"A Fantastic Week"

My Brothers letter for the week. Its a good one.

FAM + BAY,

What a great week this has been! Elder Freeman and I both agree that we've never enjoyed being missionaries than we have these past few weeks. It's not normal for us to have a long period of time with no trainings or meetings so we were able to just go to town. We found more new investigators than anyone in the mission and truly found some amazing people. You would NOT BELIEVE the family that we're teaching. Last week we were on exchanges with the Latvian zone leaders and Elder Freeman and Brown knocked into a young mother with a two year old girl that said we could come back. Elder Freeman couldn't really remember anything other than that she had the light of Christ burning in her eyes. Two days later we were on an exchange with the Lithuanian zone leaders so Elder Brimley and I went back and the woman's husband answered the door. I started to introduce myself but couldn't finish because he smiled wide and said "What are you doingstanding out there! Come in!" We came in and he invited us into the kitchen. "Does Tatiana live here?" I asked. "Yeah let me go get her." He went into the other room and in walked Tatiana, Nellie (the daughter,) and Kolya (a friend.) We started the lesson and they all payed perfect attention... listening with half smiles on their faces. We taught what seemed like a perfect Preach My Gospel lesson... their answers were great and we could just feel how good they are. We left a Book of Mormon and they invited themselves to church. The next day we were in the area so we dropped by and gave them a box of chocolates as thanks for being so kind. Kolya was the only one home and he said "Thank you thank you. I'm reading the Book of Mormon." The next day they ALL came to church! They had the whole branch staring back over their shoulders. They sang out during the hymns and reverently took the sacrament. Nellie made good friends with the grandmas and grandpas of the branch. They had to leave after sacrament meeting because Nellie needed a nap but before they left, Ruslan (the father) said "Elder, we really enjoyed this... we want to invite you over again tomorrow to talk some more... we'll make cake and everything." We returned the next day and brought a great member named Viktor Mironovich who lives pretty close to them. Nellie recognized him from church and sat on his lap through the whole lesson. I asked how they liked church and the answer blew me away. They all started talking at once but the general idea was: "we loved it. We were only there for an hour but when we left we all just felt so good. We felt like we were home with people that we loved."Then I asked how their Book of Mormon reading was and to answer they pulled out their copy and showed me three different bookmarks sticking out of 1stNephi. They love it and are excited to see what happens to Nephi. I suggested reading together like a family and Tatiana said "That's what I wanted to do but they wouldn't get up!" We committed them to start and they promised to. We taught the plan of salvation and it went very well. At the end Elder Freeman and I felt very prompted to commit them to baptism so were ad the account of Jesus' baptism from Mathew and I said "There will be a baptismal service on the 6th of June and we want to help you prepare for baptism so that you can follow the example of your Savior... Kolya, will you be baptized on the 6th?" "Yes I will" "Tatiana, what about you?" "Why not!" "and you, Ruslan?" "But I've already been baptized... I can't do itagain can I?" We started to explain infant baptism but Tatiana butted inand said "Come on, Ruslan, that wasn't your choice! You were a baby!"After a little more explaining he also enthusiastically agreed. It's still sinking in to my brain that a whole family wants to be baptized. I swear that the heavens have just exploded over us lately. I get so sad to seemissionaries that come near to the end of their service and become complacent and homesick because that is the time of your mission that youhave the most skill and the best understanding of how these people think. I loved talking you to on Mother's Day, but I really don't want to come home.... I'd be fine staying for another 2 years.

Sunil is set for Saturday... we taught him yesterday and at the end of the lesson he said "Some people want to just go to church every once in a while but I think that if you are in a church you should be deep in it and you should understand what you believe." Sunil is a very smart, successful man but it's hard to communicate certain teachings to him because of his English. We taught about eternal families and he's convinced that his wife will join the church. Steve is for sure going back to India which makes us all sad. At first he planned on returning without even telling his familybecause they payed a lot of money for him to get her and he's ashamed that his grades were too poor to stay. And he absolutely wasn't going to mention his meeting with the Mormons. But he decided to be straight up with them so he called, told them everything that's happening with his visa and he told them that he wants to move to Mumbai where he can be baptized and get ready for a mission. They told him to come home to Gujarat were they could talk about it together and decide as a family. He will be fine. Tonight we're going to their hostel were they promised us a roomful of Christian foreigners that will listen to our message. I just have too much to tell, goodness. I love you all and really enjoyed hearing your voices on Sunday! I talked to Elder Freeman's family too and their great... They already know that I'm going to be spending a lot of timeat their house in Springville haha.

Elder E

Who doesn't love a good missionary letter?