Well happy spring! I don't know how the weather is in thatcher, but it's niiiiiice over here. It's been in the 70's for a good two or three weeks now. Love it! Especially being in a biking/walking area haha. Well shoot I heard about dad's crazy sore throat this past week! Ouch! It reminds me of the wise words of Nephi... "and also [my throat was] much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof. Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions." Had that happen to me last transfer, only not that extreme. Glad you're feeling better. That's crazy that baby payne's almost here haha there's no way. What kind of car is it? Must be nice!
Anyway, we've actually had a great week! In terms of numbers it's been our best week this transfer! Although things have been improving slowly up to this point, we've been receiving the grace of the Lord. It's been awesome! We now have three investigators on date for baptism! We're working with another named Katrina. She was on date with the sisters, then went to jail and things went haywire. Anyway she's really hard to catch because her phone was shut off and she was never at the place she lives at. We found her a couple of times and set two appointments, both of which she didn't show up to. We were starting to doubt if she wanted us to teach her until church yesterday when she randomly walked in and said "Hi!" to us. Awesome! We seriously did not expect her to be there! We set another appointment and I told her that we'll be extremely sad if she doesn't show up! and she laughed and said "I will be there this time! I'll put it in my phone!" So she better be there Tuesday at 6! I'm pretty sure she wants to be baptized, so we'll see how that goes.
Nikki came to church for the first time yesterday too! Sacrament was awesome, and unfortunately we had an appointment with Carlos after that so the RS pres stepped up and took both Nikki and her 7 year old son Cristofer to primary. My respect for Relief Society president's just went up! She didn't even know Nikki at all but she gladly escorted her and stayed with the two of them. Nikki's still on fire...she's on date for April 20th! We're all pumped. She's eating up the gospel right now. So awesome!
One of Carlos' main concerns about baptism was tithing. Well, I shared my story about my bike and a couple stories that Keith has shared via email about his testimony of tithing. I also shared Malachi 3:8-10 and an analogy I made up:
Heavenly Father decided one day to plant an apple tree, so he worked for days and weeks and months and years nurturing and watering this apple tree until one day it produced 100 delicious apples. He wiped his brow and told Carlos to come and pick the apples and take them. So Carlos grabbed a big ladder and a nice big bucket and started picking all these apples from Heavenly Father's apple tree. After he was done, Heavenly Father asked "Do you mind if I keep just 10 of those apples? My neighbors are awfully hungry and have nothing to eat tonight. May I have 10 apples back?" Would you say "No thanks, I picked these so I deserve all of them, sorry!" or "Yeah sure! They look hungry! Besides, this is your tree anyway, so here, take these 10 apples." How would Heavenly Father respond to those two situations?
So yeah that's the abridged version, but it gets the point across. Anyway, Carlos committed to pay his tithing and fast offerings! Awesome! He's doing well, and we're planning to baptize him in between the Saturday sessions on 4/6. Gonnna be awesome!
Well, I'm out of time for this week. But seriously if anyone can find a conference foam finger, send it to me! I want one! haha but anyway have a great week and choose the right and remember, even Heavenly Father needs Jesus Christ (see Jacob 5). That means we definitely do too!
Love,
Elder Payne
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