He Has Seen So Many Prayers Be Answered And Knows That It Only Comes Because Of His Faith In Trying To Follow God

Hello! 

This was for sure another great week! There are a lot of miracles that have been happening here in this area. This last couple of weeks President White is really trying to get us all refocused on talking to everyone about baptism. Also to invite everyone on the first lesson to be baptized and when the spirit tells us even on the streets. The new focus on baptism has been great. We have received some great referrals from other missionaries that are also working on teaching towards baptism. We received two referrals that had baptismal dates extended and accepted. One of those referrals names is An--. She just moved in to one of the homes of a recent convert in the Zone Leaders area. She has had a really hard life. especially the last year or so. She has been between here and Seattle pretty much homeless and got caught up on some drugs. The recent convert, Ar--, she was baptized like 2 months ago, was super,excited and quickly had her talk to the Elders in her ward. She eventually came to us as a referral and is really prepared! she came to church this Sunday but left after Sacrament meeting. This week she tried to visit her mom that lives in Prosser but she keeps making excuses so she hasn't seen her in a really long time. So she was a little stressed so she went home. she said that she would really like to come next week again though. She was also really excited when we told her about FHE. Another referral was G--. The first time that we went to find him we talked to his grandpa and he told us to come by the next day. So we did. We found G-- outside and he invited us in. We ended up having like the whole family in with us. There was him, his mom, his grandma, his sister, his little brother, and even one of his friends! and to answer your question about spanish, this lesson was in spanish. All the members in the branch speak english but lots also speak Spanish. Most of them are second generation and they all learn english over here. but as we just started into the lesson, Elder Corral got a funny look on his face and looked out the window. We heard a knock, and the other missionaries walked in! G--'s mom was sent to them as a referral and were coming to look for her. so the 4 of us sat on this little couch and taught an awesome lesson. ( I dont know if you remember that this happened to us in Walla Walla with our Zone Leaders, But one of them was elder Young. this time he was the one that walked in on us! Him and his trainee! It was pretty funny)  G-- is also really prepared. He was searching on the internet to research churches and what he liked. he came across the Joseph Smith story. He loved it! he Taught us the lesson! we didnt even bring it up. His friend that was there he was also interested. His name is A--. they were planning on coming to church but weren't able to this week. We are going to go look for them tomorrow.   So miracles are just happening all the time.

One thing that was pretty cool for me was we were at a dinner, surprisingly we get fed most days by the members, but before one of the members asked if i could share a spiritual message. We usually dont share one at the end and just talk about missionary work during the dinner, but they asked so we did. The first scripture that came to my head was Moroni 10:32. telling us to come unto Christ and be perfected in him. It wasnt even anything that i thought about but as i was talking it came really clear to me. Of how we can become more like Christ. The goal of Christ is to bring everyone to live back with heavenly Father. He did everything in perfect love. I was able to understand and help them understand more of the importance of missionary work. how when we share any part of the gospel to anyone with love, we are becoming more like Christ and becoming more perfect. We wont be perfect in this life but we all have more chances to share our belief to someone that donst believe or needs some help strengthening the things that they believe. Its an easy way to know if we are really working to become more like Christ. I hope it makes sense. I think that it made sense when i shared it and i was able to feel the spirit very strong as it was happening. It was cool to see how the spirit really will give us the things to say in the very minute we need to say them.

One last thing!!  also M-- is doing so great!! He has seen so many prayers be answered and knows that it only comes because of his faith in trying to follow God. After church yesterday we had a lesson with him. We were finishing up some of the commandments that he needs to know before he is baptized. We felt the spirit guide us in our conversation and the things we taught about. We were able to teach those certain commandments and more of repentance and what it means to be baptized. We were very happy when he understood what being baptized means. He said that he has come a really long way and he is going to never go back. We can see the Atonement working in him.  In the short 3 weeks we have been here and around him, we can see a for sure difference in the person he is. A lot of his friends are noticing also and he has been talking to them that it is only because of the Mormon Church. He is excited to keep sharing it with his family and friends. He is doing great and still preparing to be baptized!!!

Thanks for the update on all that is going on down there!! its good to hear that there is a little bit of a routine in your lives again!! Thats one thing i have pretty well figured out, a routine! I hope that it was a great week and that this next week will be great also!! i love you all!!

Elder Mortensen