December 16, 2013

Hello family,

 

All of our investigators are doing pretty well. Although it seems like all the people we find end up being taught by the sister missionaries in our ward. We found a part member family that scheduled to have us teach their daughter, but then we got a call from them saying that it would work better for their schedule if the sisters taught her. That way the dad didn't have to be home. Also, last week we were tracting and found this lady named Tiana that was super enthusiastic about the church. She has a Muslim husband, but doesn't really participate. We found her and talked to her and gave her a BoM. Then we had the sisters go over there to do service for her, because they could go inside the house. They ended up teaching a lesson. Also, she came to a performance that the stake did about Christ's life. We'll see if we end up teaching her again or not.

 

We have been focusing a lot more on getting our investigators to church, because then they can feel the spirit and receive answers. One of our investigators we found out has an easier time reading in Hindi than in English so we got a translated BoM. Hopefully it will be easier for them to read, now that they don't have to force themselves to do it.

 

Another investigator moved out this week to Hillsboro. She told us that we were some of her best friends and that she felt super comfortable talking to us and wasn't sure why. We talked about the holy ghost and how she can receive it in her life as well. She felt like it was true. We are going to send the missionaries in her new area over to her house. She will get baptized, I know it!

 

Other investigators aren't progressing as well, but slowly and surely. We started teaching two new less actives this week though and are planning on inviting another one tonight to take the lessons. Hopefully that will work out well. We are going to ask for referrals from them as well.

 

This week was interesting. My bike broke! Don't worry though.

 

Also, the ward had a high priest Christmas dinner party. We got recruited as the entertainment to sing for everyone. Also, we got recruited by Sister Morby (mission presidents wife) to sing at zone conference and we are singing in the missionary talent show. Lots of singing for our little quartet. We are getting better and better I think. Maybe we should start charging. Just kidding. For the dinner we sang some Christmas songs that we added a little harmony to as well as some solo verses. For our zone conference Thursday we plan on singing 'Joseph Smith's First Prayer'. For the talent show we are singing "I'll be home for Christmas" with some words that we changed. I might have told you about that already. Hopefully they all go well. We kind of had a mutual agreement that we aren't going to spend a ton of our time doing rehearsals and stuff. We are just going to learn it on our own, then put it together right before. That way we can spend more time proselyting.

 

I really liked what you said about the "Intimate" atonement. I think about Mary when she saw Christ right after the resurrection and it's true that she did know exactly who he was and what he did for her. She recognized him as her savior and redeemer in her own personal life. It makes me think, if all the pictures that we have that depict Christ aren't correct, will we be able to know enough and recognize our personal savior when he comes? If you think about the common children's song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", would we recognize him as our personal savior if he was standing next to us? Would we know him well enough and have a testimony strong enough to know who he is and what he did for us? That makes me want to live the gospel and be true to my covenants so that I can know and be able to feel when he is standing next to me.

 

Anyway, I am tired of typing. Love you all.

Elder Udy