Dear Family
It was good to hear that you all had a good week! It was good and also it was tough at some parts. The weather has been really nice here. It hasn’t been too cold and the nights aren’t too bad either. I am ready for it to snow 4 feet in one day though… Haha So to answer your question about what I want for my birthday, I can’t really think of anything I need. Maybe you could get a Jon Schmidt CD, he is a pianist, and he is a member. Also maybe a sweater vest, I think that’s what they call them, I want one with sleeves though, I really like wearing those. Those are really the only things I could think of, you have already given me so much! I love you!
So the best and worst day of the week I will tell you about. It was this last Friday January 15th. On Fridays, we do weekly planning, which is where we set goals for the week and plan what we are going to teach investigators, and update the area book which has all of our records. When Elder Brimhall came and spoke to us he told us how we need to do more and plan for our investigators more. So we did that…. It took us till around 4:30pm to finish it all, this is after starting at 10:00am and only taking an hour break for lunch. It was intense. So we did that and it was wonderful. We planned what we need to teach our investigators and how long it would take us and when they would come to church and attend a baptismal service and all these events that lead to them ultimately making the commitment to be baptized. So as we are about done we call an investigator, named Ben Johnson. We called him about an appointment we had with him on Saturday. Elder West was talking to him and he said he would have to cancel because he was having emotional problems. Elder West tried to reschedule but he said that he had our number and that he would call us… we also invited him to a baptism earlier that Saturday. He said he didn’t really want to do that. So he pretty much dropped us. We have a feeling that his girlfriend that is a member broke up with him. So that was really lame because we spent a good amount of time planning for him. After that we headed out to try some people close by home because dinner was at 5:00. We did and we also talked to this guy… we asked if he needed help taking down his Christmas lights, from there it went downhill. He was asking us all these random questions saying that we don’t know what we believe… He told us we should read a book entitled “Kingdom of Cults”… I tried to answer his questions and not to contend. He really wanted to pick a fight. After answering his questions which would only lead to more questions, I told him how I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that Heavenly father and Jesus Christ love us very much and that they have given us their wonderful gospel on the earth again, along with a prophet. I said that I wish he could accept this message and that he would receive the happiness that we receive though this gospel. It made him think and pause, and then he went back to trying to contend, so we said goodbye and left. Elder West wasn’t too happy, he wanted to beat him up. After that we went to dinner and had a wonderful dinner with the Lewis’. The message we shared was wonderful. We talked about living in thanksgiving, and we took turns thanking them for what they have done for us. We are moving out today, Tuesday, so we thought we would show our appreciation and thank them. I immediately started to cry because I told them how the Lord and blessed me so much in my life and one of the ways that he has blessed me was by placing them in my path of life. They have done so much for me they and welcomed me into their family and I have felt like a brother and son. By that time almost everyone was crying… the best part was that Sister Lewis said the closing prayer. It was a beautiful prayer. I was so touched. After that wonderful experience which I will never forget, we went out and tried to see some people. One man invited us in and I got all excited, but he too began to contended with us… It seems as though we had done something very good that day because Satan was trying his hardest to discourage us. After that we tried some more people and headed home. It was the best worst day I have every had! Haha Well I am running out of time, but I truly do love you guys! Thanks for everything! I love you so so much! Have a good week!
I LOVE YOU!
Elder Lassen
Miracle of the week: Our lesson with the Lewis family and being able to see how much we had grown to love them and how much they really do love us! Have a good week I love you!