Hello everyone!
I've realized this week just how much I am thankful for having a hot shower
every morning! The weather has been pretty bitter cold this week. We have
discovered that the pool house that we live in was probably not built for people
to live in during the winter months. Our heating does not really work in the
house. We turn it up to the hottest we possibly can but it still blows out cold
air. One morning Elder Persinger and I woke up and all of the water outlets
except the shower did not work. It was cold! Don't worry about us though, as
long as we wear a bunch of clothes to bed and sleep with a lot of blankets we
sleep just fine!
The rest of our week went pretty well. R-- is still struggling a little. He
has not come to church for the past 2 weeks. Every time we go over there we have
really intense lessons where he asks some very searching and pointed questions.
I've never felt so unable to help another person find answers to their
questions. Luckily the Holy Ghost has been with us as we have taught him.
Hopefully we will see some progress this week with him. We have one of our
wonderful members Sister B-- working on them and trying to help them
overcome these trials.
S-- J-- is doing really well! She came to church! It was really
exciting to see her come to church again. As far as we know she loved it! She
has the attitude that a lot of the southerners have. They really like what we
teach and agree with almost all of it, but are not as willing to leave their old
church to come to ours. We are helping her have a better understanding of the
restoration so she will be able to make that choice. S-- is doing well. We
did not teach her this past week so we were not able to set a baptismal date
with her. We are still trying. She recently started a job and is busier than she
was before.
We had zone conference this week. It was great! President and Sister
Bernhisel came down so it was great to see them. We learned a lot of great
things. One of the things we learned about was being more lovingly fearless and
bold. We had an experience applying that this week. We were eating dinner at a
local restaurant and were about to leave when a man called us over and asked to
talk with us. He was a very nice man who told us that he was a Baptist preacher
at a local church. He started to ask us what we believed. Although he was very
polite, it was clearly discernible that the only information about our
church he had ever read was anti. He started to tell us how he didn't believe in
the Book of Mormon and that it was a false book. He also said some other things
that he must of thought would make us squirm a little bit. In the most polite
and respectful manner that we could we told him that the only way he could know
if the Book of Mormon was true, was to read it with a sincere heart which he had
not done. We taught him some other principles and invited him to read from the
Book of Mormon but to do it with real intent this time. I felt the spirit pretty
strongly as we testified to him of what we knew to be true. By the end of our
conversation he seemed to have a softened heart. We later found out from a
member that he was a known anti-Mormon preacher. Hopefully our conversation will
prompt him to repent and change his ways.
Everything else here is going well. We have had a lot of people at
sacrament meetings lately, about three or four of the less active members that we
teach all came to church. The members here seem really excited and the
missionary work is going pretty well overall.
Thank you for the updates on the family. I love you all so much. I hope
that you have a great week this week. I know that I will! I am going to be
teaching in an upcoming leadership council meeting this week with another Elder
in our zone. I am really excited. There is a lot to look forward to this week.
Love Elder Mortensen
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