Elder Pounds and I had a pretty good week. It went by pretty fast actually and we got a lot done, some things we were hoping to accomplish didn't happen and others we did so we had both the positives and the negatives throughout the week. It happens.

Since we got dropped by four of our top investigators we are finding that we now have more time than what we are used to. The good thing is, is that we have things that we can do to fill those hours, but either way, we are going to be finding for the next couple weeks. Street contacting is proving to be a bust because nobody seems to be outside when we are. But as soon as we go to an appointment or we have a service activity there seems to be a mass movement of pedestrians that walk by in the distance, just out of our contacting range.

This past week we did a lot of service. Since the weather has finally warmed up enough for spring/summer projects to start, we have helped the members and some of our investigators with these projects. For one family we did two hours of moving dirt, plants, and cutting dead branches off trees so that we could pull up a tarp that had been buried 5 years ago. We still have lots of work to do with them. Another family we did some gardening, pulling weeds, raking old leaves, and planting bulbs. I'm not to certain that we did a good job on the bulbs but I do hope that they end up good enough for the mother - gulp! For this same family we also spent two hours helping them split logs and stacking them. It was really fun, quiet, and personal. We each had earplugs and were at our own stations. So it gave me time to just silently work and do my stacking. We did our usual volunteer service at the Sun Prairie museum and Elder Pounds and I are going to start volunteering at the community center hopefully this week. Total, I think we did about 8-9 hours of service.

This week was Stake Conference. The Saturday Session was focused on member missionary work and it was awesome. The talks were well prepared and brought a very special spirit to the meeting. They had the missionaries of the whole stake there so it was kind of like a small reunion for the missionaries. It was lots of fun seeing some familiar faces. As for the work, the stake has been making a big push to get the members more involved in talking to people about the church and to help the missionaries. At the Sunday session, a recent convert from the Sun Prairie ward had been asked to come up to the stand and share here conversion story. As she was up their talking about her story, I'll be honest and say that we (a group of missionaries, myself included) were confused as to why she was up there, what was the purpose of her sharing her story? But then she did something super bold. As she was baring her testimony she said to everyone (loose quote) "if there are any of you here who are not members of the church, than you need to be baptized because this church is true!" As she said that, a rush filled up the whole room as the spirit bore a powerful witness to what she was saying. I leaned over to Elder Pounds and said something along the lines of "that's why she's up there". It was breath taking.

 

Scripture for the week: D&C 33:6

6 And even so will I gather mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, even as many as will believe in me, and hearken unto my voice.

Thank you all for your prayers, letters, love, and all that you do to share the gospel. Have a fantastic week.

Elder Luymes