April 30 Letter

Hey there. Been a pretty cool week. Did some service, bought something, and got some work done.
Last Monday i was at JC Penny before we went to a dinner, and i saw a deal to buy a suit jacket and then get the pants for 88 cents. So i went for it. I sure do love the suit. Its a dark gray looking thing. I'll have to snap a photo of it sometime this week so you can see it.
On Tuesday we layed down some sod for some members of the ward. Did about half their backyard. It was pretty fun hauling grass around.
I guess the real cool part of the week all happened yesterday. Well i'll talk a little more about the rest of the week first. Not a whole lot happened, but we managed to make some good progress with some people who we taught a month or so ago and they told us they would call us. Usually when someone says "we'll call you" it means they wont. anyways, she called last week and wanted us to come back over. She had a death in the family and so that prompted her to call us. Although, when we got there she said, "I wanted to tell you that you are being misled and you need to realize that." Luckily, not the first time i;ve walked into a teaching appointment and heard that. Let me just say that 30 minutes later she was crying and promised that she was wrong by saying that, and apologized, and is going to read and pray and do all those things. There's the spirit for you.
Then on Sunday, we hadn't found anyone new to teach so far in the week. Well first off, on Wednesday we had Zone Conference and President Farnsworth was talking about faith and made most of us realize maybe our faith wasn't all that strong. He said a lot of us are missionaries that believe but we dont have any faith. Then he built us back up. What a tactic. Anyways, Elder Ostler was really into the talk, because that something he's been struglling with, and so this week he has been much more diligent when it comes to missionary work, so that was a good thing. Anyways, Sunday came and we hadn't found anyone and we had set a goal to find 4 people this week. Elder Ostler's faith was getting low. He said on Sunday, "well it looks like we wont have any." So i said something along the lines of, "We still got one more day. Let's go bring in the sheaves." I dont even know what "bring in the sheaves" really means but i said it. So we knelt down and prayed. Here is where it gets pretty cool. I opened the door to leave, walked back inside real quick to grab something, and then went back outside. There was a man satnding there with his dog and he asked "So do you go to the flight school?" (There is a Delta flight school right by us and a lot of people in the academy live in the complex) So i told him who we were and he said he was really curious and told us to come by at 8 that night. He's 25 or so. So we went back later and talked with him for awhile and he was really interested, fascinated by all the information i guess. He said he was all tingly and getting goosebumps the whole time. It was a pretty cool experience.
In the middle of that story, before we went back to teach him at night, another cool thing happened. We were riding around talking to people and i started talking to one guy while he was doing yardwork. He said he always wanted to order a Book of Mormon and read more, but for some reason never called. So we talked for a little bit, then he said, "Ya know, i'd like to invite you in for some Kool-Aid." So we drank some Kool-Aid, gave him the Book of Mormon that he had always wanted, and set up a time to come back this week. He also invited us to stay for dinner but we had to leave.
But just like that we found some really cool people. And it was all a test of our faith throughout the week. Sunday came and it was one of the easiest days i've had to find people who would listen.
That was really all i had for the week. I'll send some pictures to you in another e-mail. Got in a pretty decent spiritual throw down with another man this week. It was done in somewhat a manner of politeness but i probably wasted 40 minutes just going back and forth with him. Not the best thing to do with our time.
Yesterday for church we had a Stake Conference and it was one of the ebst i've ever been to i think. Brother Rodgers and his family brought their neighbors, who we have taught a couple times. On Friday we were talking to them, she is Buddhist but it was cool because at the end she said she believes in Jesus Christ. Anyways, Bro Rodgers got them to Stake Conference and sat them down on the front row. Perfect place for visitors! The music was really good. The stake choir was rivaling the Tabernacle Choir it seemed like. All the talks were really good.
One lady told her conversion story when she was baptized about a year ago. It might have been the best talk i've ever heard. She told her life story pretty much. Her talk was called "Searching for the truth, but not knowing where to find it." All these stories of people telling her when she was young that her grandparents were going to hell because they died without doing certain things and other stories like that. 20 years later she finally found the fulness of the truth. It was a good one.
I got your package of food. That oatmel is really good. I've been eating a lot of oatmeal of late. Dont think i'll need to buy much food this week. It was very hot the past few days. Excited for the summer.....
I heard the Warriors are up 3-1 against Dallas. Talk about miracles! I hope all is well back home or whever everyone is. Congra(g)ulations to Her for graduating from college. I'll talk to ya next week. Love ya.