Tuesday, March 6, 2012

6 March 2012


Hello family!
I hope things are going well for you this week.  It's been really warm the past few days (I hope the Palmdale La Follettes aren't roasted!).  Sunday felt like early July in Utah.
It's been a good week this week.  We were able to go on two exchanges with other missionaries.  On Wed-Thur, I went down to Vista with Elder Eames, one of the Assistants.  I didn't get to see Fonzi, but it sounds like he is doing well.  His wife Ruby is struggling to come to church, but is improving.  We did get to eat lunch with Uncle Craig though!  It was good to see him again.  For those who don't know, I stayed at his house in Vista for several days while visiting with friends.  On Friday-Sat, I went up to the Alicia Park area with Elder Hunt, one of my former zone leaders in Carlsbad.  It was fun to be with him again.  Their area has been struggling (poor missionaries in the distant and recent past) but they're trying very hard to pick it up.  While there, we contacted a guy on the street named Kevin [edit], and he invited us back to his apartment in 10 min to teach him about the Restoration.  It was a great lesson, except Satan was trying really hard to mess it up!  As we were setting up the First Vision, his phone buzzed, but he ignored it.  When the phone stopped buzzing, Elder Hunt gave the First Vision and the Spirit came into the room.  We leave a time for silence at the end of it so the Spirit can bear witness to them of the truth.  Just when Elder Hunt finished, his home phone went off and he had to go answer it.  Kevin said "of course it would do that.  Perfect timing."  Upon returning from the call, we resumed in introducing the Book of Mormon, and the TV, which had been paused the entire time, started playing his show really loudly.  He got up, paused it again, then came to sit down again.  We again resumed, and the TV started playing again!  It was almost comical at this point.  Just when we were inviting him to read 3rd Nephi 11 for a commitment, the doorbell rang and then it was over.  We managed to salvage a closing prayer then we had to go.  He said he would come to church the next day, but ended up sleeping in.  We have another appointment with him tonight, since he is a young single adult.  We felt bad in trying really hard to help Elder Hunt's area in finding new investigators, but ended up finding one for our own area!
Anthony continues to progress very well.  But, he again asked his supervisor for work off on Sunday afternoon, and his supervisor said he'd probably never get Sunday's off again.  Anthony has already explained that the reason he's asking is because he's getting baptized into a church and wants to go to church on Sunday, but his boss won't budge.  He even previously had the Sunday after his baptism off (so he can get confirmed) but now he's scheduled to work after sacrament meeting ends.  We had a lesson yesterday with him about keeping the Sabbath holy.  He took it really well.  He's going to talk to human relations about the situation.  If he still can't get Sundays off, he's going to quit Home Depot and go try to work at Lowe's, because apparently Lowe's recruits Home Depot employees and offers to pay a dollar more than Home Depot!  Anthony's willing to do whatever it takes to get to church every week.  We may have to postpone his baptism a week, but he's still on track.  He has so much faith.  Probably more than any investigator I've seen on my mission.
We also met with a new investigator named Noah yesterday.  He's not really new, because he was taught several months ago, but he's new to us.  He already has a pretty good testimony about the Restoration and Book of Mormon.  He wants to be baptized, so we set a baptism date with him for Apr 24.  The only hangup will be moving out from living with his girlfriend.  He is unemployed but looking for work.  As soon as he gets a job and gets his first payment, he will find a new place and move out ASAP.  He doesn't really want to be with his girlfriend, but has to live there because he can't afford to go anywhere else.  He is really solid though.  He hasn't been able to go to church yet because his girlfriend demands he spend time with her, but he loves going to Institute when he's not working and meeting with us at the Institute when his girlfriend is gone.  I think he'll be just fine.
We haven't been able to meet with Jolie, Ralph, and Roe this past week, but we did have one great lesson with Alex and Angie.  We taught the Restoration using cups as an object lesson illustrating the church, apostasy, and restoration.  They loved the lesson and were able to pay lots of attention.  They even had two non-member friends with them that joined in and had a good time.  We interrupted play day for the lesson but by the end, they didn't seem to mind!
Things are going well here.  We're staying busy and happy.  Our zone is doing great and had another fantastic week.  We have great missionaries in our zone--there are no weak points.
Rumor has it that an apostle will be visiting our mission within a couple of months.  This will replace traditional zone conference next transfer.  We're really excited!  We don't know who it is yet, though.
I hope things are going well with all of you.  It's Miracle March so make it a good month!
Love
Elder La Follette

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