The Lord is Preparing the Way

Following is Justin's e-mail home, of July 20th. I was in China where blogging is blocked, and I couldn't post this until now (passing through Tokyo on the way home!!!). :-) Justin thinks that I've gone over to the dark side because I now use an iPhone; I'm glad he hasn't lost his sense of humor!

Hey family! Sounds like you all had so much fun down in Delta! Imagine being a missionary in a town that size full time... You brought up an interesting point though, about being just 4 miles outside of town and not being able to see any signs of civilization anywhere. That's one thing I've noticed that's different about this area compared with out west. Out there you can drive forever without seeing a thing before coming across a little town in the middle of nowhere, then see nothing again for a couple more hours. Out here there are alot more small towns, they aren't nearly as spaced out. Ava is pretty far from anything else, but it's about as middle of nowhere as you'll get. The interesting thing though, is that even with a place like Ava, when you're 4 or 5 miles outside town, or even further, it's not totally dead. You'll still see houses along the highway all the way up to Springfield. (for the most part. Some areas are pretty dead, but not as many) It's different than out west. I think it's mainly because out there (at least everywhere we've lived) it's all desert, here it isn't. There's beautiful, fertile land everywhere here, so people can go just about anywhere, they don't necessarily have to be near the town. That's why I love it here. I'd love to live out in the country somewhere out here in the Ava area. (definitely not in the town itself though) But yes Dad, just about everyone does know each other and I think most people are pretty nice - to each other. Not as much to us... We don't get treated too bad though. We were talking to a guy the other day, however, who is a re-po guy for a living. We definitely get better reactions from people than he does...

I can't believe you're using an iPhone, Dad! I never thought you would go over to the dark side. The Second Coming must be very soon indeed. I'm not sure which is scarier, though - you switching over to an iPhone, or Mom leaving you in charge there for a week. Hopefully it all turns out alright...

Springfield South District: Goodale, Davis, Butler, Phillps, Lee, Ewert

This has been an awesome week! On Thursday, we had Zone Conference, which is always tons and tons of fun and spiritual. This one was especially good because we finally got to meet President and Sister Merkley! They are amazing. The work here is definitely going to continue moving forward. I miss President and Sister Seal a ton, but the Merkley's will be great as well. Then on Friday and Saturday we got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, which is probably my favorite thing to do. I haven't gotten to do it in a while, but now that I'm training I'll get to a couple of times a transfer because the Zone Leaders always go on exchanges with all of the new missionaries in their zone. It was especially fun serving with Elder Erbe for the day obviously because he's an amazing missionary and I learned a ton, but also because he trained my MTC companion. So that was cool. The work here is continuing to get better and better. It's really amazing to see. You can definitely see the Lord's hand in everything going on here. We've already knocked on every door in Ava, and talked to just about everyone, yet the Lord continues to place prepared people in our path every single day. The members of the ward here are AMAZING as well, they've done a ton to help us. We've just seen miracle after miracle after miracle. Thank you all for your prayers as well, we've definitely felt them. Please keep praying for us, there are so many people out there that need this gospel. I have such a strong testimony that the Lord is "pouring out His spirit...to prepare the minds of the children of men" (Alma 16:16) for the gospel. Every day, every where we go, there are people whom the Lord has prepared, and He will lead us to them. Let's find 'em! I love you all! Have a great week!