Elder Clark Boyd

I only have about ten minutes to email today so I’m going to have to make this one veeery quick! P-day was canceled because our whole zone is going to the temple because we got 16 baptisms this month! So were pretty stoked!

On Monday, we taught Faustino and amazing Plan of Salvation lesson and he loved it. We also went out to dinner with Enos, that less active member we found and one of his Peruvian friends; it was a pretty fun night!

Then on Tuesday, we had a DDM and it went pretty well also.  I trained on what it means to be a servant of Christ. I just finished the New Testament this past week so I went through the whole New Testament and wrote down examples of Christ teaching us how to be his servants or examples of his servants that we can follow. It was pretty cool! I wish I had read the New Testament earlier!

On Wednesday, Elder Puhlmann and I went on splits with two different members. I went with Hno. Orellana and E. Puhlmann went with Eddie Roman (Pres. Roman’s son) They didn’t have much success that night but Hno. Orellana and I got to see Los Cruz and Los Lopez and talk with them for a little bit. Hno. Cruz and Hno. Orellana are pretty good friends so that was good for them.

On Thursday, we had an AMAZING Family Home Evening with Clara, and her two kids. It was SOOO much fun! First, she made us dinner and when we finished eating, we went into the family room and opened with the song, “follow the prophet” and a prayer. Then we did an activity where you turn off all the lights and draw a monkey on a piece of paper with your eyes closed. (yeah, it turns out way bad) and then you flip the paper over and try again but this time with your eyes open and the lights on. We applied it to the gospel and said the lights are like prophets in the world that can help us see Jesus Christ and help us know him better and follow his example. And then we read Mosiah 2:17 and said that this is one of the teachings that Jesus Christ has given to us through his prophets. And then we drew every family members name on a piece of paper and put it in a hat and they drew it out and whose ever named they drew, they are going to serve that person for a week. Then we finished by singing, “Book of Mormon stories” and teaching them the hand motions. Karen, the 6 year old daughter LOVED everything about it. She was seriously jumping around the room she was so excited and Pipo, the son, was just as excited but in a boy-like way. And Jeffrey, her other 14 year old son, didn’t want to participate but we went in the room for the service part of it so he could be a part of the FHE and he seemed to like it! Maybe we can get him in the next one.

On Friday, we went on splits. I went with Elder Williams to their area and Elder Harward went with Elder Puhlmann in our area. We both had pretty successful days and the time seriously flew by!!!

Saturday, we switched back right before we had a branch missionary picnic. Yeah, I said branch missionary picnic! And it was definitely the highlight of my week! Actually, I have three highlights: Clara’s FHE, the Picnic, and the Baptism after the picnic. Before the picnic began, all of the Spanish missionaries stood in front of everyone and taught a 1^st lesson to like 60 people. I taught about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Then we watched this movie called “By Small and Simple Things” made by the North Carolina mission. It was really nice! Then we all went outside and ate, played soccer, threw water balloons at the missionaries through a face in the whole thing we made for the kids and did face painting. Clara and her daughter Karen came and loved it! The picnic was a huge success! After the picnic, there was a girl that turned 8 that day and she got baptized. Elder Riding baptized her, Elder Puhlmann and Williams gave talks, Elder Radmall played piano and I led the music. Elder Harward, Presidente Roman and I confirmed her. It was a really nice baptism! And it was definitely thrown together last minute haha Pres. Roman didn’t even tell Elder Riding he was baptizing her until about 20 minutes before, so he had to borrow my white shirt that I had in the car from the split from the night before. It was pretty funny.

On Sunday, we only had Clara at church but Jesus blessed the sacrament for the first time so that was way neat! After church, we were biking because we’re out of miles in our car for the month.  We only got to see Jacob and Shannon and taught them a 3 Nephi 11 lesson. Then we hurried home so we could go to a missionary fireside in the Simpsonville building. President McConkie spoke to us and it was way nice! Also, two recent converts spoke. One was even from the branch that was baptized about a month ago! It was way cool! We also have another meeting tonight as a zone so I don’t have to prepare a DDM for this coming week.

Love you guys! Hope you have a great week!

Hey Everyone!

What a week! Haha so last Monday, we did a lot of packing and getting ready to go stuff. When we started proselyting, we found a new investigator named Efrain. We also stopped by Laura and Francisco. That was the last time I would see Francisco so I said goodbye to him and everything. We took pictures and all that good stuff.

On Tuesday, Elder Stoneman, Elder Douglas, and Elder Fransis all went down to Columbia for their trainers meeting. Which left, Elder Delai, Elder Harmon, Elder Milward, and I all together with only one car. So we four-packed it all day. It was fun. Haha We helped Elder Harmon get ready to go and everything, I finished packing, I tried to send a package home to you guys(but I got sent back to me for some reason). We pretty much just said goodbye to a bunch of people. We said goodbye to NaeNae and Diane and the Moultie’s (all of the English investigators Elder Harmon wanted to say goodbye to). And that took pretty much most of the day. So I only got like 5 mins. Tops to say goodbye to each of the people I needed to. So I went by Laura, Alejandro and Betricia, and the BaezVargas family. We pretty much just went in, said goodbye, took a few pics and left. Laura gave me this book written in Spanish so I can learn more but I accidently left it in the N. Charleston English car. We also had dinner with the McClellan family that night.  At the very end of the night, we met up with the Summerville Elders and did a switch because Elder Peery from Summerville is going to be the new ZL in N. Chas.

Wednesday was transfer day!!! Elder Stoneman as you already know was training a new missionary and I am now with Elder Puhlmann in Greenville, SC! Elder Puhlmann was the missionary that was in North Charleston right before Elder Urry and I were.  And he has been in Greenville ever since. He will be hitting his year mark in 2-3 days I think.  So he’s been out about 2x as long as I had. But it’s a really good thing I finally have my permission to drive in because I’m senior companion! That means I’m the one that has to drive. It’s kind of hard because I don’t know the area but it’s been good. Oh, also, I’m the District leader for Greenville. The cool part about it is that everyone in my district is a Spanish elder!!! That means we can have all of our meetings in Spanish and phone calls completely in Spanish! But that’s not even the coolest part. All 6 of us are in the Spanish branch!!!!!! Yeah. It is amazing!!!!!! The branch is seriously amazing! I’ll tell you more about it later in the email. We got to Greenville and got to start working around 3:00-4:00. We stopped by some investigators just to meet them and everything and stopped by the church so I can meet the branch president and did some knocking! There isn’t a huge teaching pool in this area and they have only been teaching about 10-15 lessons a week which isn’t very much… With Elder Urry and Stoneman in Charleston, we would teach an average of about 30 lessons a week. So hopefully we can build up the teaching pool and start teaching more! We found a new investigator on Wednesday and put him on date for September fourth. We haven’t been able to find him since so we’ll see what happens with him…

On Thursday, we did ATON of knocking. We also taught two of their previous investigators a little bit. They seem like they’re pretty interested. It’s just hard to get in contact with them. Their names are Celania and Esteban. We also went by Clara’s house. Another one of their investigators. She is the only really solid one. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her. She has the strongest testimony EVER. Like, even more than half the members I have ever met but she said there is something that is keeping her from getting baptized.  She’s also from Colombia so that’s pretty cool to teach a Colombian.

On Friday, we did ATON of knocking again. (That’s pretty much all we’ve done this week) haha we found two English speaking girls that were interested. One of their boyfriends is Hispanic so were going to go back and teach them and see if he is interested and if not, we’ll just hand them over to the English elders.  We also stopped by some less actives and talked with them for a little bit. It was good to meet some ward members. The husband had a hernia so that’s the only reason they haven’t come to church but they came to church this Sunday for sacrament meeting because he was feeling a little better. We also taught a couple Guatemalans and some Hondurans but they weren’t interested really. I also got to meet Elder Puhlmann’s recent convert. It was his first convert that he baptized about 2 weeks ago. He is like an emo Hispanic… haha I have never met anyone like him! He is a WAY nice guy though. He’s about 17 years old and just got to the US in April I think. So he doesn’t know much English at all. So we taught him a little bit of that. He is living here with his sister. His parents are back in Mexico. So he isn’t going to school because he has to work to pay rent. Hopefully he will be able to go to school sometime.

On Saturday, we found 4 new investigators! Salvador and Isabel and Nasario and Sabastiana. Salvador and Isabel were kiiinda interested but not too interested so we’ll see next lesson but Nasario and Sabastiana could be way cool! They are actually next door neighbors so we went straight from one lesson to the next haha we also went to Clara’s after that. We read the Lehi’s dream story and talked about how important baptism is. And then she opened up to us and told her what her problem was and why she couldn’t be baptized… Apparently she told Elder Puhlmann and Elder Servin (the missionary in this area before me) that her and her husband were married. But, they’re not. They have been together for about 11 years and she REALLY wants to get married but he won’t marry her. They have three kids but they’re not married. She knows it’s wrong and feels horrible about it. She said she’s been trying to get married to him for the past 11 years and he still won’t do it and if she can’t be baptized living with him, she’s going to leave him… That was a tough situation to be in… It is amazing that her testimony is that strong but they’ve been together for 11 years and she is willing to drop it all for baptism. I wish all investigators were like that! So now we’re just trying to help her through her situation. She told me I speak like a Mexican. Haha apparently Colombians don’t like Mexican Spanish haha And I have a Mexican accent because it’s almost pure Mexican’s in North Charleston but there’s more of a variety here in Greenville.

On Sunday, We had PEC and church like normal, but it was all in Spanish! Haha I LOVE it! Clara came to church and so did Jesus (the recent convert) all the PEC meetings and everything are in Spanish too! And for Elder’s quorum, they wrote everyone’s name on the board who wasn’t there and why they weren’t there and assigned someone from the quorum to call each one of them. I wish all wards would be as good as this! It would help recent convert retention, strengthen the strong members, and bring back the less actives! If you haven’t noticed, I am in heaven in the branch. Even though there might not be as much to work with investigator-wise here in Greenville as there was in Charleston, the branch is AMAZING! I LOVE it. It is going to help my Spanish so much. Oh, Sunday night after church, we found 7 new investigators! (Which is like impossible) we taught a Guatemalan couple and also these five guys from Oaxaca that are all interested! So we’ll be going back to teach them all more! I’m so stoked!

I love you guys!

Hey Fam,

I heard the news about grandpa… He’s in a better place with Grandma now so everything is okay. This week was pretty good! We had a lot of exchanges and a lot of interesting things happen!

On This past Monday, the 26th, we went downtown to Charleston and walked around the market and down church street and everything. I got some pretty cool pictures! After that, the zone leaders went to Mount Pleasant for a split and Elder Delai and I worked together. We taught Olivia, Julio Cesar, Johnny, and Grace and we also taught Denicia, one of the English elder’s investigators. We talked a lot about prayer with Olivia and her family and with Denicia, we followed up on her BoM reading. She is already in Alma!!!

All day on Tuesday, we were together again. We actually went out with a priest from the ward named Matt so we tried to work a lot of English work. He is a veeeery new careful driver so it took quite a while to get from appointment to appointment but it was still good. We taught NaeNae and her family and also Maggie, one of the less actives we are working with, and talked mainly about the promise in 2 Nephi 1:6-8 because of all the immigration laws that are going on. Also, we stopped by the BaezVargas family and focused a ton of church because they hadn’t been in the past 2-3 weeks. When we met back up, Elder Stoneman and I taught an English investigator, Denicia (the one Elder Delai and I taught the day before) and we put her on baptismal date for September 4th. We also found a new investigator named Ruben and we answered a few of Fransisco’s POS questions about what happens after this life. It was pouring rain so we had another lesson with him in the car haha

On Wednesday, we had zone interviews. They lasted until about 5-6. After that, the zone leaders went to Goose Creek for splits so Elder Delai and I were together AGAIN. Haha Its almost like when you’re in a split Zone leader companionship, you really have 3 companions. We saw Chavarita and talked with her about baptism. We also went by the Moultrie’s and by Felicia. Felicia was one of their investigators that was so close to getting baptized but couldn’t stop smoking. Now she is going completely off the deep end so they probably wont be teaching her anymore. We also went by Olivia again. On the way back, we stopped by a member’s house, the McClellan family. The wife is active, the husband is an RM but very inactive and almost anti and the daughter is kind of falling away. We have a mission program called the Re-Member Program that has us teach the doctrine of Christ to members of the church, help them feel the spirit and then role play with them so they feel more comfortable sharing it with their friends. We did that with this family. They wouldn’t role-play because they felt too awkward but this past Sunday, Sis. McClellan came up to me and told me it was the first time in years that her husband has let the missionaries in, let alone listen to them. So even though we didn’t get to role-play with them, we still got in and got to teach him a little bit and she was very grateful for that.

On Thursday, Elder Delai and I were together AGAIN. (p.s. I REALLY need my permission to drive like way bad) and we saw the BaezVargas family. I made a lesson plan using Jesus the Christ and I did that with them. We also went over to Concepcion and Sylvia’s house and did that same lesson with them. It’s a really good lesson because you can focus on so many different types of people and their needs. We also went by Laura’s house and followed up on how she was doing with picking her own date. We decided on August 28th so now she will be talking with her husband about that date. We taught a few other lessons but they didn’t go anywhere but we did find a new investigator!

On Friday, I found out the information about grandpa… Also, Faustino, my first convert called me! He is still up in New Jersey working but is going to be coming back at the end of the month. We also met Laura’s husband!!! He seems like a pretty nice guy! Hopefully we will be able to catch him another time this coming week. We also found 5 new investigators, which was pretty cool! A couple of them were Marcial and his friends that were people we were teaching from before.  Later on in the night, we went by Olivia and her family and Johnny, her 11-year-old son said the closing prayer. It was HILLARIOUS! Instead of saying “in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” Or even all the other different types of things they say to close prayers in other churches, he said, “in the name of Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon, Amen.” I seriously started busting out laughing. I felt kind of bad because he is a little kid but it was soooo funny. Also, we finally taught the Eslava family. They are a family we found probably two weeks ago and we had never taught them but they have a kid named Jerry who is 4 years old who made us just want to keep coming by over and over again to teach the whole family. We taught the wife and children a full first lesson (the husband wasn’t there). And in the middle of the lesson, Jerry just came up to me and started hugging me! Haha it was way random.

On Saturday, we had a pretty good church round up day. We went to see the Jimenez. They couldn’t come to church but they invited us to a party they had in the evening. We also went by Gustabo and reminded him about church. He couldn’t come because he was working. We also found a new family to teach on Saturday! After that, we went to the Baez Vargas family and role-played with them. They work in the flea market a lot so they get to share the gospel quite a bit with random people so we gave them a stack of pass along cards and some pamphlets to give out. We practiced with each of them. Hna. BaezVargas did great but Hno. BaezVargas was pretty nervous but still did well. We also went by Fransisco and taught him a little. After the lesson, Elder Stoneman had to go pee really bad so he went across the street to go pee and a cop caught him! Haha they didn’t do anything. They just told him to go into the woods further so no one would see him.

On Sunday, we had a ton of less actives back at church. Also, Concepcion brought Sylvia to church, which was cool! Sister Wilson, the gospel principles teacher was sick so Elder Stoneman and I ended up teaching the class for her. I also did the translation for Sacrament meeting and Elders quorum. It was Elder Stoneman’s birthday on Sunday so I made him a thing of brownies. Also, Elder Adams brought him a cake and Hna. BaezVargas brought him an amazing Tres Leches cake! We didn’t get to teach much on Sunday but we went to a bunch of people’s houses and made contact with them and found some new people to teach.

We also got transfer calls this week! I am leaving North Charleston!!! Elder Stoneman is staying and he is actually going to be training a new missionary!!! It will be a very big change! So I will be moving this coming Wednesday and will have a new companion and new area! It should be fun! I will also be buying a new bike this week so hopefully I don’t spend too much haha

Hey Family!!!! How’s everything going?

How is Philemon? And How is being at home with almost no one there? Haha This week was pretty good! The baptism took up ATON of our time. We spent a lot of time getting Fransisco ready and trying to firm him up and fellowship him. But it was definitely worth it!

On Monday, we had a very crazy P-day. We were all over the place and didn’t really have time to do everything haha and then we taught one lesson that night with a guy named Nicholas. His wife is a less active member named Maura. There is definitely something wrong in their relationship that we can’t see but were just going to try to help them!

On Tuesday, We had a pretty good day. We found a new investigator named Raul that could be pretty cool. Also, we stopped by Laura’s house and her husband told her that she still needs to wait. So she is going to be prayerfully picking a baptismal date on her own, talking with her husband about that, and then letting us know what it is. We also had dinner at the Carver’s house again. Brother Carver has a friend he wants to invite to church so we did a role play with him practicing so he wont be as nervous haha it was way fun! We also went to Fransisco’s house and taught him that there is only ONE true church; the church of Jesus Christ and no other churches really matter. We also went over the baptismal interview questions with him so he wouldn’t be as nervous for the interview. Oh, also on Tuesday morning, we had a District Development meeting. It was a really good one! Elder Stoneman and I gave a training on “How to Begin Teaching”. It was also Elder Adams birthday (Our District Leader). And the senior couple made us all cupcakes haha

On Wednesday, Elder Stoneman and I were together for the first part of the day and then after dinner I went with Elder Delai while Elder Stoneman and Harmon went to Summerville for an exchange. During the day, we taught Gustabo and Marta a first lesson. We put them on date for August 21^st. They were concerned about how quick it is but accepted. They seem like they could be pretty cool! We also taught two people named Erica and Claribel. We actually taught Erica before but she was at her friend’s house this time so we got to teach her again! We looked for a lot of media referrals too. We actually found one!!! (Which is a veeeery rare occurrence) It was a 4-year-old referral but she wasn’t interested at all. We also taught Jocelyn. She is having trouble getting off work so we just had a lesson about how she can keep the Sabbath day holy. Something I learned from Elder Harmon this week is that “Christ never was comfortable”… It’s kind of a weird sentence but I feel like its true. Because if you think about it, the times you grow the most is when your uncomfortable and your putting yourself out there. So Christ, being perfect, would always put himself out there in uncomfortable situations so he could grow and keep progressing! Kind of cool thought I guess… Also, we had dinner with the Tracy family. They cooked us some waaay good Chinese food! After the dinner, Elder Delai and I went out with Pres. Tracy and saw some new move in’s and some less actives. Fransisco also had his interview and it went great!

On Thursday, while I was with Elder Delai, we taught Olivia and Grace. We just tried to firm them up for baptism a little bit. We also went by Betricia and found out she is working at Ihop… on Sundays… so we just tried to help her get off Sundays so hopefully she will be able to soon! We also taught an English lady that we found named Heather a first lesson. After that, we went to Dinner at the Thompson’s house and ate in 20 minutes and then I went out with Brother Thompson and E. Delai went out with Bro. McCrae. We taught some random guy about prophets but he wasn’t really interested. We also went by the Jimenez and Chavarita. We stopped by Los Tres and Abigail had her baby! It was good to stop by them.

On Friday, we did a lot more Media referrals. We also taught a few different lessons. We taught Carmen a keeping the commandments and Sabbath day holy lesson and committed strongly to church (but didn’t come again…). We were also supposed to have a dinner at the Wilson’s house with Fransisco there, but Fransisco didn’t get off work on time, so it ended up just being us and the Wilson’s.

On Saturday, we had the baptism!!! We were pretty much just trying to do a “church round-up” and get ready for the baptism all day. We taught Oscar and two of his friends. We watched the Restoration video with them and tried to commit him more firmly to baptism. We also had a really good lesson with Nicholas! It was about finding the desire to do what God wants him to do and eventually get baptized. We set a few goals with him to work on so he could do that. We also went by Alejandro and Betricia’s house to help them get ready for the baptism. At the actual baptism, there was a huuuuge turn out! We also had Laura there, which was nice! Alejandro and Betricia came too and gave their testimonies right before the ordinance. I did the actual baptism so that was neat too! (There are pictures in the other email) Fransisco was way stoked about everything and everyone was just in a good mood. After Elder Stoneman and I took pictures with him, he wanted to take pictures with everyone just because he was in such a good mood haha it was a good night

On Sunday, Fransisco showed up a little late to church, but once again, he showed up RIGHT before he was supposed to be confirmed. A member from the ward, Brother Bontornow did the confirmation. At church, we also had Laura and Gustabo and Marta. They all loved church. During the 3^rd hour of church, we taught Fransisco the 2^nd half of the Plan of Salvation because we never finished it. Bro Espinoza was there with us. After church we taught Gustabo and Marta. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with them and firmed them up for baptism a little. Gustabo still feels like he needs more faith before he can progress to the step of baptism. So hopefully we can help him overcome that!

Today, we are hurrying and doing everything so we can go to downtown Charleston as a zone! It should be pretty fun! I’ll try to take some pictures and send them to you. Oh! Transfer calls are this coming Saturday by the way!

Love you!

This week was pretty crazy! Monday and Saturday were the only two days of this entire week that Elder Stoneman and I were together. From Tuesday to Friday, all of the leaders in the whole mission went to Columbia for a huge training meeting. So Elder Delai and I were together the whole time. And on Sunday, the Zone Leaders had to go to a meeting with the stake president so Elder Delai and I were together again!

Monday, we taught Chavarita a prayer lesson coming from the book of Enos and committed her to pray. We also taught Carmen a little bit. Oh! We also found a deaf guy last week and taught him a little bit!!! I got to use a little bit of sign language but he used a weird kind of sign language so we ended up just watching the Restoration video with him with subtitles. After that, we went to go see two people that Elder Stoneman used to teach up in Goose Creek but moved down here. Their names are Marta and Rigo! Were pretty excited to teach them!

On Tuesday, We taught A TON!!! I think we had nine whole lessons… and they were all long lessons too. And what made it even better; I was the only one that taught! Haha We taught Olivia and her family a prayer lesson, two people we found a first lesson, Carmen and her friend Ibon a prayer and giving thanks to the lord lesson, and Sylvia a Plan of Salvation lesson. Sylvia is a nonmember that lives with Concepcion, a less active. Last time we were over there, she was asking us a bunch of questions about the Plan of Salvation, so we went over and taught her it and actually put her on a baptismal date! She said she would pray about it. We also went to Laura’s house to talk to her about baptism and continue talking with her husband. She still wants to be baptized but her husband still thinks she should wait. So, she will be baptized when he says its okay… We went to Chavarita’s house to follow up on her prayer that we committed her to do and she told us she had a dream, kiiiinda similar to Lehi’s dream. So we told her to read that from the BOM. We also went by two girls, Marcela and Marta’s house and taught them a first lesson and also but Fransisco to teach him Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity with Brother Bontornow and to the Jimenez family to get Erica (the 11 year old girl) to go to her own class.

On Wendnesday, we taught a family a little bit but the kids didn’t speak Spanish and the mom didn’t speak English so it was a little hard. We also found a new investigator and taught him an amazing first lesson and put him on date! We also went to an English investigators house and talked with him about how families can be together forever and prayer. We also went to Carmen’s and went through the baptismal interview questions with her to review a little and we went to Olivia’s house and taught her all the Ten Commandments with WoW and LoC with Brother Richie (the old Elder’s quorum counselor, now the asst. Ward mission leader). We also went to the Moultrie’s house and said goodbye to their grandson that was here for the summer. He should be getting baptized in Florida. The only reason he didn’t get baptized here is because it took too long to get his parents permission.

On Thursday, We had another good day! (We did ATON of teaching this week) We taught this guy named Odalis (don’t you just love Hispanic names? I do.) And we went by Carmina’s house and talked with her and her mom about trusting in the Lord. We also went by Sylvia and Concepcion’s house and watched the restoration video with them. Alos, we went by the Baez Vargas’ house and sang a few hymns with them. They just got a new rabbit. It was sitting next to me and peed all over my leg… We also went by Los Tres!!! It had been a looong time since the last time we saw them… Hopefully we will be able to teach them some more! Abby just had her baby a day or two ago though. We also went by Chavarita and followed up on her reading Lehi’s dream. She said she really liked it! We also went by the Moultrie’s again and talked with them about the atonement.

On Friday, we taught even more! Haha (this week was way good because we were literally constantly in a lesson.) We went by a less active named Daniel Cruz and talked to him about coming back to church. He was more concerned at inviting us to go Crocodile fishing with him though. We also went by Jack Holliday’s house and did a two-hour plan of salvation lesson! He had some really good questions though and by the end, he really understood God’s plan for him. Also we stopped by Olivia, Carmen, and Chavarita. We actually moved some furniture for Chavarita because she is putting new flooring down in her trailer haha We also stopped by a guy named Nelson. His wife and son are members but her mom just died so she left but he is still at home. We just shared a spiritual thought with him. We also went by this guy named Cory Alston. He was the most blunt person ever. Like, he wanted to know right off the bat, how we are different and why he should listen to us. So we did it! And he’s interested! Haha We also went by the Moultrie’s again one more time and to a girl named Denesia’s house to teach her a little bit.

Saturday, we had a pretty good church round up day. We found two new investigators, Andrea and Efren. We had an AMAZING first lesson with them.

TO BE CONTINUED

CONTINUATION… (I got another session)

So after we taught Andrea and Efren, we went to Laura’s house and read King Lamoni’s story from the Book of Mormon and applied it to her life with her and her husband. It seemed to help! Hopefully her husband will be more accepting… We also taught a girl named Abi about prayer. Also, we did a “Key to Heaven” or baptism lesson with Chavarita. She still feels like her baptism was completely fine… Its really upsetting because I can just tell she is one of those people that will be baptized into the church and she will benefit so much from the gospel. We also went by Fransisco and just prepped him up for baptism using Mosiah 18:8-11. He is WAY solid. Yesterday, we only had Fransisco at church. We know that Laura was sick. But other than that, we don’t really know why no one else came. After church, we taught Fransisco the Plan of Salvation in the building but we didn’t finish so we’ll have to finish another day. (I was with Elder Delai again that day because the Zone Leaders were in another meeting) we taught a few of there investigators but nothing big. We also got an AMAZING southern dinner from the Stapleton family. She was a seminary teacher and knows a ton! If I could describe her in one word, it would be “southern”. It was seriously the best food I’ve had my entire mission. Wow. It was good!

This morning, we had an amazing weekly planning session that took three hours but were definitely going to have a good week and Fransisco and hopefully Laura will be baptized this weekend!

Love you!

Hey! How’s it going? This week was pretty good! We did a whole bunch of finding new people! Especially families. I love teaching families. It means that you can bring a whole family to the gospel instead of just one person or one couple. That’s why it was so amazing to baptize Alejandro and Betricia. Even though their kids aren’t of baptismal age yet, their parents will bring them up in the gospel. This past Monday, we taught Laura and Chavarita. Laura has progressed really well! She is actually going to be getting baptized this weekend if her husband is okay with it. He works 14 hour days 6 days a week, sometimes 7. So they don’t get to talk much and we have only met him once. He knows she is learning and studying with us but he doesn’t know that she is going to get baptized. So she said she will talk to him ASAP. I just hope it goes well. Other than that, she is solid. Chavarita is also progressing too! We’ve only been over there a few times. We taught her the Restoration lesson and then went over with Elder and Sister Gibson and watched the restoration video with her on my DVD player. At the end while she was saying a prayer, she got way emotional. We asked her to get off work on Sundays so she could come to church. Then next time we went over, she said she talked to her boss and she will have a few Sundays off! Not all of them, but a few. She is really goofy and hard to read but she is very sincere. Oh, we’ve also been on bikes this whole week because our car was in the shop getting repaired. It was supposed to be done by Thursday, but they didn’t get permission to work on it soon enough so were going to be without a car until tomorrow.

On Tuesday, we went and taught Concepcion and her husband. He said he was interested… but didn’t really seem it. We also found a new investigator named Jesus. He was interested in the Plan of Salvation but we haven’t gotten in contact with him since. We also went by Josue, Alejandro and Betricia’s neighbor and did a “pay the price” with him. He said he was willing to do whatever it takes to find the truth so we’ll see! Also, the next time we went over there, the two people he lives with were making chilereino (a way good Hispanic food) and they fed us dinner and we had never met them haha Later that night, we went out with a member from the ward, Brother Reid. We went and saw Los Tres and Los Jimenez. We watched “Finding Faith in Christ” with them and committed them strongly to church (and they didn’t come…) and with the Jimenez family, we just firmed them up for church(and they didn’t come…) if you can’t notice, Sunday was pretty bad. We only had Laura. This is good because she NEEDED to come to be baptized. We also set up a few splits at church for the coming week with Hno. Espinoza, Reyna, and Paulo. And were getting fed by a Less Active named Yolanda and also the Espinoza family!

On Wednesday, we found a few new investigators and one of them was way cool! He committed WAY strong to be baptized, we just haven’t gotten in contact with him since… We also went by Chavarita and the Morales family (the part member family we found the other week). We also went by Olivia, Daniel and their family with the Gibson’s. We did a “tree of life” lesson with them. It is a way good part member lesson or less active lesson. It was great going out with the Gibson’s that night.

On Thursday, We had an AMAZING zone conference. It made me want to be a 100% better missionary. I set a ton of new goals to become better. It ended up getting over at around six though… so we didn’t get too much time to proselyte. Elder Harmon and Stoneman had to stay back a little bit for another meeting so Elder Delai and I went down to stall rd. and taught one of the English Elder’s investigators. When Elder Stoneman and I met back up, we went by the Jimenez and did a 1 Nephi 8 lesson with them. 

On Friday, we went by Olivia’s house and helped her and her two kids put up her birdhouse. I love going over to their house haha their kids are awesome. Grace even gave me a bracelet! We read Samuel the Lamanite with them and talked about how important it is to have the Lord’s protection. After that, we knocked in their area for a long time and found some way cool families! One of them we taught a first lesson with – Gloria and her kids. She seems way cool and we have an appointment coming up soon with her. Also, we went by Josue and Laura. We taught Laura ALL the Ten Commandments, law of tithing, chastity and word of wisdom in like 45 minutes. It was a way intense lesson haha then on

Saturday, we found 5 new people!!! One was a family and we also found a guy named Benito and a lady named Angeles. We also went by Laura and checked up on her to see if she had talked to her husband yet.

Yesterday, Sunday was a pretty good day. Not too many people at church… Just Laura, but the ward is getting a lot better with doing missionary work and helping us out. We also had a “lock down” from 6:00 on because of the fourth of July, which means we were stuck in our apartment from then on so we wouldn’t get killed by drunk drivers and stuff. So what we did end up doing is I made some “Agua”, which is a fresh fruit juice that Hispanics drink and Elder Harmon and Stoneman made some way good Hispanic Chicken stuff and we ate that along with some WAY good ribs and rice that a polenysian woman from our ward brought over. During the two hours we got to proselyte on Sunday, we went to Chavarita’s and did a follow up lesson with her and helped mop her floor haha She just tore up her carpet in her trailer so it would just be linoleum but it was waaaay dirty so we helped her mop it.

Today all the libraries are closed so we drove all the way down to West Ashley to do emails in the Family History Center thing they have here. The computers are way nice! Also, while were down here, were stopping by Costco and getting tons of food. Elder Delai has a Costco card.  I hope you guys are having a way good time in good ole’ spring Texas!

Hola Familia!

Como estan? Things here in South Carolina have been great! We had a way busy week. We got more contacts and more lessons that anyone in the zone! Which is WAY crazy for a Spanish companionship. We got 177 contacts and 34 or something lessons. Monday started out pretty good! We went and taught Laura, on of our newer investigators. She has a child in Mexico and she lives wither her husband (they are legally married). She actually came to church yesterday with a less active member and she brought a friend! It was way cool! She seemed like she loved it. Hopefully she will keep progressing this fast! Also, later that night, we went to teach Olivia, Daniel, and Julio Cesar. We started out teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ but Daniel had some problems with recognizing that there is only one true church and not just any church is okay so we worked that into the lesson. On Tuesday, I was with Elder Delai all day on bikes. We did ATON of splits this week. We worked all English that day but we taught Felicia, on of their main investigators and helped her out with her smoking because that is the only thing really holding her back. We also taught a lady at the bus stop! That was a first for me! Haha On Wednesday, I was with Elder Urry until about five and then I went with Elder Adams (my district leader) with Elder Urry, we saw Antonio and Reyes. Antonio is someone we found sitting outside on his porch and taught him a full lesson and put him on a baptismal date. And Reyes is a guy that has been an alcoholic for the past few years but really wants to quit so were trying to help him. When I went out with Elder Adams, We taught Cynthia, Two 15 year old girls named Ladina and Joniis, and a guy named Bryon who majored in religion so he knows everything historical about every religion and he said he is willing to follow his feelings so we’ll see! On Thursday, I was with Elder Adams again until five. We taught a few random people and also we taught two 14 year olds and also a ten year old. It was really weird to teach someone that young… We taught 3 Nephi 11 to the fourteen year olds, Therein and Kemp. And we watched the restoration video with Joseph, the ten year old. I had never really taught kids without their parents there so it was definitely different. Oh yeah, it started pouring rain so we got soaked because we were on bikes again, and then we went into the lesson with Therein and Kemp and their mom gave us hot chocolate so that was nice haha. Then at five o’clock or so, I went with Elder Peterson on a switch and we worked Spanish. We ended up teaching three lessons. One with Antonio, one with Hemer and Irvin, and one with Julio. The lessons with Antonio and Hemer and Irvin were all follow up lessons but Julio was a new investigator that we found so that was neat! On Friday, I was with Elder Peterson on bikes until about six or so. While I was with him, we found a new investigator, Abner and taught him a baptism lesson. We also stopped by Carmen because it started pouring again. Of course, every time I am on a bike, it rains. Always. We also taught a lesson to Laura. We did the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we first met her, we didn’t think she was that interested but every time we got back over, she gets cooler and cooler. She actually has a Mormon sister in Mexico! She had a very good understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ even before I taught her but I focused the lesson mainly on families and that seemed to make her even more interested because she said that is what she feels like her main goal in life is. I also put her on a baptismal date for the 17^th.  When I was with Elder Urry, we went and taught a first lesson to Reyes and put him on date for the 17^th of July. He seems like he is just ready to do whatever it takes to stop drinking and get closer to the Lord so that is awesome! Then we went on an exchange with Brother Bontorno. He is awesome. We stopped by Maggie but she was about to leave so we just kind of followed up with her. Bro. Bontorno did an amazing job helping us. He like encouraged her to read and keep studying and said he thought it was cool that she talks to us and stuff. So that helped firm her up a ton. Then we went by Los Jimenez. We taught them the second half of the Plan of Salvation because Elder Urry taught the first half the last time they went over. The whole family was actually there except Celeni because she had to leave part way through. It was an AMAZING lesson. Erica, their 11 year old has been reading about 5 chapters a day with Celeni and she even had some way good insight on the Plan of Salvation that we hadn’t even thought of! She is a way cool 11 year old. Hno. Jimenez is doing great. He was completely functional on Friday! They said they were going to come to church but they didn’t for some reason… Who knows.  We also found a new investigator with Bro. Bontorno. We just did a short first-ish lesson with him because it was getting pretty late. On Saturday, we went by Rita’s house but she wasn’t there but we saw her at the pool and she called us over. So we actually did a follow up lesson with her by the pool. It was a first for both Elder Urry and I, teaching by the pool. We also found a few new people that day and went by Alejandro and Betricia and talked with them about the priesthood again. Then we went by Olivia and Daniel’s house but only Olivia and her 8-year-old daughter, Gracie were there so we couldn’t teach them for very long. Gracie is also cool! She reads in the BOM all by herself and she showed us the dress she was going to wear to church and everything! All of our investigators kids are awesome! The sad part is that Olivia and her family didn’t come to church though… we still don’t know why but we’ll find out today. We also went by the Baez Vargas family to remind them of church and everything. On Sunday, we had 5 investigators come to church and a bunch of less actives come back so our Gospel Principles class was nice and full! None of our investigator families came but two of the people we contacted the day before came! And we actually found out they were friends beforehand so that was nice! Their names are Flavio and Francisco. Francisco was way happy to be at church and everything but Flabio was a little bit more on the quiet side so we don’t quite know. We did a church tour with two members afterwards so that was nice and Hno. Baez Vargas said he would give them both rides to church every week so that will help get our investigators to church and also it will help him and his family come to church more often. After church we stopped by the Estrada family and just encouraged them to come back to church. We did the same thing with Daniel Cruz. Today, I cut my hair and made some drawings for the POS and a map to explain the BOM and Bible so hopefully they turn out nice! Haha But there’s still one thing I haven’t told you guys, we got transfer information this Saturday night… I am going to……….

Hey Fam’!

How’s it going? This week was pretty good! (I guess every week is good as a missionary haha) Monday night, we went from lesson, to lesson, to lesson. Literally. Haha. We didn’t do anything except teach which was way cool. We went to the Jimenez family to see their dad in the hospital with a member family from the ward – the Torres family. They were really grateful we came. After P-day was over, we went to Maggie’s house and did a “follow the prophet” lesson or like a church organization and modern day prophet kind of lesson where we explained that the exact same organization that existed when Jesus Christ established his church is the same structure we have today. She loved it! She wrote down all the names of the first presidency and the twelve so she could go to LDS.org and to youtube to look them up and hear what they have to say! She still hasn’t been able to because her Internet has been messed up but she still wants to so we’re going to bring a DVD of general conference over to show her. Oh! Also more good news with “Los Cuatro” – they are “Los Cuatro” again! They moved back in together on Sunday! This meant that Maggie couldn’t come to church. Because it was way hectic and there was a ton of stuff going on but she should be coming next week. After that Follow the Prophet lesson with Maggie, we went over and taught Olivia and Julio Cesar. Olivia is the aunt of Daniel and Iris Cruz (the less actives) and Julio Cesar is another less active she lives with. We read through the Intro to the BOM with them and explained the restoration. On Tuesday we had interviews with the president. They were amazing. I love having interviews with him because he makes it a situation to where the spirit is there and its not like him drilling us with questions. At the end, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked him how I could improve my Spanish because I feel like that is my biggest weakness as a missionary. He sat there and thought for a second, and then called in Elder Urry. He said that what he was about to say would shock us. And it did. He told us to go buy a portable DVD player. He told us to use it to watch the church movies in Spanish to study and to use in proselyting (because most Hispanics don’t have a DVD player and sometimes even a TV) (if you saw the 90 something dollars on my credit card – that’s what it was for haha) We’re actually the only ones in the mission he has ever allowed to do this so it’s a pretty big thing! Also, in the same day, he changed the policy on music. It used to be only MOTAB. But now he changed it to what the white handbook says – uplifting music that helps us concentrate on our calling. So there was a lot of stuff that changed that day that really made me feel like I was going from the Law of Moses to the higher law! Haha (kind of a funny analogy but it might help you understand me). Also, on Tuesday, we found out that Elder Benson would be having an emergency transfer! He would be opening up a new area in Walter borough and Elder Delai would be coming to N. Chas. After the interviews and everything, we talked with Daniel (the nephew of Olivia) and then went to Carlos (the investigator that Elder Urry and Allred found) and we taught him keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Then we went by Veronica and we found out she was moving to North Carolina!!! She was waaay sweet and was definitely getting baptized so that was kind of a bummer but hopefully she’ll look up the missionaries there. We also had a few more lessons that night but nothing too big.  On Wednesday, We taught Fernando again! It had been about a month since we last spoke to him. We mainly just answered his questions. He still feels like he needs to be baptized but still doesn’t know when. We had a few other lessons and then we went by Daniel and Olivia and Julio Cesar and read Alma 32 with them. Olivia feels like she needs to know everything before she is baptized so were hoping that Alma 32 would help her. Then, we went to go see Rita and Pedro, but they weren’t there so we talked with Amadeo. He talked to about the voices he was hearing in his head again and we told him we could give him a blessing. So we did. I did the anointing in Spanish and Elder Urry did the Sealing. Also, on Wednesday night, the Espinoza family had us over for dinner and we had tamales and tres leches! It was way good! Then on Thursday for lunch, the carvers had us over for dinner and we had salmon and baked potatoes! We also stopped by and talked with Almadelia to see if she is really interested or not. We also found a new investigator while knocking! Oh, also during transfers, they give us all the Media Referrals (when people call the number on the pass along cards they call it a media referral) and our list was 19 pages long!!! Apparently they got a bunch of referrals from 3 or 4 years ago that just got lost some how! We’ve been working on those ATON lately. Also, on Thursday, we stopped by the Jimenez and Maggie’s just to talk with them and see how they are doing. On Friday, I was on splits with Elder Allred while Elder Urry went up to Goose Creek to work with Elder Dunn. We had a really good day! We went by Daniel and Iris and talked to them about coming back to church and being a good missionary to their Aunt and her family. They also gave us watermelon and lemonade so that was nice! Then we went by the Jimenez again to see how the dad’s doing. He is improving very nicely! He can even walk and talk consciously now! He still wont be able to leave his house for another week or two but he is improving really well. Then we went by Carmen to remind her of church. She said she wasn’t working so she could come but then when Sunday came around, she got called into work so she didn’t come. Then we went to the Baez Vargas family and encouraged them to come to church and read and pray. They gave us some cheesecake and agua de pina (freshly made pineapple juice that is made like straight from the pineapple). It is crazy how giving some Hispanics are even when they can barely provide enough to pay for their own food! Then we went by Daniel and Julio Cesar and read through the intro with them and explained the Restoration because Daniel wasn’t there the first time when we did it. We also went to Alejandro and Betricia’s and talked to them about Alejandro receiving the Priesthood. He said he still didn’t feel ready but he would pray about it.  Also, on Friday, I got my first Hispanic person door slammed in my face! It’s happened a ton when I worked English but never when in Hispanic areas! It was so weird! On Saturday I was back with Elder Urry but he was feeling sick so we hurried and made contact with all of the people that committed to church and firmed them up for their commitment and then went back home so he could rest. I just ended up studying until I fell asleep. Also on Saturday, we talked with Rita and Pedro. Rita said she still wants to be baptized but Pedro said he doesn’t feel ready but he wont hold his family back. Yesterday, Sunday, we had four investigators at church. It only ended up being Olivia, Daniel, and their two kids but they loved church. The English elders had a baptism of the Moultrie family and it was amazing! Sister Moultrie was crying and hugging Elder Benson because she was so happy. Their grandson also got to come watch it! We also had 17 people in our gospel principles class including Elder Urry and I. It was amazing to have such a full room of people speaking Spanish! There were a lot of less actives that came back and a lot of people that came just to support the Less actives and recent converts and investigators. It was an amazing class. Hopefully we can get a branch started! After church, we taught these two guys named Hemer and Irvin. They are the most American looking Hispanics we have EVER met. They are probably like 6’3 and totally white. They even act white! They talk in slang a lot so it’s hard for me to understand them but I’m learning a lot of new words! Haha when we asked one of them to say a prayer, they flipped a coin haha it was actually really funny! Neither Elder Urry nor I had ever had that happen to us before! Well that is my week! I love you!

This week had lots of ups and downs! But I’ll talk about them later. The last email you guys got was on Tuesday morning so I’ll start from there! We had a ton of splits this week. Like, I was with other missionaries more than Elder Urry haha On Tuesday, I was with Elder Benson and we worked mainly English work. First we went to see this lady named Felicia. She lives in an assisted living center and is really interested. After that, we went to a less active lady named Concepcion. She has a really sick daughter but she is getting better. I also got her membership record information so her records can be moved from Mexico to here. After that, we did atoooon of knocking and contacting and then we stopped by a lead Elder Benson and I got last time we went out together – Jocelyn and Carlos. Jocelyn’s family had investigated the church for a long time when she was a teenager so she went to church a ton back then but now she is more just interested in learning and not necessarily being converted so we will see where they go. They were really nice and they said they wanted to feed us vegetables because we hardly ever eat vegetables because were too poor and she works with nutrition and everything haha Tuesday was a really hard rough day. We talked to a ton of people but no one was interested, and it was really hot. But Elder Benson and I made it fun. On Wednesday I was with Elder Benson again. We did about half Spanish, half English that day. First, we went to Felicia and taught her the Word of Wisdom. She has a smoking problem but she said it would be worth it to quit because she can really see the blessings. We also taught her a 3 Nephi 11 lesson, or a baptism lesson. It went really well and we put her on a baptismal date! Right when that lesson ended, another one of the English Elder’s investigators walked in, Will, and we taught him too! Haha He always tries to go into way deep doctrine and everything so that was hard to keep it simple. He knows ATON about the Bible but it is more important to have a spiritual conversion than a mental conversion. Then we went to Carmina Moralde’s house. She is the Philipeno lady Elder Urry and I found at the beginning of my mission. She has been coming to church very regularly and she even has a friend that is coming to church that the English Elders are teaching. We talked to Carmina about missionary work and all that kind of stuff. While I was with Elder Benson, Elder Urry went with Elder Francis and taught “Los Cuatro” They taught them the Ten Commandments with Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. They also went by Jose and Gloria. Also, they went by Los Estrada, an inactive family that used to be waaay strong in the church. Then they went to a part member family for dinner. On Thursday, we stopped by Betricia’s house and talked to her for a bit. We also had a few other little lessons. Then we went by a less active, Candy. She knows she needs to come back to church but she doesn’t feel like right now is the right time for her to come back… She has a 17 year old son that will be a senior in high school that is a member too but hasn’t been to church in a while so we got his phone number so we can call him to go out on splits with us and maybe it will help him out spiritually-wise. Then we went out with Paulo again, the Portuguese member from our ward. And we saw Celeni and Erika Jimenez. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and talked to them about baptism. It is way nice to have a strong recent convert that can go out with us that can bear his testimony about how his baptism has blessed his life so much. After them, we went to Rita and Pedro’s house to talk with their family. Pedro likes to talk atoooon so we didn’t get much in with them but we talked about their baptism a little bit and shared Alma 32:21 to help out Pedro because that’s his main problem. On Friday, we had another split. I went out with a new missionary, Elder Peterson. We worked in his area that day so we didn’t do any Spanish work. We went by a less active members home and she was cutting her lawn so I did it for her while Elder Peterson talked with her. Then we went to one of their investigators houses and taught them a lesson on baptism and why its necessary and what it needs to have to be correct and we also watched the restoration video with them. Since E. Peterson is really new, I ended up teaching pretty much everything. It was weird because I had never met them or anything and they weren’t my investigators or anything. But the lesson went really well and we put them on a baptismal date! After that, we went to another less active member in the ward (she came this Sunday so that was nice!) While I was with E. Peterson, E. Urry and E. Allred (a Spanish missionary in our district) were together. They saw Daniel and Iris Cruz (the less actives) and they also went by Los 4… The lesson with Los 4 didn’t go so well… They said that Carla feels horrible because of all the commandments because she isn’t living them. And Margarita doesn’t know what to think. She had a very time expressing herself. So that wasn’t good at all… They also went by Jose and found two new investigators, Carlos y Isauro. On Saturday, I was back with E. Urry! Haha We had 12 appointments that day and many of them were REALLY solid appointments. But guess how many were there? None. Yeah, it was a blast. Haha But we did end up teaching a lot still. The first lesson we had was with Olivia and her two kids. She is actually the Aunt of Daniel Cruz. She seems like she could be pretty cool but the missionaries used to go over all the time so we’ll see how it goes. Then we had a few other lessons that didn’t really go anywhere. And then we went to Alejandro and Betricia’s house for Jesus’ (he turned four) Birthday party. He invited us a while ago and then Betricia invited us again the last time we were over. There were a couple other families there and they fed us ‘Popuso’. I had never heard of it before but it was really good! I love Hispanic food! I just wish we could have it more! Haha After that, we went by Rita and Pedro’s house but they weren’t there so we taught Rita’s brother, Amadeo, another 1^st lesson. He is a little bit slower so it was nice to teach him a lesson all on his own so he could understand it more. One of the appointments we had that fell through was with the Jimenez family. Apparently, Hno. Jimenez tried to stop drinking on Thursday or Friday and his body was freaking out really bad so they had to take him to the hospital. He will be doing Detox for about two weeks… We actually went to see him in the hospital today with some members in the stake, Los Torres. Brother Jimenez was kind of conscious and could talk with us a little bit. All he asked for us to do was to give him a Book of Mormon and say a prayer for him. His family was also there and they were really grateful we came to see him. Hopefully this experience will help him stop drinking for good and help him family draw closer together and bring them back to church. On Sunday, we only had one person at church – Fernando. “Los Cuatro” all had to work and Rita had to stay home with her sick son because Pedro was working. After church we went to “Los Cuatro” and read Alma 32 with them and discussed it. Well I guess it was just with three of the four – Maggie, Abigail, and Ron. Carla was “asleep” but we just think she still doesn’t want to talk to us… That lesson helped ATON. They now feel that we really are sincere and that we are doing this because we want them to be as happy as they possibly can. We helped resolve a ton of their doubts and now are a lot more solid. Ron said he still feels good about being baptized and Margarita (Maggie) said she has no problem with getting baptized also! Which was waaaay nice to hear. Hopefully they will all come to church this coming Sunday because they have to come at least two times. Maggie and Carla have come once but Abigail still hasn’t come. Which means we will have to move back their baptismal date a week so they can come another Sunday. Our baptismal goal for this transfer is 4 and we already have 2 so were going to work hard to get those last two! Hopefully this next week will go really well! Love you!

I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth. I know that Thomas S. Monson guides us as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator in these latter days. I know that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God and though him, the church was restored and the Book of Mormon was brought to light. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and by reading it, we can draw closer to our Heavenly Father and we can learn His will for us on this earth. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and only through Him, I can be forgiven of my sins and become a better person every day. I know that the atonement of Christ makes all things possible, Even eternal families. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be raised in this church by “goodly parents” just as Nephi and for this opportunity I have right now to be serving in South Carolina and helping people receive the same blessings I have received in my own life. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.