A Great Week

We had a great time talking to Justin on the phone on Christmas day - he sounded great!!! He's doing very well, and working very hard, teaching quite a few people. To the right here is a picture of us gathered around the speakerphone Thursday (Christmas) evening, and Michelle is holding her cell phone (also on speakerphone) up to our phone, and Bailey joined for part of the call, from her grandparent's home in St. George, UT.

Much of what we discussed on the phone is also posted below (his e-mail to us today, his Preparation Day):

Dear family -

This week was so amazing! You already heard a lot of this on the phone on Thursday, but I'll give it to you all again so you can send it out to everybody.

In some ways this week felt less effective because we only had a couple full days. Monday we had interviews with President Seal and exchanges with the Elders from Alma so that was only like a half day of work, then Tuesday we had preparation day (moved from Monday because of interviews), Wednesday was mostly normal except we didn't go back out after our dinner appointment because it was Christmas Eve, Thursday was Christmas and we didn't do anything, then we had our weekly planning session on Friday morning from 10 to 1. With church on Sunday, our only normal full day of work was Saturday. The time we had was awesome though!

Francis didn't come to church last Sunday (the 21st. He was there yesterday) so after church we went over to check up on him and see why he didn't make it out to church. It turned out he just slept in, but then we had a really sweet lesson with him. He's still been doing all of the reading we've been asking him to do and keeping all of those commitments, but we found out that he still hasn't prayed specifically about whether or not the Book of Mormon and our message are true. As it turned out, he was still scared to pray about it because even though he always feels really good when he reads the Book of Mormon and when we visit with him, he feels like if he prayed to find out if it was true he would be turning his back on everything he's done his whole life as a Catholic. To help him resolve that, we got down on our knees and prayed with him right there. First Elder Johnson prayed, then I prayed, then Francis prayed (in Spanish, which was cool). It was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I've ever had. It was amazing. When we went back on Wednesday, we set a goal for him to be baptized January 4!!! The only bad thing is that he left Wednesday afternoon to go visit family for Christmas (understandable, of course), so we couldn't meet with him for the rest of the week. At church on Sunday, it seems that the bishopric didn't realize that our goal was just that - a goal. It wasn't set in stone yet just because we still had some concerns to resolve and some more things to teach him. They announced his baptism though, which they shouldn't have done, and it kind of scared him. After church we went over and we were able to smooth most of it over and things look pretty good. There's a good chance that the baptism won't happen until January 11, but it's definitely going to happen.

We also met this AWESOME kid named Kris as well. We've been talking to his mom, Kathy, and she was really nice and loved talking to us and her little kids really love us, but she doesn't ever keep commitments. The other day, though, we met Kris. He had spent a couple of days in jail for being drunk in public and some other stupid stuff he did while he was drunk in public, and he's really trying to turn his life around. He had gotten away from church, though, because he hated all the hypocrisy he saw in all of the churches he has attended. But he said that the very first time that he saw us out walking in the cold he knew we were good people and felt really strongly that he wanted to come to our church. As we've taught him the Spirit has been really strong in every lesson and he really really gets everything. He's amazing. It's really exciting teaching him. He didn't make it to church yesterday, and it seems like his mom had alot to do with that (we can't seem to figure out why), but he'll be there next week. We have also started teaching the Williams family, who are a really sweet family of 4 that is very very interested. They originally had ordered a Lamb of God DVD, but we messed up and brought them Finding Faith in Christ, which is ok because it's way better than the other one anyway... So now they have both of those and a Book of Mormon and they're amazing. We had a total of 10 new investigators this week! It's been great. We have seen a lot of very direct answers to our prayers this week and have really seen a lot of success. It was also so great to talk to you all on Thursday. It was really nice. I loved it. It was too bad hearing about BSU's loss and all the Angels bad fortunes, but it's alright, I guess... Boise State is still a very young team, and next year will be amazing. I also really loved all of your gifts! Thank you so much to everyone that has sent cards and gifts, I really appreciate it. We now have more food, and especially sweets, than we will ever know what to do with... The ward has fed us very well, and everyone sends food home with us too. After doing a really good job watching what I eat and everything the first 5 weeks of my mission, I've gained 10 pounds just in the last week... It's good though. And one nice thing is that it really warmed up over the last few days, so we were actually able to go running on Friday and Saturday morning and we felt a lot better after that. Thanks so much for all of your love and support and prayers for us, we've really felt it. The work is really moving forward here in Clarksville. Everybody stay good and healthy and remember to keep sharing the gospel with everyone you meet! It's the greatest gift you can give them! I love you!

Additionally, Michelle has been asking questions of Justin in her weekly letters to him, to help him maintain details of his mission journal. Below is an e-mail with his answers to her:

To answer your questions:

-We're in the Fort Smith, Arkansas stake -We have not had one inch of snow as of yet. Just ice.
-We live in Brother Kennelly's basement. He's 70 and his wife is 67 so while they do have 6 kids none of them are at home any more. It's just Brother and Sister Kennelly and Sister Kennelly's 90 year old mother, who is one of the coolest people on the planet.
-No we haven't had any weird food yet. We've eaten very very well, though.
-I covered our most promising investigators in my other email, and I'll let you know when those things change. John and the Hicks family both dropped us. We also have Lloyd, who is the man that was a member of the reorganized church. I didn't mention him in my other email, but he is really awesome too.
-Yes, we have to part our hair. And I'm kind of starting to like it...

That's so exciting that everything is working out for Dad's work! Hopefully some good things materialize next month in those meetings. I'll keep praying for it. I hope everything is going well at home. Hope everything is going well! It was great talking to you on Thursday! I love you!