John's letter...November 4, 2008

sounds like... well, not an unusual week for you guys. the work here is definitly in a tansitionary step since now we have so many recent converts that we have to help the ward support, its going to be interesting seeing if the ward can support them. speaking of which hows that recent convert family doing? you guys should have em over for dinner or FHE or something!!
this week was pretty good. it was wierd since i pretty much knew i was leaving. especially this last couple days. then this morning we got the call and sure enough im gone. im going to.... somewhere to be a district leader. President asked me a few weeks ago if i was ready for a change so i figured id at least be getting a new area.
Staceys baptism went really really well. got him dunked on the first try. then on sunday he received the holy ghost. hes doing really really great. theres a meeting i dont know if ive told you about but its called why i beleive and its a testimony meeting for recent converts..basically. anyhow Staceys going to be speaking in that meeting on sunday, i just hope i can make it.
well i still gotta write back to dad
i love ya
john

i wanna take this time to express my deep appreiciation and love for ether chapter 12. it is an amazing chapter, especially when pared with mormon 9 when youre thinking about miracles. theres so much good in that chapter. one insight on weeknesses from that chapter that Elder Varner brought to my attention is the idea that we can pray to have our weeknesses shown to us. ive also noticed it has that ever familiar challenge to "come unto me" like in the last few verses of matt 11 suggesting the very notion that Elder varner expressed.
well like i told mom i got the transfer call this morning. i wonder what blessings ill see in my next area of labor. all i know about it right now is its going to be different from xroads and im going to be a district leader there. so thats interesting. hope i do good.
this week was good much like weeks past. there was this guy who randomly walked up to us the other day and asked for a ride to church. turns out he had investigated here for a LONG time then moved to cumberland and then was incarcerated. i hope the new elder and Elder Ericksen can help this guy, he seems pretty sincere on the get go, i just hope he keeps out of trouble. i dont think i ever worried so much about people keeping out of trouble and not doing stupid things until i became a missionary and especially when i started working here.
well im gonna go. i hope you have a great week
love ya
john

Letter from John on September 23

So I get this call mid-week from the mission office but we were busy so we didn’t get the call until later. The message they left was pretty basic, you had called and they wanted me to call the mission office to tell me about it. I’m not gonna lie. I was really really worried that someone was hurt or dead or something. Now that I think about it that as a pretty irrational thought because if it were something like that why on earth would it come through the mission office. Anyway when sister Bernett told me about those referrals I was very very relieved.
Anyways it was fun stuff. This week was a pretty good week. I’m not getting transferred and I’m not too worried about that at all. I really am excited I get to stick around a little longer. Now I’m going to be able to see Randy's baptism (Oct 11) and whatever else happens here before I leave. The hardest part of getting him (Randy) ready for that point is his tongue ring. He doesn’t want to take it out. He said without it he feels naked. He said he could have it out in time for his baptism, but I’m shooting for before.
Yesterday we had a neat experience. Our plans... well tanked is probably the best word for it. We had our last plan for the morning up and two hours before we had scheduled to be there. So we went to this little shop down the street to visit with one of our investigators named Earlean. Then after that we went to our last appointment we had scheduled for the morning and had a great discussion with a man who goes by Tattoo. We sat and talked with him for a while and as the conversation unfolded it became apparent that we were led there. He had just barely gotten home and had we showed up any earlier we would have never been able to talk with him. To make it all cooler is what happened the night before. We had come in and begun planning when we kinda hit a brick wall and didn’t know what we should do. We then realized that we had forgotten to pray. So we got down on our knees and asked God for what we should do for the next day and it was immediately filled down to the encounters I have just described. This work is most definitely LED by the very hand of God.
Hope you have a great week.
Love ya, John