Dear Family,
My play by play is kind of meek right now, because it is just getting really cold, really fast so no one wants to do anything with us now. I guess it will be more active when they can get used to the cold.
It is freezing here now!! Last night it got down to -10 degrees and during the day it was around 15 degrees. Then two days ago we had freezing rain for the whole day and our car froze. I had to purchase a lighter a few days ago that I had to use thaw ourkeyhole to our car for it was frozen solid. SO… the big exciting thing that happened this week is that we got a new investigator!!
A few weeks ago I was telling you the story of a request that I received from our mission president. I was asked to seek out someone and share theirconversion story with him. I feel that I was following a spiritual prompting. My companion and I prayed about whom we should see. I prayed alone in the bedroom and a name came to me saying Betsy C. So later we went there and when we got there her daughter just happened to drive into her drive way(the daughter was about 26 and has 2 daughters who are 3 and 11months old), she is not a member and we helped her unload her car and now today she is aninvestigator that we are starting to teach.
We are teaching her lesson 1, It is the message of the Restoration: God is our loving Heavenly Father, the Gospel blesses families, Heavenly Father reveals his Gospel in every dispensation, the Savior's earthly ministry, the great apostasy, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and Pray to Know the Truth through the Holy Ghost.
That is the first lesson that we teach investigators when we can set up a date to meet with them
We are teaching 2 investigators the new lessons (lesson 1,2, and so on). It is really exciting when we get new investigators to teach!
My testimony is definitely stronger because of teaching. I am learning a lot while I teach also.
This week while we were walking around town to see if we could find some new people to talk to, we came across a house that had the name Vance’s on their mailbox. We passed by their house and I wanted to go and knock on their door and tell them that we might be related somehow but we had to be somewhere at that time so we couldn't. But next time when we pass their house I am so knocking on their door.
A follow up to last weeks letter…my retainer is fixed just right. The Dentist was very nice and no more pain in the mouth!
Part of my exercising program these days, is just to stay warm! I did a ton of pushups and leg lifts this morning, it helped me feel like I could at least get up and going this morning!
I am reading in the BoM I am in Mormon 8.
Here is a note to Tyson, who asked me what I do in a day. My day in a weirdly shaped nutshell.
I wake up at 6:30, work out, take shower, get dressed, try to wake up after shower, study until 11, eat lunch, go out into the freezing cold of the out doors and try not to slip on all of the black ice, teach investigators and less active members and recent convert members, eat dinner at a members house, come back at 9, plan for next day, do 12 week, maybe even playa game of speed (the card game) Go to bed at 10:30.
Love,
Elder Vance