As We Turn To God, Strength Always Comes

Hello!! 

Thanks for wishing me a wonderful week because that is what it was!  For sure one of the biggest blessings and miracles really is T--! She is progressing everyday we have been able to talk to her. She got the Book of Mormon on the 13th and finished it on the 2nd!! She loved it! When she was younger she was in a bible school and she had to read the bible once a quarter. So she knows the bible super good. But after she read the Book of Mormon, she said she doesnt know how it could not be true. She really liked Moroni when he was talking about charity. Probably because it is one of the most important things you can have and Moroni teaches it really well. We asked if she had any questions or concerns. It kinda scared me when she said, well i do have one. she said that in church she heard about the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price and she was disappointed that it wasnt in the Book of Mormon that she has. thats an easy problem to fix. We told her that we could for sure get them one of those. She said that actually the day before she went online and bought one!! so she obviously wants it!! Its sad, she wanst able to come to church today because of the super bowl. A bunch of her coworkers skipped out on work because they were "busy" so she had to work. She was sad that she wasnt able to come. She actually wanted to sit in the front this time so she could concentrate more. She is so awesome.

We actually did find a few more investigators this week. We were blessed to find 6. It took a lot of work and looking everywhere we could. There is a young boy named A--. His mom is less active. A-- is 9 and he said that he wanted to get baptized! So we are now working on getting them both to hear the lessons and to get them both to church. They were going to come, but she also got called into work last minute. work sucks i figured out this week. also the recent convert we work with also had to work because of the Super Bowl! so that was lame also. He has a really bad back and no car so his working options are really small. He works at a bar and that was busy for the big game. We actually did go in and visit him in the bar this week. he worked a lot so we thought that we would go see how he is going. It was weird to go into the bar, but i guess its ok. One other investigator S--, is doing really awesome. We were suppose to meet up with him at dinner but he got sick and wanst able to come. We went over the next day to see if we could find him with a member. He was surprised to see us. He said sorry he was sick and he would have called but he didnt think we were going to show up anyway! so he thought it was cool that we came to find him. He is looking for a church that he agrees all the way with. He will do good with ours because its the true one. All the others are doing really well also.

Elder Harward and i are getting along really well.  I have learned a lot from him. really just how to be bold in talking to everyone. We are getting good at chasing people without trying to let them feel like they are getting chased. Because its not good to just follow them or something like that but we try to talk to everyone possible. We see a lot of blessings come from that because its something that we are commanded to do. He also teaches me a lot of Spanish. He knows it all really good and is really trying to help me be better. Its coming along slowly, and i will probably say that for the rest of my mission.

Its good to hear all that is going on at home and that it has been good and fun. I miss all the snow pictures! We didnt really get any snow at all. its starting to warm up.  about the Bishop youth discussion, that is so awesome because it dosnt matter who we are or where we are in life, the struggles always come. Its goes along perfectly with that i have been reading in the Book of Mormon. I am just finishing Mosiah. In this book there are a lot of stories of different groups of people going through hard or bad times and all of them have people change to become amazing people. There is kinda three ways people respond to it all. There is the people that as fast as they can, pray to God and look to him. then there are people that wait a little until it gets so hard and there is no choice. and then there are people like Alma the Younger, who waits until he is forced to change or be destroyed.  All of  the outcomes are the same, but the difference in the pain and struggling is so much different. The faster you turn to the lord, their pains were lifted so they could hardly feel them. for Alma it was a terrible time until the lord was able to hear him. For really all of us we are expecting the one outcome of getting over our struggles, and we have the choice of how hard it is going to be for us.  As we turn to God, strength always comes. The trial wont always go away but he can lift it from our shoulders and i know that to be 100% true. That is just a little thought i had as i was reading and heard about what you taught about.

Thanks for writing i hope you all have an amazing week!! love you all!

Elder Mortensen

Here is the emailing selfie you asked for mom. hope you love it!

Missionary Selfie!