Hagoth, the van

Hi Family,

I am glad that you are trying to be a missionary family. You know, those are the kinds of families that missionaries like best. Remember, you can invite anybody to hear the gospel. Teachers, hairdressers, neighbors, the clerk at the bank, whatever. Yesterday, president garner told me, and told me to tell the members, people you know best aren't always the ones the lord has prepared to hear the gospel. Also, success in missionary member work isn't measured by baptisms, it's measured by how many invitations you make. If you're talking about the gospel, then you're doing your job and the lord can step in in ways you don't know.

This week has been a very good missionary week. VERY good. First of all, I should mention that emily's baptismal date came and went without a baptism. She's just not sure yet, she needs more of a testimony. But she is developing a desire to know. So she's still on the right path. she invited Elder Elkington and I out to dinner with her and her son tonight, so we are looking forward to that.

On wednesday, we got an awesome referral in San Clemente in orange county - over an hour north of here. So we drove up there and taught a first discussion in chinese with a couple members there, it was well-received, and we made a follow-up appointment from saturday. Her name is Wa Suddeth and she has a masters in art and two teenage sons. She has heard some of the lessons in english and come to church about 6-7 times, but they decided it would be best if she was taught in chinese, so we were happy to go up there. On saturday, though, she had forgot about it and was in LA, so we had to cancel it. She is taking a trip to china with her family this week, so we will meet with her again soon. But there was a wonderful spirit in the lesson, and one of the members present, Sister Ryan (who is chinese) was crying. Even though we got stood up, we still feel that Wa is a very serious investigator and we're happy to be teaching her.

Lisa, remember Mrs. Ma? Well, guess what? She's getting baptized! On your birthday! Yep, last night, we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ - faith, repentence, baptism, and the holy ghost. And then she told us that she wanted to be baptized. That was the easiest baptismal commitment ever. So, in my broken chinese, I said "Wo xiang san ge xingqi shi hao de. shier yue si hao hao bu hao?" Which means "I think 3 weeks is good. How about december 4th?" She accepted, and this is a very solid date, so we are very excited.

In the fun department, we christened our minivan on saturday. Elkington and I bought 3 jones sodas: one for me, one for elkington, and one for the van. We poured it on him and named him Hagoth, named after the great shipbuilder in the book of mormon. Then we washed the car at the carwash.

Every couple saturdays we have a free carwash at the stake center. And we get some referrals from it. Elkington and I got 3 in our area of people who were interested to hear about it. And then, some sisters in del mar called us with a referral from a carwash there.

This woman's name was Tanya Young. We had her address and phone number, and I decided to stop by and visit her and see her level of interest on exchanges. So we drive to the address, and find that it's an apartment building, and that we don't have an apartment number. So, I use my exchange's cell phone and call the number - busy. So we know she's home, and I decide that we should tract the apartment. So we do, and meet all sorts of people, none of them americans. We found this one ukrainian kid who seemed sort of interested and I gave him a book of mormon and invited him to church. And then we knock on this door, where we hear somebody talking on the phone. She calls "who's there?" and I reply "the missionaries." She says "hang on."

Now, usually, that's not the reply we get to "it's the missionaries." It was obviously somebody kind of interested, and we found out that it was Tanya, who we were looking for. She had one of her friends answer the door, though, cause she was on the phone using long distance. We left our number and wrote down the apt number so that we could return later.

And yesterday, Elkington and I did return. When we got to the door, she was in tears, sobbing. We arrived at a moment when she was completely overwhelmed by the world because of some situations which she explained and we knew that it wasn't a coincidence that we showed up at that time. So we came in and talked and shared some scriptures of comfort and prayed with her. It was a really great experience and we have a return appointment. I feel like we had been guided to choose to visit her at that time so that we could be God's way of comforting her and guiding her. We have a return appointment tomorrow and are going to introduce her to some of her neighbors who are members. We also invited her to church. So, that's a great referral that we got, all from a car wash.

We actually got 7 referrals last week - an enormous amount compared to how many missionaries usually get. We have been very busy this week, and haven't had to spend much time at all tracting. It is good to be busy. Even though tracting feels like missionary work, it's much better to be doing the real missionary work, working with people.

I want you all to know that I have a testimony that what we're doing, you included since you're member missionaries, is true, and that it really helps people. The church is true and it is God's way of blessing the lives of those who draw near to him.

Have a great week,
Love,
Elder Myers