“There are only two religions—Baptist and Heathen”

-Quote by a minister I met at a gas station. I actually laughed out loud when he said it...then realized he wasn't totally kidding. But he’s a very good man who’s spending his life trying to bring people to Christ. We were buddies by the end of the chat. Unfortunately...I’m still a heathen. :)

THE ELDERS
No, not as in the missionaries…as in a family. This is the one I told you about where we found them tracting and she’s a member of the Church (but hasn’t gone for several years). So we were teaching them and the husband is pretty not interested at this time but it was amazing to watch the wife as we taught. She was so precious. She was getting really into it. You could see all the things she learned growing up coming back to her. She would get really excited when we were teaching something and if her husband wasn’t getting what we were saying she’d jump in and excitedly explain all about what the Holy Ghost feels like or how the Book of Mormon is the testimony of all these different prophets. At the end, he was overloaded and she was on fire. He was just kinda sitting there stunned from everything we’d told him about and she was all ready to get back to church. She slaps him hard in the leg and shouts excitedly, “Don’t you want to be sealed?!?” He didn’t know quite what to think of that. :) But it was so dang cool to watch it come back to her and to see her desire to be sealed (or united) for time and all eternity in a temple of the Lord. I love that family. They made it to church on Sunday and hopefully they’ll make it again! :)

AMAZING MEMBERS
I’m continually meeting people who are such good examples and I have to store it away in my brain so I can be like that when I’m a “regular” person again. :) This time it was a 16-yr old boy—Sammy Boice. We were eating dinner there and shared a thought from Alma 26 about bringing people from the darkness of the adversary into the marvelous light of God. It talks about how they will then be His and will be in His hands and will not be beaten down but the storms and fierce winds of the adversary (really cool chapter—read it). We finish the whole thing and he just says quietly, “whoa.” Then we were talking about who they’d like us to go visit. (This is something that’s often intimidating as members of the Church to have the missionaries go and visit your friends because even though you want so badly for them to hear these things and have these blessings, it’s easy to worry about offending them or silly things like that.) Anyway, Sammy’s response was, “if you could visit my friend Brian over there and Jenny two doors down, that’d be REALLY cool.” Wow. Who’s that stoked about the missionaries visiting their friends. We tend to be so nervous and have such a lack of faith. This kid blew me away. I hope to always have that kind of excitement to share the gospel.

ANGIE
We met a really cool lady tracting. We asked her what she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said, “not much, all I know is it’s another testament of Jesus Christ.” Ha! A+. Nicely done. She said she’s seen the commercials. She was way cool. She talked about how God’s really been leading her lately and how she just recently came to understand that she can pray specifically about things she needs (instead of just assuming the Lord already knows) and how that’s changed things. We told her all about the Book of Mormon and a prophet today and praying to know if it’s true. She was totally getting it. Then we asked her that when the Lord tells her these things are true, will she be baptized. She said a very bold “Yes!” Usually when you initially discuss baptism, they have concerns like (in the South anyway) “but I’ve already been baptized” so you work to resolve their concerns and teach them why it’s so important. But when she answered with her confident “yes” we were both just like, “uh…well…great!” Then she’s like “if that’s what God wants me to do, how stupid would I be not to?” Man, if only we all had that attitude. Anyway, we should be seeing her tomorrow. She’s a champ.

Alrighty, things are going well. We’re assuming I’ll stay in Canton til the end of my time here. Transfers are March 5 though and you never know. But I love it here and the people. Keep praying for the missionary efforts around the world and helping in whatever ways the Lord would have you in your own areas of influence because that’s the inspired pattern of how missionary work is to be.

Thanks for all the letters/emails/updates.

Catch you later!

--Sis C