Falling Up

Goooood Morning! 10/24/11
 
I am certainly running out of ways to start emails, but I love reflecting on the week with family and friends in mind. This past week I had couple really neat experiences. The first two were on exchanges with the Elders in Martinsville. They are about an hour away so it was pretty long trip out there. We had a quick dinner, and had enough time left in the night to visit a less active member who recently began coming back to church. As we arrived their daughter Elizabeth was there. She was very stand offish and refused to even shake our hands or acknowledge us. We visited with the member for a moment or two and then this Elizabeth came back into the room, "So yall don't smoke or nothin?" We responded with a quick nope. She was astounded. We told her even offered a program to help people quit smoking. She started crying and told us she found out she had cancer that day and she was told she really had to quit. She said for the first time in long time she prayed, crying to God that if she was going to get through this she was going to need some help. She silently sobbed for about 2 minutes. The Spirit was soo strong. We asked if we could share it with her and she more than willingly agreed. We then began talking about how God shows his love and introduced the Book of Mormon. We set up a return appointment and closed with a kneeling prayer. The other neat part about it, was the less active member bore his testimony of how the Book of Mormon has changed his life. I wish I could be down there to continue to teach her.
 
The other reason I was on exchanges was to do a baptismal interview for a kid they had been teaching. There was a big misunderstanding right before I got there between the elders and this kids mom and the chances of the interview actually happening were bleak. We knelt down to pray and I asked for her heart to be softened and allow her son to be baptized. As soon as the words left my lips, the phone rang and the parents okayed the interview for that night. What a miracle of prayer.
 
In our area however we had a pretty tough week. The leaves are really changing and it is beautiful. I would venture to say that Utah has brighter colors, but Virginia has a ton more trees! It is pretty overwhelming we ascend a knob and find a good lookout. We had Wayne at church again and a member who removed their name from the roles that we began teaching. Wayne is doing well, but is losing desire to quit smoking. It is a real bummer and we are not teaching Greg anymore after he committed to come to church for 3 months straight, but still hasn't come once. I am doing well though and am looking forward to another day of service for our Lord.
 
Love yall
Elder D