October 1, 2011

Hey family!

This email could possibly end up a little short because we have to leave to the chapel pretty soon for Conference. This week was awesome though...as alwaysss! BUT before I forget, I really need some info on my license. Like really really. Because the James' (office couple) are leaving on the 28th of this month and a new couple will be in the office. He knows everything about getting a FL license and the new ones will know nothing about it. So if I need to get a FL license then I would need you to send my birth certificate here. PLEASE get back to me about this.

Alright, enough of this logistical stuff. Let's get to the spiritual meat. So all of our investigators with dates came to church last week. Miracle! Arden came too. She finished the BoM in 10 days! And she said that her husband said he would be "behind her" on whatever she chose to do! Miracle! Prayer works! God softens people's hearts! Another girl, Demi, came to church last week with a member. We have taught her a couple times since then and she is coming to conference this weekend. God has blessed us so much lately with people to teach. There are so many. It's literally hard to keep track of all of our investigators and potentials. I love missionary work! :)

We went on three exchanges this week. The Cocoa ZLs, the Hunter's Creek ZLs, and the Leesburg ZLs. And somehow we still managed to get a ton of work done in our area. Miracle! Oh, cool experience. So when I was in Cocoa with Elder Schmutz we went to teach this guy that they had met a few days earlier. He said he used to have missionaries over at his house all the time when he was younger. He also told us that he had been baptized before and all this other stuff. So we taught him about the Priesthood and some other things and then invited him to be baptized into Christ's church. He said he would. Then a little later we invited him to conference and his brother, who was sitting at a table in the other room, asked what time it was at and said "It's not every day that you hear from modern Apostles!" And we were like "Yeah you should come!" And he started to say it had been forever since he had heard Apostles talk and also about how earlier in his life he was going to go on a mission and he wanted to go to Japan and all this stuff. We were really confused. So we said, pointing to our name tags, "Wait...are you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" He said "Yeah, we were both baptized when we were younger." We looked over at the guy we were teaching and he nodded his head. Hahahaha the first time a less-active accepted a baptismal invitation! There is a first for everything. But there is a reason I told you this story, don't worry. Something that really touched my heart happened. We were finished up and we invited the guy we were teaching (I feel bad because I don't remember his name) to say the closing prayer. He said he didn't feel comfortable and asked if we would. The member that came with us didn't help really because right after I said "Will you offer the closing prayer?" he said, before the guy had a chance to answer, "BUT if you don't feel comfortable you don't have to..." haha it was weird. Anyway...so he didn't want to and we asked his brother sitting at the table to say the prayer. He didn't want to at first because he said he hadn't done it in such a long time but then we explained a little and encouraged him, so he did it. As he prayed I started to tear up a little bit. It was such a little tender mercy from the Lord. Hearing someone offer a simple, heartfelt prayer after years of not communicating with Heavenly Father is a very spiritual experience. Those little, repentant steps toward God are such blessings to witness.

I LOVE being involved in this work. So that was a cool experience for me this week. Anyway...we have to go to conference haha. I love you both so much though! Have a great week!

--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann