Letter and Pictures - Week 48

This week has been good. My favorite day was being able to go on a trade off with Elder Zuniga in my old area of Vieux Fort. That was a fun day as we talked with everyone, had powerful lessons with some less-active members, and saw some old friends. I saw many of the members I knew. We even taught Ambrose again. He has been struggling lately. We were able to also have a great lesson with him as we read a chapter from the book of mormon that was pertinent to him. He was grateful and found some renewed strength from it. I hope he can continue to endure and as he does I know those tough times and experience with be a foundational blessing in his life and will make him stronger. We found some nice, interested people. We were also able to find and regain contact with an old investigator I taught named Andrina that is prepared but wasn't ready at the time. As we spoke we found that she has recently started her reading again, has been praying more, and is glad to start the lessons back again. That was a nice experience. Elder Zuniga is a great missionary. He works hard and he isn't afraid to open his mouth and talk with the people. It was a great time out with him and to learn from his example. Elder Kuru and I have been finding a lot more and had a big focus on gaining new investigators from those we find. It has gone well. We've found and started teaching some great people. Yesterday, was a sad day though for us. We again weren't able to have our investigators come to church. It was hard because for one that meant that it was time to move on and that we wouldn't be teaching her anymore. I thought she was really going to come this time but it didn't happen. Others didn't come but I was glad to find out that they were actually for a good reason. It was still a disappointment. From there I just really wanted to others that would come to church. I wanted to find fathers and families like we've been counseled and I prayed that we would be led to them. After church we weren't having luck with our scheduled appointments and decided to go to another area to make daily contact with an investigator that didn't come to church and contact a referral. We did so and then walked down to bring a member out with us. As we were walking I decided to walk back a little to a home that we just passed and decided to go and see who was inside. We found a lady named Lea and talked with her. We found that she is married with two children and had recently within the past three weeks been given a book of mormon by a friend. She had seen us around the area before and was interested to know more. She was very nice and even invited us in. We didn't have a male at the time with us but we scheduled a day to come back. She even gave us a referral of a friend of hers. I was grateful to have been led to them. It was a wonderful blessing that day. We continued talking to others and found some other great potential. Elder Kuru and I have been trying to make daily contact with our progressing investigators and I've really liked doing so. I find it helps. Some of the new people that we've begun teaching are: Porsha, Marie, Teige and Maria, Alix, and Cruzan.

Porsha: She is great. She is Catholic but doesn't really attend much. We've only taught a few lessons to her but we've already set a date for baptism and we feel that she is really committed to work towards it. She says she's always had a desire to do good and to do the right thing and this is something that she knows is right. She has begun her reading and her prayers. She wasn't able to come to church this week because of sickness but hopefully next week. She is planning on coming. She has a 14 year old daughter named Kelsha and we are going to invite her to participate in the lessons with her mom so hopefully they can be baptized together. 

Marie: She is an older lady of 83 years. She is a faithful Pentecostal but willing to listen to us. She is humble and very accepting of what we teach. She too wasn't able to come Sunday but has also begun her reading. She knows she needs to pray to know the truth but hasn't done so as yet. She is married with six children. Her husband has passed on along with four of her children. We've been teaching her about the plan of salvation and she likes what we've shared. 

Teige and Marie: They are co-workers. Both females. Teige is Catholic and I believe Maria is as well. They are pretty interested in knowing more about our faith. Maria more so than Teige. They had missionaries come by about a year ago only for a few days and then left but they still remember them and enjoyed the short time with them. The missionaries were great and helped them by doing service for them. It made a good impression. Both have begun reading and Maria even prayed to know the truth. She is looking for an answer. Neither has kids that I know of and they are not married. 

 Alix: She lives next door to us. She has I believe three kids and lives with her boyfriend. We contacted her a little while ago but hadn't been able to come back to teach her and one Sunday she showed up at church. We started teaching her shortly after. She is Catholic. We've had two lessons with her. We taught about our purpose for being there and a little about the restoration. It wasn't that great. We came back and talked with her about the book of mormon as she had questions about it. We went over it with her to help her understand and the lesson went very well. She understands what she needs to do. She still has doubts but I think it's because it's just something new and they will be resolved overtime as she seeks answers and understanding. 

Cruzan: She was taught by missionaries a little less than a year ago. She has a six year old son named Tage. She too is Catholic. She began reading and praying. It's refreshing for her and she remembers things from before. Only been able to teach a few lessons with her just as all the others. 

We will be dropping Joan. She just isn't ready at this time. We've also dropped Villia and Candice. We will also drop Stephanie, Michael, Scera, and Alma. They just aren't ready at this time and aren't really progressing. Hopefully sometime in the future they will be picked up by other missionaries and continue their progressing towards life with their Heavenly Father and with their families eternally. I was really sad about Joan. That was hard for her not to come to church. It was hard not to see Janelle there too but we came to find out that she had food poisoning from the night before and was throwing up since 4:00 in the morning. We will continue with Janelle unless she doesn't come to church again. I really hope she does. They both deserve an Eternal Family. We were able to help a recent convert named Odellia come back to church. She hadn't been for several weeks and it was concerning. We had some great lessons with her that strengthened her faith and her testimony. We invited her to bear her testimony and that she said really helped her. As she did it rekindled her testimony and brought back feelings of peace and joy. She came to church and enjoyed it. It was great to have her there. Another less active also came named Kaleb. we haven't been able to actually sit down with him and have a lesson since his work schedule is really busy but have regained contact and called him and invited him to activities at the church. He came and has been to church twice now. That's a cool blessing from the Lord. 

Today, Elder Kuru and I were able to play a round of golf at the Sandals resort here. It was a blast. It was a beautiful course. It even came with a cadee. I'll send some pics. 

I know Heavenly Father is there and watching over us even during the hard times and I know He hears and answers each one of our prayers. He loves us. I love each of you. I hope you have a great week. 

With much love,

Elder King