November 28, 2011

Hello!

Thanks for the great emails! Sounds like you had a week full of thanksgiving and family. That's wonderful. Our Thanksgiving lasted about an hour and a half :) it was perfect. We went over to a family's house named the Spurgeons and ate with them and their non-member neighbor. It was delicious and a good time. We were taken care of, don't worry haha. But then we went right back out and got our work on. Holidays on the mission are super weird haha. It's not even a holiday. It's just another day of missionary work. Love it.

We had a great week though. Fullllllll of miracles. Sister Old accepted a date for the December 17th and is working towards that, trying to get over a few roadblocks but she's is doing great! Very sincere and willing to follow Christ.

We met with Ruby again on Wednesday and it was the most amazing lesson ever. The member family that was supposed to have her over at their house cancelled last minute, so we had to call another family to see if they could help us out. They accepted and we were SO thankful for that. We ended up teaching Ruby about the restoration of the gospel. During the lesson things were a little hectic. People were getting up and sitting down, texting, the dog was moving around, and other things were going on. The Spirit just wasn't there like it needed to be. So we finally got to Joseph Smith and popped in the Restoration DVD. It was perrrfect! Because it provided an environment where everyone present could focus and feel. After the video, we asked Ruby how she felt and the Spirit swarmed the room. She said things like "I've never felt this before! What is this!?" and "My chest feels tight!" and "I feel different, but joyful!" and "I feel light!" She went on and on about how amazing she felt. We invited her to be baptized and she willingly accepted. She said "I know this is what I need to do." It was a miracle! We've taught her a few times since and she is on track for the 17th of December. She and Sister Old both came to church and loved it!

We also met this family that is going through a rough time together. We are trying to help them work things out through the gospel. The father's stepmother was a member of the church and his father's funeral was at the local chapel. They have two teenage daughters also. We will be teaching them more this week. Good stuff.

Other than that we are just working our tails off trying to sow while we reap. The Lord has blessed us a ton since we've been here and we don't want to slow down because of that. The Winter Garden ward has only had 2 baptisms this whole year. Compare that to a few years ago when they had about 30 baptisms in one year. There is so much potential here. It's a great ward! The ward and the missionary efforts just need to be united and things will blow up.

I'm so stoked to be here you have no idea. And being a district leader again is so fun! We've had some spiritual district meetings so far. It's great. So yeahhh. But Sterling Stolle! At RiteAid! I lived with him when I first came out. I thought he looked familiar and then we both found out that he worked at the Orem RiteAid and I had gotten prescriptions from him before hahaha. It was crazy. But when you see him, tell him I say I love him!

Oh yeah and the thing with Uncle Larry won't work out. Sorry. You shouldn't even try haha. All those cities are out of the mission and there is no way that is happening haha. It would be cool though. I'll have plenty of opportunities to do stuff like that after the mission :) I LOVE YOU BOTH! Have a great week!

p.s. The pictures still aren't working. You'll have to suffer a little longer ;)

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Elder Austin Gable Engemann