Poor Elder Sickly Boy
Roger
So I still have thanking to do on that package! All during conference I was munching down on almonds! When I saw that bag I was SO stoked! That was a dang good idea whoever thought of it. I'm still eatin' that and the jerky. Those two snacks make an awesome combo! Yeah both temple rec holders were sweet. The cd by jerico road is really good too! By christmas mom you should try to get the forgotten carols cd for me. SO GOOD. Christmas time is coming. Best time of the year. Especially for the mission.
So, this weekend was stake conference. It was awesome! It was up in Evansville Indiana. First was priesthood session. Elder Andersen walked in and saw my comp and I and two other elders we're good friends with and he came up and shook our hands. It was sweet. I almost went up and showed him the pic of drew and elder holland afterward and asked him if I could get my broski back, but I figured it wouldn't be very mature of me to ask that, so i didn't. Really good talks though. The saturday night session was pretty good too! Elder Gay of the 70 came as well so it was a double bonus. He's probably my fav 70 now. He had some awesome stories and could just really bring the spirit!
Saturday morning in personal study I had some concerns. Investigators having problems with stuff people were telling them and just a few bumps here and there in the road that bummed me out. Well, I felt like I needed a confirmation in my testimony. I'll share it in a more private letter but I asked two specific questions. I'm bad at doing this but then throughout the day I forgot about asking them. Well, during stake conference Elder Posey and Elder Andersen both, answered specifically those questions I asked the Lord. When they answered them it was broad, they were talking to everyone in the congregation, but I KNEW the Lord was talking to me! The spirit immediately reminded me of my questions that morning. When I realized what they said and what I had asked that morning, I felt such an overwhelming feeling of peace and warmth. I managed to keep myself from tearing up because to everyone else, especially the people sitting next to me didn't really think much of it. It was awesome though. You know the verse in D&C section 1 that says "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." I felt the reality of that! I knew the Lord was speaking to me, through them! I'll never forget that!
Sunday morning session was awesome too. I think I said that already. Anyway, Roger and his wife and Hunter made it. He really enjoyed it. Afterward we introduced Elder Andersen to him and told him he's getting baptized next saturday. He said some really good things to him. Roger was touched by it. We had interviews this last week. It's always a good experience to talk with President Glende. We'll see if I stay or go next transfer. He continued to express his gratitude for the work we are doing. We had a man give us a call this last week. He's an ex-com member that's trying to get back. Has a great testimony. His girlfriend is not a member and so he asked us if we could start teaching her. J and A. They're awesome. We taught them saturday morning. They made us breakfast. She is very open minded and really enjoyed the lesson we taught her. They came sunday morning to conference. She really enjoyed it. J called me last night and said that she was receiving a lot of persecution from family because she's even thinking about joining. She used to be pentecostal. They're pretty hostile around here. I love it! :) We're excited about them though.
Saturday night we stayed with the Evansville downtown elders. Two other elders came also because of how far we are from the stake center. So there was 6 of us together. One of them was Elder Thompson the one who played football for byu. He's pretty cool. Anyway he talked a little bit about before the mish how he went to recruiting camps with manti teo. He knows him. Pretty crazy huh dad? He's a big boy. Crazy to think he's only a wide receiver and he's like 10 times bigger then any "lineman" at our high school. haha Well I'm excited for this next week. Figures that Joseph is the life of the party down there. How can you not love him! Regardless of money I hope I'll be able to see him before I leave. If not I"ll have to go catch him at the MTC. I miss him a lot. Been thinking a lot about him lately.
Yesterday while we were tracting we knocked on this older lady's door and she immediatly came out and started "bashing." I was a little thrown off guard because it honestly hasn't happened in awhile. Drew mentioned having it happen a lot because he was studying topics on how to defend the church and he said all it did was attract bashers. Well I think I've done pretty good at not attracting the bashers because it hasn't happened in so long. She was pretty pathetic though. Just downing everything we said and referring back to "well the bible says." I don't listen to what they say though it just lets satan get in your head. Messes with your testimony. It doesn't make you feel good either. Anyway onto a better subject.
We had a young mens fireside this week that went really awesome. We want to get the young men in the ward pumped for serving missions! We had some RM's share some experiences they had and then Elder Hart and I shared our experiences we've had. I talked a lot about the before part of my mission and how I made the decision at an early age to serve. I knew I was going to do it. I talked about how that prepared me to make the decision to play bball or go. Because I had made that decision earlier, it wasn't even a decision to make when the time came. I look back and realize how hard that decision COULD be, but it wasn't for me because I already knew what I was going to do. I did pray about it but didn't really feel like I needed and answer. Then I talked about the blessing my family has received from me being out here. How I didn't really raise enough moola to stay out and how the Lord has taken care of you guys every step of the way. I talked about the example drew has been to me, and how he helped me to accept where I was going when I finally got my call. I read that portion of his letter to them that he wrote me a long time ago. I read that in my "farewell" talk. It was a very spiritual fireside though. Strengthened my testimony if anything. The ward here is awesome. The people are so humble and it's a great place for missionary work. Just when you think things can't get better they do! I love it out here. I'm sure there were other good things that happened throughout the week that I've forgotten so if i remember I'll write more. I love you all so much though. The love and support really helps. I hope you have a blessed week! The Lord is taking care of me.
Elder Norton#2
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