transfers coming

To knock out the first item of business right away, transfers are next Wednesday. Therefore, in case of a transfer, send all mail for the time being to the mission office at 1871 E. Del Rio Drive, Tempe, AZ, 85282. Thank you.

A few weeks ago, I asked again what type of news would be welcome in these weekly updates. I was told stories of conversions, and specific lessons that we had. Almost as if in response, we had an astounding week with some amazingly memorable lessons, and I would be happy to share a few of them. As for conversions, I will do my best, but the nature of conversion means that I could be sharing the conversion of a nonmember who never gets baptized, or a conversion of a bishop or ward mission leader, who we would have normally thought had "converted" a long time ago. Conversion is endless and continuous, and we could talk for ages about stories of different levels of conversion. But as for some lessons:

Dino is a 23-year-old single guy who left his home in El Paso to start his life over, looking for something better. On his way to Colorado, he took a wrong turn and ended up in Tucson, where he got a job, had success and was quickly transferred to Phoenix to work for the same company here. When he arrived at his new apartment in Mesa, the first people he met were the missionaries. We helped him move in and got to know him a bit. The next day, we helped him return his U-Haul truck and invited him to come to a Spanish singles activity with us. He is hysterical, and has liked getting involved with the single adults, but we hadn't officially taught him until Friday. We took a member with us and they bonded immediately. We taught him the message of the Restoration at the church and the Spirit was so strong. I love teaching the Restoration, it's like a history lesson, but way better. The history of God's kingdom, before Christ, during Christ's life, and in modern day. Super cool, and the Spirit helps us every single time we quote the first vision. It was a particularly powerful lesson with Dino, and we all were amazed at how impacted we were, especially after a strong testimony from our member exchange (who since then has been a perfect fellowshipper, spending time with Dino and making sure he came to church and all that good stuff). I loved it.

We are teaching some kids, a 15-year-old girl named Jessica and her two little brothers, Christian (13), and Alan (12). They are super cool, and especially the two boys just look up to us. They have been impressive at actually learning the doctrines of the Restoration, memorizing the steps to the gospel and the names of the three kingdoms of glory, or remembering all ten of the ten commandments and what we shouldn't take into our bodies because they are temples. It's a joy to teach them and, though I don't have a specific lesson to tell about, they are just great investigators, and we'll get their parents soon ...

We have started with a family who is looking for a church. It is a single mother and four kids. They have been looking for a church that they all like for about a year, and when we told them what time sacrament meeting starts, they all cheered because they can sleep in two more hours. The boys are already active in scouts or cub scouts and love it after just a few weeks and we really are happy about how well the youth do to embrace our investigators and involve them as new friends. They look very promising, and it really is just a matter of time. In our last lesson, the oldest son asked him mom when he could be baptized. I might have seen Elder Argyle pass him a five dollar bill, but I think it was just my imagination ... j/k.

Luis Moegel has progressed fast. His story is a good example that we need to invite everybody to hear the gospel. We received a referral for a girl in this trailer park. When we got to her home, she wasn't there, but we started to teach her parents off-handedly. During the talk, the dad's brother walked in, who they had told us was not religious. We weren't feeling really impressed with the parents, but we left them and the brother a copy of the Book of Mormon, with assigned chapters to read. And really, we didn't hear more about it, until by chance a few weeks later we went back and talked to the uncle of our referral who had in fact read the chapter and others, felt the Spirit, went to the Easter Pageant and was waiting for us to come back to learn more. After very few lessons, he is going to be baptized on Saturday, evidence that God prepares people to receive the gospel and He will work in a round-about way to get it to "the elect." When we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, we said he was going to ask us if he could earlier, but he wasn't sure if he was allowed to be baptized yet. It all turned out perfectly, and we all felt the Spirit really strong as we set his baptismal date. Luis is awesome, and has a huge desire to serve his fellowman and brothers in and out of the Church. We're already trying to get him a calling in the Branch.

That's just a few, but I'd like to keep talking about more. The work is going very well in Mesa right now, and we are abundantly blessed to be able to help people learn of the truth. I love you all, and I hope you are sharing your testimonies with everyone. Just because somebody is already a member, doesn't mean you can't be their missionary. Conversion is a life-long process.

-Elder Sam Bostwick