Wind can be a blessing!

From Feb. 18, 2009 email:
Sorry for the delay in e-mailing. Monday the libraries were closed for the holiday and Tuesday we had zone conference. Better late than never, I guess! This week we've been very blessed by Heavenly Father. Miracles are happening here! Our teaching pool had been dwindling quickly, but we were able to pick up 3 new investigators this week. Obedience and diligence brings great blessings. Luiz is from Brazil & is in his 50s. We met him here at the East Providence library last week. He saw the missionaries in Brazil...the "men in suits on bikes." He has a great desire to learn about the church & already said he would be baptized if he received an answer to his prayers. Yay! The only problem is that he lives in Fall River, Mass. (not in our mission, but just over the border) but works most of the time here in East Providence. We're working with the Elders in Mass. to see what we should do, but obviously we're taking advantage of the fact that we can teach him now.

Cal is another new investigator. Sister Jones & Sister Lambertson tracted into him a few weeks before I got here. He's originally from Korea, but has lived in the US for a while. He knew a lot of Mormons while going to dental school. He's married and has the cutest little boy, so hopefully we can get the whole family involved in the gospel. We just had him down as a potential & our other plans fell through so we decided to stop by. It just happened to be the WINDIEST night ever, so he let us in because it was so cold. Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I was despising the wind earlier, but now it was a real blessing! We were able to teach a lesson on the Restoration, and I can see that he is being prepared to receive the gospel. We aren't too sure about the potential of our other new investigator. We'll see how it goes this week.

Last night we met with Topper, which went very good! He'd be an awesome, stalwart member if he could accept it completely. We found out what he wants: knowledge on how to have a good family. He's seen how LDS families stay together & have close relationships & he wanted to know the secrets of it. Of course I shared my experience of family prayer, FHE, Church, and being taught correct principles. I'd like to thank Mom & Dad for all that you have done. Thanks for your love and sacrifice. Everything I am is because of you. Your examples have taught me that living the gospel brings true happiness. Thanks for teaching me the importance of family. Hopefully someday I'll be half the parents you are.

I found out Friday that my MSF account had been hacked along with a couple thousand other missionaries. Apparently someone higher up has been fishing account numbers from the church finances. Even some gas cards have been hacked. So I've been without MSF since then & another card should get here in 8-10 days. I've been trying not to use my debit card much, but this occasion calls for it. Never a dull moment in the mission field, eh? Luckily the members have been feeding is pretty well. You don't have to ever worry about us starving. Sometimes we get sent home with the leftovers and that lasts us the rest of the week.

Monday we took a break from the usual sports-related preparation day & took the bus down to Newport. We walked around the cliff walk which goes right around the ocean. It had to be over 4 miles long and we walked every inch of it. We didn't have time to go into the infamous mansions, but we saw quite a few from the outside. They're unbelievable! Then we headed to a local dive for some real East Coast fish & chips. Yum! I definitely want to check Newport out in the summertime. Maybe I'll come back after my mission is done. (pictures below)














Like I said earlier, we had zone conference yesterday in Manchester, CT. We got up at 5:15 AM, was out the door by 6:30, and was bright eyed & bushy tailed when we arrived in CT an hour and a half later. Elder Madsen from the seventy was our general authority speaker. He gave a superb training on the Atonement. He's such a great speaker & brought the Spirit in very powerfully. So many aspects of the Atonement finally clicked in my brain. Everything in the gospel...and I mean EVERYTHING...is centered around the Atonement. Jesus came to earth because of the Atonement; the Plan of Salvation is brought about because of the Atonement; we make sacred covenants in the temple because of the Atonement. Of course we got the whole "marriage talk"...I thought we would get away from that on a mission! I wish that we could have a general authority speak every week. It's such a spiritual experience!