"Coming Around"

We worked extremely hard this week. It seemed almost every night we were pedaling our bikes as fast as we could to talk with as many people as possible in order to get our 10 contacts. On more than four occasions this week we didn't get the tenth contact until the last ten minutes of the day. Elder Lunt and I are grateful for the miracles we have seen this week. Our goal has been to be working with a sense of urgency but without impatience. As a result we have been able to better wait on the Lord and rest hopeful until the miracles happen. For example, this last Thursday we had a goal for 2 new referrals, a member lesson, and two new investigators. The whole day was not going as planned, and the only thing we had firmly set up was a member lesson with a recently reactivated sister from Brazil, Sister Cledi, but she does not speak too much French. When we called about a half hour before the appointment she said her friend had canceled on her for tonight. Our first thought were "DANG, WHAT WILL WE DO NOW?". Instead of fretting or worrying we went to the lesson anyway hoping that God would figure something out. AND HE DID! In only 30 minutes Sister Cledi had called and invited another family to come receive the missionaries, and they agreed. It was a miracle! And I know if we will wait on the Lord with patience and continual faith, we will see miracles. Now the first lesson with this family was not as we wanted. He is firmly based in another church and because of the language barrier(he speaks only Portuguese) we did not teach the restoration as I would have liked. In my little Portuguese I know we taught the Book of Mormon. He loved it! We will see them next week. Although in that lesson we did not give a baptismal date, that is our goal and plan each new lesson. We are teaching the doctrines of salvation, and every first lesson we are giving baptismal dates. However, we do find that sometimes we must break the restoration into two lessons in order to obey time constraints. Teaching in Creole and Spanish slows us down a bit. But we are finding most of our investigators among Haitians and Refugees. The branch is doing alright, however the priesthood is really lacking in leadership. And meanwhile we are still pursuing the branch president...no luck as yet...but patience and hard work will pay off! We do need to get all our contacts though or we are not doing our very best!

We are teaching many, many people, however, none are too close to baptism. This last week we took 60 numbers or addresses that we need to follow up on and we still have the 55 or more from the previous weeks, so it's hard to stay on top of that with a companion that doesn't speak much.Luckily Elder Lunt is a stud, and I love him to death...he keeps me happy even when I get in my real upset/stressed moods.

Elder Lunt is progressing. Honestly he will be a great missionary, but I'm trying to work with him with the french. HE hates it!!! And because he hates it, he won't study it like he needs to. He is very limited as far as what he can do in French.....I love that kid to death...but I don't know how to help him love the language though! We talked about it this last week, and since then he has been praying to love it. He is a great missionary with a great heart...as soon as he gets french he will be unstoppable.

Well, it sounds like everyone had a great week...good to hear. I can't wait to see the two Seagle munchkins haha...they are the best.

Your creole food sounded pretty legit...I'm disappointed to admit my cooking has been taking a break here in Cayenne...I don't know why...I think it's just a lack of time. As zone leader again it's harder. I'm also trying to learn some languages in any spare moment I have. I'm now able to teach in Spanish and Haitian creole, but right now the biggest need is Portuguese. So hopefully I can learn that one, however, the pronunciations in Portuguese are so different from the other languages I have learned.

PIONEER TREK IS RAD! I hope Hill remembers it well, but not for the same reasons that I do :)

Well, I've got to go...good LUCK ASHLEY! Hope you have a great recital.