Building Up the Work in Stockton

We received the following e-mail from Justin today, and it sounds like he and his companion are having fun building up the work in the area. On my mission, I had one convert that needed to be interviewed by the Mission President, but imagine... a baptismal interview by an apostle. I bet that would be an amazing interview!

Last week we also received another SD card from Justin, with some three-dozen-or-so pictures from his last area, Ava, Missouri. To the right here is a picture of Elder Goodale with his companion, Elder Davis, taken in Ava on July 12, 2009. For all of the pictures and their descriptions in my Facebook album, please click here.
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Hey everybody! What an amazing week we had! Nothing really exciting to report, mostly we've just been knocking on alot of doors trying to get this area going again. We did get 6 new investigators this week, which is encouraging. We have a couple investigators that are really progressing right now. Emily Dickens is a 17 year old girl who has been meeting with the missionaries for several months now. She has been attending church regularly since about May and at the beginning of this school year she started going to seminary. She's really solid, she knows without a doubt that the church is true. The only reason that she hasn't been baptized yet is that her mom won't let her. But her mom has come a long way and I think is pretty close to allowing it.

Bradshaw Family: Brandon (6), Me, Jason (8), Marlana (15), Luella (9), Aaron (6), Bro. Bradshaw, Nathan (12), Sis Bradshaw, Mosiah (10), Sam (13), Patrick (8), Zach (10), Sam (13), Patrick (8), Zach (10). Not pictured Matthew (15), Enoch (14)

Silly picture with the Bradshaws. The girl in green is a friend.

Me and Luena

Me and Mosiah

Me and Nathan

Me and Marlana

Me and Jason

Me and Sam

Me and Aaron

Me and Brandon

Me and Bro and Sis Bradshaw

Then we have the Bradshaw family. They are a former polygamist family that comes to church actively as well. There are 19 total children (between the 2 moms) with 13 still living at home. I think 3 or 4 of the older kids have been baptized since moving out. There are at least 6 of the kids still at home, and possibly as many as 10, that are wanting to get baptized as well, they just need First Presidency approval (because of the polygamist background) before being baptized. That means that their baptismal interview needs to be done by an Apostle. The kids are just about ready, though from the time that we and the Bishop decide that they're ready the approval process may take a couple more months. The kids need to completely repudiate the polygamist actions their parents did, too, so we need to make sure that they are ready to do that. The parents also have a desire to get baptized, but that may take a long time. Because they also have to renounce that decision to do that and right now they aren't ready to do that. He still feels that God instructed him to marry a second wife, and so before he can join the church he needs to recognize that that didn't come from God... That's a tough situation. But they are an awesome family.

The Willard District

The Willard District (Me, Argyle, Robinson, Raleigh, Schofield, Moxon)

Me and E. Argyle (isn't that the most awesome pink tie?)

Then there is June Walker, who we just recently started teaching. She came to conference on Saturday and loved it, so there's alot of promise with her.

But how about General Conference this weekend?!?! What an amazing conference! Probably the best one I can remember... There were so many incredible talks in every single session. I wish I had time to talk about every one, but I wouldn't know where to start since they were all so amazing. I know now more than ever that those who spoke truly are God's servants, and that Thomas S. Monson is truly God's prophet on the earth today. What an incredible blessing to be led by a living prophet and 12 living apostles! We are so abundantly blessed. Never before have I been more grateful or more excited to be a part of Christ's church. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I know Dad will be excited with the announcement of a 3rd temple in Japan. It's amazing that with the economy the way it is they are still building temples like crazy. It's awesome.

Well we're doing great here, just please keep praying for us! I love you!

The booming metropolis of Arcola