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Hello! I haven't gotten to read all of your letters yet, but it sounds like Mom and Dad had an awesome trip to Virginia (Virginia trip blog postings here and here). I have always really wanted to go out there. I haven't gotten to read the letters because the package you sent arrived Friday, but Friday we didn't get to check the mail until the evening. So in our box there was a little slip that said I had a package, but by that time the desk was already closed. And the St. Robert Post Office is for some reason closed on Saturdays, so we had to wait until Monday to get the package, and we just picked it up on our way to the library to email, so I haven't read much of your letters yet. It seems like whenever Elder Hirshfeld or I get a package it's always on Friday afternoon, so we always have to wait until Monday... It's ok though. But it sounds like you had a great trip, so I'm glad.
We had an incredible week! We saw SO MANY miracles! Elder Hirshfeld and I were trying to figure out how we could help some of the struggling areas in our Zone, and we realized a few things that we we weren't doing as well. So we set some good goals then really worked our butts off this week, and it payed off. We saw some really amazing miracles. Like 11 investigators at church on Sunday! That was huge. The Riveras came again, they are still on track for their baptism on February 13. Mickey came to church again (his biggest hold-up is that he and his girlfriend that he lives with, who's a member, need to get married), Amanda Magoon came as usual (her husband is deployed right now, she wants to join the church but is waiting until he gets home in June), Amber Hook, Jeff Stapler, Danielle Smith came for the second week in a row (She is SWEET! We'll be setting a baptismal date with her this week) and the Clewis family came. Jessica Clewis and her 13 year old son Austin had already been 2 or 3 times, but it was back in December. Then the holidays came up and then she got a new job where she has to leave for work at 6 am and doesn't get home until 8-8:30pm. And that's Monday-Friday. Makes it kinda tough to see them... We hadn't taught them for about a month, but we finally saw them on Saturday, had a great lesson, and they came to church again Sunday! They said they're going to start coming every week. The biggest miracle there, though, was Jessica's husband Rocky. He's never been interested, he does sit in on the lessons but just makes snide remarks and doesn't really care. That's been the only thing really holding Jessica back. But he came to church yesterday!!! I wish you could've seen Elder Hirshfeld and I's faces when he walked in... That was really neat. I really hope he felt the Spirit and will start softening his heart. Church was really good this week, too. The theme of sacrament meeting was President Uchtdorf's talk from the last Conference, "The Love of God" (linked here as an internet page, here as an MP3 audio file, and here as streaming video). It was really good. Not to mention David Hall was confirmed during Sacrament meeting! He was baptized Saturday night, and that went really well. His friend Brother Clark baptized him, then Sunday Elder Hirshfeld confirmed him, and then 2 hours later in Elders Quorum I got to confer upon him the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain him to be a Priest. It was really neat. Yesterday he was also sustained and set apart for his new calling, which is ward missionary. I know it seems like they are throwing him right into things pretty quickly, but he's just at Fort Leonard Wood for some sort of training and he's being shipped to Fort Lewis (Washington State) at the end of February so they wanted to get him involved as quickly as possible before he leaves. He's pretty solid, so he can handle it. Really that's what's best for recent converts, it's nice to see the ward being so on top of it. This is a really great ward. Really missionary oriented.
David Hall
So what else happened... Oh! I have to tell you about this one amazing miracle. A couple of weeks ago we were driving home after doing our shopping at Wal-Mart when we realized we forgot something so we had to go back. So we went back, and as we were walking in this truck drove by us and the woman in the passenger seat was giving us funny looks. Elder Hirshfeld and I thought it was weird the way she was looking at us, and he even made a comment about it. Then all of a sudden the truck stopped and backed up right up to us! The woman leaned out the window and said "Are you guys mormons?" When we answered yes she asked if we had a church in town, so we told her where it was and also took down her information. Saturday we were able to teach her for the first time, and she is GOLDEN!!! She moved here from Tennessee in late November, but right before she moved she had just started meeting with the missionaries there. She had only gotten to meet with them twice, but had been really really impressed with the message of the Restoration of Christ's church. She basically told us right off the bat that her goal is to get baptized and join the church! She is awesome! Her husband was raised in the church, but his family stopped going when he was 6 or 7 so he was never baptized. He doesn't really have any active family except for one sister in California, who originally introduced Noni (the name of this woman) to the church. So he's technically not a member, but he's not really interested right now. She says that she wants to move forward with it and she knows he'll come along when he's ready. She also have 2 kids that are 9 and 8 years old that live with their dad in Texas, and she's going to be getting them full time soon, at which point she also wants to get them into the church! It was the most amazing miracle. We've been so incredibly blessed. This week I've gained such a strong testimony of the Law of Sacrifice and the Law of Restoration. If you're not willing to give your all for the Lord's work, you can't expect to receive all either. But when you do all you can, when you are truly willing to put everything you have on the altar for God, that's when you will see miracles as you do his work. That's when He will lift you and do for you what you can't do without his help. As I know I've said several times in this email, it has been so amazing to see how much the Lord has done for us this week as we have tried our hardest to serve Him more diligently. We've been so incredibly blessed. I love being a missionary!
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