Letter 8

subject: Things are looking up

Hey mom and Em,

We have had an awesome week. New Year's eve we were in at 6:30 and had to do weekly planning which is my least favorite missionary thing. Honestly that was no fun. But its cool most missionary days are really exciting. Then New years day was awesome. We went to check in on a guy that said to come back and he wasn't interested so we felt like we should retract the street. This time we met a guy named Herb and we have a lesson with him tomorrow. We checked back on him last night and were still on so hes gonna give us a shot. Then we found (on another street that day) a lady named Sue and we scheduled a lesson for a week from Thursday which sounds scary cuz thats a while from now but we have her number and she actually sounded pretty interested. My first scheduled lesson with Dolly that day didnt happen and we cant get a hold of her so thats a bummer but like the only one this week. Also that day we set a lesson with our MTC referral whos name is Markos. He is solid. Had our lesson on Sunday. (My first in our area.) It was awesome. When we gave him 3 Nephi 11 to read he asked if we would give him more the next day. So thats a good sign and we did.

So another of our investigators now is Bro Gomez. His wife is a member and he just recently said he will take the lessons from us on Saturday night. Had our lesson yesterday. It was so cool. He wont let on that hes excited but i know he is because he was just barely able to keep from tearing. When i recited the first vision it was just one of those times when you feel real power in truth. It was so powerful.

Also we were able to teach Megan yesterday. She initially started investigating because her young daughter did not understand prayer. She was met in a parking lot by missionaries and she was impressed by young people that know the scriptures or 'walk the walk' as she puts it. At the beginning of the lesson she wouldnt pray because in her mind that would be hypocritical because she does not believe in Christ. (remember Adam?) So i told her about him and told her some other things that the Spirit brought to my remembrance which kind of opened her eyes to what the atonement was, kinda. so shes going to pray for an answer now. Shes awesome too shes going to get it if she does what we told her to do.

So i also have this cool story from yesterday (even besides those lessons, we are doing so much better, we are so being blessed right now because of everybody's prayers.) We want to be Jericho Warriors this week of monday through sunday. Part of the way you do that is by getting two 'other lessons' every day. So besides those two lessons we taught where members were with us we also need to meet two other people. After our lesson with bro gomez its like 7:30. we need to be somewhere at 8 so this needed to happen fast. First we confirmed our lesson with our new investigator Herb and gave him something to read like i said.

Our next natural option was to stop by Markos our golden investigator. We called and drove by but his brother who is his guardian veto'd it. So we didnt really know what to do. So we kind of felt like "ok, we are gonna miss it again this week but next week we'll get it" and we went over to this family the Millers who are a part member family. we wanted to pick up Bro Miller (they are ancient by the way) but that would be another lesson with a member because of sister miller.

on the way we felt like we should visit Taunya who dropped us last week. (sad story she lost her mom and is going through an unwanted divorce. she is still interested but needs here friends at the other church right now.) but we went to the millers anyway. they were old and forgot that we said 8 and actually got angry at us and said we said that we were coming earlier. we didnt but whatever with them right now we felt like we needed to see taunya and all these things were happening so we could go there. so we did. and keep in mind this was awkward, i didnt want to be pushy and we didnt think this would help us get jericho warriors because she would have to be an investigator with a next set lesson to count. so we got there and i knocked. she didnt come to the door. this was weird because we both felt impressed to come. we didnt want to ring the doorbell because she has 3 year old twins and they might be asleep. so i said a silent prayer and said, "Lord, should i knock again? If it is right then i will and if it is not then i will leave." The Spirit said, ring the doorbell. The thought scared me cuz you know she has those kids. But i did completely thinking i would fall flat on my face. She came right out with both her daughters and said, "im glad you rang or i wouldnt have heard you. the kids have their music on upstairs. im sorry i havent seen that movie you gave me but i will watch it. when are we meeting again?" i was dumbfounded. Elder murley quickly bore testimony and set the appointment and we left. A real mission Spirit miracle.

Love you guys,

Elder Barron