37 Lessons in One Week

I'm still catching up on Elder Goodale's blog entries, from my last two weeks of business travels. Below is the e-mail he sent on Monday, July 27th.

Hey everybody! Sounds like you all have had a really great week. It sounds like Mom and Brianna had alot of fun at girls camp, and meanwhile the house is still standing after Dad being in charge for a week, so all in all things have been going pretty well! I was just thinking about how Dad staying home with "everybody else" would actually just consist of Andrew, Mark, and Steven. That's crazy. The group just keeps shrinking and shrinking... How's it feel being so old? :)

Kjar Family with Elder Goodale (Paxton, Kaysha, Bishop, Josie, Sis. Kjar, Taylee, Camille, Me

Kjar Family with Elder Davis

Elders Goodale and Davis with the Kjar family

Life here is good too. The work continues to roll forward. We taught 37 lessons this week, which is the most we've had in the 4 weeks we've been here. It keeps climbing every week, and our teaching pool is finally big enough now that we should be able to reach our goal of 40 next week. Let me rephrase that, we WILL reach our goal of 40 next week. We also set one baptismal date this week! Donald has agreed to be baptized on August 15. It's pretty tentative, he understands and has a testimony and everything, he's just a little crazy. (only very slightly) The biggest problem, really, is just getting him to church. He wants to be there, but most Saturdays he works until 3 or 4 am, which makes things tough. He's a great guy, though. Already doesn't drink or smoke or anything like that (which is pretty rare out here) and he's very honest and sincere. Angela has kinda dropped off the map a little bit, it's been really hard to meet with her. Even when we do, she's changed. This last week her 2 best friends (who even she will admit are horrible influences) got out of jail this last week, and ever since then she's done nothing but party every night. It's sad because she was really starting to progress, and now she doesn't even want to change anymore. The saddest part, really, is how her lifestyle choices affect her parenting. I feel really bad for her 2 year old daughter. I really hope she'll come around. We're finding alot of great people, though, just pray that we'll be able to get all of them to start progressing. There was one couple, James and Melissa, who were going to come to church this week but something came up. They will be there next week, though. They are awesome. James has read the Book of Mormon before, though he didn't understand much of what he was reading or where it came from. He thought it was just some good pearls of wisdom written by Joseph Smith, he didn't know that it was actually written thousands of years ago by God's prophets here in the Americas, and that Joseph Smith only translated. Once he realized that, he was really excited to read it again in that new light. Melissa, on the other hand, knew nothing about us. All she knew is what her preacher had told her, which of course was nothing but truth... Needless to say, she was blown away when she found out that we believed in God, and we had her attention from then on out. This couple is totally prepared. I'm excited for them. We've got alot of other real good stuff going on too, so be excited for us! I know that this truly is the Lord's work, which is why it's still thriving against all odds. There's nothing I love more than being in His service. Have a great week! I love you!