iHola mi familia!
Great letter. I'm so dang proud of Hallie! I seriously can't imagine her getting up and dancing but that is awesome! haha. Sounds like you all had a great week. I swear in every one of your emails you tell me about either a guy that asked the girls to a dance or a guy they asked to a dance. Fun times! It's hard for me to think that I've been on my mission for 18 months. I had a sort of surreal, eye opening moment the other day when I realized I won't see another summer in Arizona, that I have one more general conference, one more...etc. I won't lie I was nearly in tears. Being in one place for the last 18 months has caused me to reflect much on what I have really done to make those 18 months the best 18 months FOR my life. I can remember telling people that I've been out 2 weeks. Now every time I see those same people they say, "Man you're still here? You must be going home soon right?" It's weird to be on the opposite side of it. In Zone Leader Council, President Taylor had me share with the other zone leaders how long I've been in this stake. I told them and he followed by asking, "what/how does that make you feel about that stake?" I responded by saying it makes me want to be there the rest of my time. President Taylor was emotional because of that response. I hope the Lord keeps me here for AT LEAST one more transfer.
Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy is coming to our mission this week and we get to hear from him tomorrow. That will be really neat. I have also been chosen to represent our stake this Thursday when the missionary department comes down and discusses the mormon.org campaign. I don't really know what I'm going to say because we haven't seen much success come from it yet but I do know that there are a whole lot of people that are seeing the ads and talking to their friends about it. The member's just need to learn that those conversations are missionary opportunities and those people need to be invited to either come to church or learn more from the missionaries. The most important step is to follow up as well. I'm grateful for my mission because it has taught me to not be afraid to talk to people about the gospel. It may be an adrenaline rush at times, but hey, so is jumping off cliffs into water (just as long as there's no inner tube in the way...right mom?)
We had a great week. On Thursday Elder Griessmann and I went on exchanges. We had lessons set up with several of our investigators. One of them was Mark, the same Mark I told you about last week. I'm always a little bit nervous to talk to investigators after setting a baptism date with them because Satan seems to throw anything and everything their way. Mark is so "steadfast and immoveable." In our lesson he made this comment: "Elders, I just want to thank you for inviting me to be baptized. I thought for sure that you would have wanted me to come to church for like a year before I could get baptized. So anyways, thanks!" We were stunned. Jaw dropped. Haha. Response: Uhhh.. Yeah of course Mark I mean when you’re ready you’re ready right? haha That's not really how we answered but that’s what I was thinking. He's already read 1 & 2 Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon, and half of Mosiah. He also understood and had some great questions from Jacob 5 (the allegory of the olive tree). We talked with him about the baptismal service and the interview he will have before his baptism. We went over the commandments; law of tithing, chastity, word of wisdom, and keeping the sabbath day holy. He told us that he had already discussed the law of chastity with his girlfriend. He's good with that. He was asking if he could write the tithing check out to "God" himself. haha. He's been prepared by the Lord in amazing ways. A year ago he quit smoking and drinking cold turkey just because he felt like it. A few months ago he realized he was drinking too much coffee. He decided to quit that randomly as well. Then we knocked on his door. He was so ready and prepared. It's true that, "...angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory" (Alma 13:24). He texted us today telling us about the program he wants to have. He asked me to baptize him. I'm honored. One concern, he weighs right around 300 pounds. Hopefully he's not too buoyant and I'll be able to get him under! It's awesome to see his excitement!
A cold front has come through recently. In the mornings when we get up to play racquetball it's like 48 degrees. Freezing! :) Last night it rained pretty hard. Today we are playing soccer for a zone activity and it's gonna be nice and muddy. Hopefully we get some good pictures and I'll be able to send them next week.
We had a pretty cool experience on Friday. One of our investigators lives with his member girlfriend. She told him that she wants to change her lifestyle and is going to move out of his apartment so she can become more involved in the church. Good for her! I wish there were more people with that attitude. We were helping her move in with her new roommate in the ward and our investigator (her boyfriend named Todd) was there as well. The girls needed to go and pick up another load of stuff so we told them we would just stay back and knock some doors. Todd has been really stand-off-ish to us so we thought he was going to go along with them. To our surprise, he said that since we were staying back he would just stay with us. As we sat around talking, he asked, "so were you guys serious about going and knocking doors?" Well yeah! So we went tracting with him. I think the purpose of him wanting to go with us was because he wanted to see us get rejected and bashed with. He thought that nobody would be receptive to us or want to learn more. Of the 3 doors that were opened to us, 2 of them were very receptive. The very last door we knocked was a super nice lady who was sincerely interested in learning more. She told us to come by next week after six and give her a copy of the Book of Mormon and teach her more about it. Todd was very surprised. He is also more interested now and has really opened up to us! He is now reading the Book of Mormon and has many questions.
Well it's now time to go get ready for soccer. Thank you for the package. I finally got it yesterday! The skittles and M&M's were much appreciated. Socks were definitely needed as well. As were the planners.
I love you all. I am doing very well. Not so sure about the mission being over so quickly but the next chapter must come some time. Such is life. I pray for you nightly. Be safe in the snowy weather. Get to the temple regularly.
Love,
Elder Colt Mouritsen
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