It Is Amazing To See These Wonderful Members Of The Church Come Back

Hello Everyone!

 

 This week was an odd one to say the least. We got some snow on Wednesday! It was mostly ice but we did get a little snow that stuck to the ground for two days. It is really funny, because whenever there is even a chance of snow, everything shuts down, and when it actually snows, most people don't even come out of the house. You would have thought that the end of the world was coming by how everyone reacted. School was canceled for almost the whole week this week and most people didn't even go to work. We had to cancel our district meeting but did it via cell phone on a conference call. We still did our normal proselyting that day despite it being snowy and icy. The people seemed absolutely baffled that we were actually out in the weather. Thankfully we did have some great success that day. We had dinner at our branch mission leaders home. They are wonderful people who treat us like family.

 

We had a hard time getting in contact with S-- and S--. We are doing our best to help them understand our message, but seems as if they are not yet elect. We have great hope for them, and we will see what happens this week.

 

R-- was not able to come to church because his sister was coming in town. He is doing better. He still has a really strong desire to be baptized. I think all of the struggles he has had are because he feels such a desperate need to be baptized, but there is a big obstacle in the way and he has not yet been able to find a solution for both. We continue to to our best to help him.

 

The mission Leadership Council went well! I got to teach with a great missionary named Elder Roberts. He actually went to Payson High School. He is around 24 or 25 so he graduated a while back. We taught about how to have better "role-plays". Doing role-plays in our meetings are one of the greatest learning opportunities for the missionaries. Overall it went really well and was a very spiritual meeting. I got to see a lot of good friends including Elder Green who is going home in a week. I also got to see Sister Estes there! She seems to be doing great. This upcoming week we have a zone meeting and I will be teaching them how to have effective studies. I love all of the opportunities to teach as a missionary!

 

Our Sunday was great this week! Brother H-- (a less active member) came to church! It was great to see him there after teaching him for the past 12 weeks. B-- D-- also came for the second week in a row! It is amazing to see these wonderful members of the church come back.

 

You asked if we face a lot of anti Mormon opposition. We do face a fair amount of it. The thing about the south, is that the people here will do anything not to cause offence to another person. There are exceptions of course, and we do face a lot of people who try to tell us what we believe. Most people here even if they have heard the anti will not bring it up. They will just politely say they are not interested and for us not to come back. There is a lot of negative views about the church in this area but rarely if ever do people display very much of it to us.

 

Well, I love all of you. I hope you continue to have a great week!

 

Love Elder Mortensen

 

P.S. I was able to copy the family picture off of Facebook. That is how I got it!

 

 

The snow! Sorry I've been really bad with taking pictures lately. I will repent and take more!