March 11, 2019

Hello, again! This email will probably be pretty brief because Sister Yates and I are taking turns emailing and calling family at the church, and then the elders will be coming to the church to do the same thing, so we have to finish up pretty quickly so they'll be able to have time, too.

Anywho, this week has been really good but not a lot has happened. Our weekly mission standards we try to hit are to have at least: 1 person on date to be baptized, 1 person and church, and 2 new people being taught. It doesn't sound like a lot, but hitting those standards can be pretty challenging-- but nothing is impossible with the Lord! However this week we had zeros across the board. We haven't been able to get in contact with the person we had on date to be baptized for like 3 weeks, and because she hasn't been coming to church, we had to take her off date, and now we're just focusing on getting in contact with her again. It's pretty sad, but Sister Yates and I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and that everything will work out in the end.

Even though we were super bummed about not being able to get in contact with that person we're teaching, another person we are teaching came for a church tour yesterday! It was such a miracle because we never thought we'd be able to get him to come, but he did!! The elders came with us too because we weren't able to find a 3rd female to tag along with us, and they were able to help explain some questions he had. He didn't understand why in the story of Alma Amulek in the Book of Mormon, the Lord allowed righteous people to die. The elders helped explain that we won't always be able to fully understand why some things happen, but that Heavenly Father will always respect our agency. We went through the whole church and talked about what kind of things we do in each room/about each of the pictures around the church. He thought it was really interesting that we don't have any crosses hanging on the walls too. When we got to the baptismal font, we read from Mosiah 18 about baptism invited him to be baptized in April. He said he didn't feel ready yet, but that it is definitely something he wants to work towards. We're super excited that he's making it a goal to follow Jesus Christ's example.

Anyway, this week was super awesome, Sister Yates and I are having a blast! I hope you all are doing well! Have a wonderful week, and remember Christ is always there for you! Love you all and stay safe!!