Letter Home - Week 42

Hey family!

It's been a great week. The Lord's work is something that changes lives and help you become more like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It's changing mine. It's blessing mine as well as I see the Lord's work changing the lives of others, especially those I love. This week I had some real spiritual edification with a Branch Conference on Sunday where President Herrington came, Mission Leadership Council in Barbados with the AP's and all the other Zone and Sister Training leaders, and Zone Conference with the Herringtons. I've spent some good time around our Mission President this week and it's been a blessing. I don't get a lot of time to spend around him because he is on a different island but it makes it something special when I do get some time around him and his wife. They are so great. There is a special spirit and you can feel the power of it. The focus in the mission now is to set goals, make plans, and use our time wisely. There has also been a real focus on working with the branch. Well we finally got the car back on Friday. It took a long time but we got it. It took really long to get a programmer but eventually we got one. It's nice to have that luxury back. It makes our work so much easier. Well we contacted into a less active member around our apartment late Monday night. His name is Kalev. We talked and then invited him to church. He came and stayed for the whole block. It was great. On Wednesday we had a special experience. We had a lesson with Janelle and Calvin who has a four year old son named Luke. We taught about the Plan of Salvation. They had great questions about baptism. We taught how families can be together forever and about how baptism is the gate to the Celestial Kingdom where families can be. They had been talking about baptism together which brought up questions. Janelle has been thinking a lot lately about baptism. But the cool thing was that Calvin near the end of the lesson asked if and how he could become a member. It was unexpected but awesome. He had said that he had never felt closer to God during the lesson. He was feeling the Spirit and it moved him to ask us if he could become a member. We invited him to be baptized and gave him a date to work towards. He accepted. We invited Janelle again but she hasn't accepted yet. She will just now :) We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Janelle in another lesson. She's been reading what we give her. We focused on repentance the lesson. It's the worldwide missionary focus and she has been feeling guilty lately for certain reasons and feels like she couldn't make it to the Celestial Kingdom as of now. She is willing to work towards it though. She wants it and is willing. It's giving her hope. They both came to church together with Luke on Sunday. It was such a great meeting and perfect for Janelle. It was such a spiritual meeting and I learned a lot. Janelle had to leave during the third hour and when she was leaving Calvin said he wanted to stay because of what he was feeling. He pointed to his chest and said he hasn't felt anything like it. It was hard for him to describe. They both enjoyed church and afterward they invited us to have lunch at their home. It was so good. They made us Roti! It consists of some chicken with some sauce and a handmade type of tortilla. It was a special treat. St. Lucia has dropped in numbers of missionaries and so some areas have been closed. We have taken over two other areas and so we've picked up some new people. One is named Indy. He also came to church. He has been taught for a while. He is from Taiwan. We had a good first lesson with him. We also talked about prayer with Indy just as Jay but not as what sounds like a stellar lesson. I wish I could've been there. I have a personal testimony in the power of prayer. Heavenly Father is there. He does listen. He loves us. I've learned also to visualize Heavenly Father when I'm saying my prayers and that I'm actually talking to him. Not just saying words. We are going to really start working with Indy to teach him as often as we can because he has a lot of faith and is such a great guy. He's been to church a lot. We are going to try to help him be baptized. On Sunday we were leaving church and just outside at a nearby building there were two guys talking. They were a little ways away. We waived and said afternoon as we were passing by but then I stopped, turned around, and went and talked to them. It turns out they were really in need. Both have had thoughts of suicide because of less than fortunate situations. We were there to help and placed there by the Lord. We talked with them and bore testimony. It was guided by the Spirit and was powerful. The spirit was really strong. It was a blessing to him and he was sincerely grateful. I was blessed by the special experience. We left saying wow that was cool. Lots of good stuff happening over here and it sounds like it over there as well! Keep being awesome!

With much love,
Elder King