Things are a lot better these days. I don't know what really happened, but I just snapped back into a better mood and attitude. Things are great these days. Elder Raymond and I are having a great time. I just feel awesome.
Agency is wonderful, isn't it? Think about it: Of all of God's creations, we are the only ones that are given the power to willfully disobey him. Wow. Everything else in the universe must live or die by his word. We are given the divine gift of agency, to choose joy, sorrow, or anything else in between, and it all comes from simple obedience or disobedience to the principles of eternity.
This week was pretty sweet!! Every Sunday, people come and visit the church for their first time. We figured out a sweet tactic of "netting" them (Fisher of man, anyone?): On our roster sheet in gospel essentials class, we added a column to indicate whether or not the person is a member. This makes the biggest difference for me since I'm still getting to know the people. If I don't know the person that is a nonmember, we flag them down after class and set up appointments to meet them at the church to teach them. If they come, sweet, we have a new investigator. If not, well, that's how it usually is. They come and visit and then never come again (often because the church isn't very "lively", as they would say.). Our days end up with us at the church teaching lesson after lesson with powerful investigators from noon to six. Yeah, it's awesome. Things are going on alright these days.
One of these lessons was particularly sweet. The brother's name is Bartimaeus. He came on Sunday, we talked to him small, and invited him to come back to the church the following Wednesday to meet with us. While we were in our office on Tuesday, he showed up. We told him that we had planned for Wednesday, and he replied that he knew, and that he was simply hoping to see us there. Well, we had some extra time, so we sat down and asked him a few opening questions about church and things. He said that he loved the church, and that he wanted to be a baptized member. Uh, wow! Sure! We assured him that it would be possible.
I saw that he had a Restoration tract (we had never given it to him, so I was curious), so I asked him what he knew of it. He then reiterated the complete contents of the lesson of the Restoration from memory in its entirety. From there, we had nothing more to teach, so we simply gave him a baptismal date and a return appointment. Sweet, right? He already had testified to us that the Book of Mormon was true, even though he hadn't yet recieved one for himself, because he had sincerely asked God if it was true. He explained that he had visited the church seven years ago, and had long been impressed by the teachings therein, and that now was simply the time for him to unite himself with the church. Man, the work is so sweet when we are lead to prepared investigators!! :-)
I can't really say that there's a whole lot going on these days that's out of the ordinary. For us, we haven't had any office work in three weeks, so we're just ordinary missionaries. I like that. Then we get the perk of our office that we use for emailing home.
Elder Holland is coming this weekend, which is huge. I think I mentioned that, right? I better have... At least it's been a while since I did. I'm very excited. He's having an hour long Q&A with the missionaries in Liberia. Am I excited? Uh, YES. It's going to be awesome. I'll report on that next monday. It's surely going to be a powerful experience. We're having a two-session district conference here in Sinkor. Our district is first, and then Bushrod Island District members. It's going to be crazy. I'm just excited like nothing!! Being a missionary means I get to meet tons of general authorities, which is the best. I love it so much!
I'M SO EXCITED FOR JOSH!!!! Sis. Roggia will be here in Liberia on Thursday, so I'm sure she'll tell me in person if she gets the email from you guys with the news on Joshua's mission call. :-)
Thanks for the package. I'm going to make a request: Don't send any more. I don't really need them. The love reaches me just fine through email. Now that I'll have everything that I could need, you don't need to spend any more money on me. At least, til I get back. ;-) That's what you could do, you could save it to lavish on your precious baby when he gets home! ;-) Ha ha ha, kidding, kidding. But really, you don't need to send anything else again. I think I'll be good for the next 9 months (yeah, 9 months. Crazy, right??? It goes so fast!!!). The same with Western Union. I don't think I'll need any more money until I'm a few weeks from going home, then I might need some to get me safely back. Deal?
So STAR WARS EPISODE ONE IS NOW IN 3D??? Oh man, I'm going to cry if I can't see that. Episode 1 has always had a uniquely special place in my heart. Man... I'm in awe... Yeah, I figured that 3D TVs would be available by now... Man, I want to see that so bad... Anyhow, I'll be blessed for my sacrifice.
I'm sure I'll have a lot more to talk about next week... And Josh will have his call!! Woo hoo!! I can't wait to hear about that. :-)
Love,
Elder Vaughan
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