May 3, 2010

Hello Hello!


Hi Family!

Mom...HAPPY EARLY MOTHER'S DAY! You’re the best mom in the universe and I am so grateful for everything you have done for me in my life. Every day I realize more and more what you have done for me. I LOVE YOU! And I’ll be talking to you this Sunday :) so don't fret. I’m not sure what time but I’ll try to make sure it's after you get home from church. I’ll do my best but I’m not really sure how it will all be working out so just keep the phone by your side, ha-ha.

So guess who I saw at this grocery store called "Bravo"? Julio and his family from Peru!! Pretty crazy! I talked to them for a little bit and it was really great. Oh another thing is that there is a lady in my ward named Sue Nibley. And she said she knows the Engemanns because she was in the Studio City Ward in California. She used to date Uncle Bill too, ha-ha, pretty cool. She is really nice though. Small world when you are a member of the Lord's true church! Hopefully we can change that, ha-ha.

One thing I forgot to tell you last week was that on April 24th we had our day of service. I’m pretty sure it's a worldwide church thing but I’m not sure. We went to a house and put up dry wall and painted the outside. I was putting up dry wall the whole time. We got a lot done. It was with this organization called "Habitat for Humanity". It is a really good organization. It was a really good day of service though. I enjoyed it a lot.

So I CAN"T (Sorry!) send you my talk because I’m saving it for if I ever need it on a "spur of the moment" thing. :)

This next transfer will be president Darrington's last transfer. So he has about 2 months left till he bounces. Then we get a new one. I’ve heard good things about him and he sounds like a really cool guy.

It sounds like you all had a really good time at Ezra’s birthday! I’m glad to hear it. I bet it was nice to see everyone. That baby is pretty cute! Ha-ha.

So this last week was a great week. We got a lot of work done. We set 2 baptismal dates! One with a kid named Nick for the May 22nd. And one with...drum roll please...................Tiffany! Pretty awesome!! But she didn't come to church! Oooh..... I’m so ticked at her, ha-ha. She said she would be there. It’s ok though, ha-ha. But I had the best day of my mission so far this last Tuesday. Elder Miller and I were guided by the Spirit to do so many things. It was amazing! Just one example was that we had planned to tract some streets and when we got there we decided to finish one that we had already started a previous day instead of doing the planned ones. So we did it and had very little success. And when we were almost done we saw this 20 year old kid who had just finished running and was walking to his house. We talked to him and invited him to learn more. So he said we could come in to his house, which we were right next to at the time. We sat down with him and started teaching him. Then his mom walked in and told us that she was raised a member of the church and then she got married and converted to Catholicism. But anyway, we kept teaching him and we could just see that he was feeling the Spirit. His eyes were lighting up and he was smiling huge and it was the best thing to see ever, ha-ha. We KNEW he was feeling the influence of the Spirit. So we used the Lord's words from the scriptures in Alma 7 to invite him to be baptized into the Lord's church. And guess what...he accepted!!! And we set a date with him for the 22nd. (That was Nick by the way.) We left realizing how the Spirit directed our path to him and directed our invitation on our first meeting we had with him. Pretty great stuff!! But since then we haven't been able to get in contact with him because he doesn't have a cell phone and he has been with his friends in another city. But we'll get in contact with him this week.

Then another good experience I had was teaching Tiffany. Elder Miller and I planned to have a very clear and direct lesson with her. We started to teach her the Plan of Salvation. I don't remember EVERYTHING we talked about but there was a lot. We were there for a long time and she had a lot of questions. We had to stop trying to be nice in explaining things, ha. Like normally when someone asks if we are saying that our church is the only true church on the earth we will say something like "well most all churches are good and teach good things but they lack the authority that Jesus Christ gave to his apostles when he was on the earth. And that authority was restored onto the earth again by Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith." You know, just so they don't get offended. But this time we just HAD to say "YES. THIS IS THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON THE EARTH. BAPTISM BY SOMEONE HOLDING THE PROPER AUTHORITY, WHICH IS HELD WITHIN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, IS THE ONLY WAY." Ha- it was so intense. We were just spiritually wrestling with her. But she accepted the Lord's invitation to be baptized on May 15th. Elder Miller and I left very spiritually tired, but at the same time relieved and excited. It was a good lesson :). We haven't been able to get in contact with Christie so I think we might need to drop her. She isn't taking it serious enough. I hate dropping people. But we need to spend our time on people who are willing to keep commitments and progress towards baptism.
So that was my week~.

Oh and yesterday was the hottest day ever! It was like 94 degrees with 100% humidity (that's just an exaggerated guesstimate, but seriously it was way humid). Elder Miller and I were just soaking in sweat the whole time. And we had to bike way far too. I almost died. Ha-ha-ha.

Anyway...I love you guys so much. I can't wait to talk to you next week! Have a blessed week and I’ll talk to you on Sundayyyyyy!

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Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka DubEE Fresh