3 January 2012

Happy New Year family!  It's now 2012, the year the world will end...

Tara had a baby this week!  That's so wonderful!  I wish I could have been there, but I will see him before too long I guess!

I hope you all had a good New Year!  We did here.  We went into our apartment at 6 (we're supposed to for Halloween and New Years) and did our weekly planning, cleaned up the apartment, and went to bed early.  It was great.  Got some extra sleep for once!

We finally have one new investigator!  His name is Shane [edit].  He is in his early 40s, and his wife is an inactive member.  They have two kids, Ozzie and Aurora, both are under 10.  We've known him for a while, but haven't been able to teach them until last week.  We knocked on his door about 7:30 at night, and he came outside to talk to us.  He said they were having a Bible study with a couple guys from their church in Oceanside.  One of the guys then came out to talk to us, a Marine about 24ish.  He asked a couple questions, then Shane's wife came out and invited us in for hot chocolate.  We came in, and they had us sit down at the table.  We knew we were going to be grilled, because that's what happens, but this time was a little different.  The two Bible study guys asked lots of questions--regular ones from those who "bash" with us, but these didn't have the regular combative feel.  We answered every question and challenge he had, most with a Bible verse to back it up, and eventually he ran out of questions.  During this time, we taught the first lesson about the Restoration and part of the Plan of Salvation.  Ian, the Marine, was sitting on the fence of being interested and trying to challenge and question us.  He accepted to try reading the Book of Mormon, and Shane said he would read it with his wife and pray about it.  The other Bible study guy had left 20 min earlier because he had to go.  But that was okay because he was more combative.  Shane invited us for dinner Wednesday, and Ian will probably come too.  He will be deployed in a few days, so we'll probably bring him a mini Book of Mormon and a good luck card or something.   So things are starting to turn around a little bit for us.  We also have 3 appointments this week with some other new people!

We taught a less active family last night that we just found last week.  There is a grandma, Elsa [edit], in her 60s, and her son and daughter Eric and Crystal, in their 20s, and Crystal's two kids Alex and Brianna, both under 10.  None of them have been to church in a long time but they all said they'd come to church this week.  They were very friendly to us and said we can come to see them anytime we'd like.  I hope they can get active again!

Tatsiana and Beth have been out of town, but we will resume teaching them in a few days.  Still don't know where/when Tatsiana will move!

Oh, I almost forgot, we talked to another kid on the street.  His name is Malcolm, and he knows a couple of member kids.  He is about 15.  During our conversation he said "I've been thinking about joining the Mormons.  What do I have to do to get baptized?"  We told him he'd need to meet with us and come to church, and he readily agreed.  Hopefully we can start teaching him within the next day or two!  We are very excited.

I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all.

Elder La Follette