn't get any better.
I'm sorry to hear Kristie was sick and the cell phone and everything. I got some amazing pictures of my sisters this week, thanks mom! I love getting pictures. And I love you all too. Thanks for everything have a great week.
Elder Allred