Some committed investigators

Dear Family,

On P-day night, we taught a nonmember married to a member. His name is Owen Mongan. We committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Honestly, that is the only way to gain a testimony; all other things are just supports to that. He seems sincere.

Don't think that when I tell about a new person we find and then stop telling about them in future letters that we don't teach them. We teach about 20-25 lessons a week; I don't mention every lesson we ever teach to every investigator. Many investigators drop out, but in the old area in Mira Mesa, we had 19 current investigators when I left that we were regularly teaching.

This week we spent some time helping a lady named Antonia Pischke. She's a member who has had a really stressful last few months. Her husband really went off the deep end, got into drugs, moved to Mexico and started a house of ill repute, and last week came and robbed her house. So I helped her to set up her new computer, and we helped put the curtains back on her windows. She is very touched by the outpouring of love from the ward members.

We are still teaching our golden investigator John Rainy. It's green lights all the way, and he'll be baptized on May 6th at 1:00. He's very sincere and he'll make a wonderful member. His parents have noticed a big change in him since he started learning the gospel. Elder Holt is a big help to him since he converted so recently and can relate very well.

Our investigator Jan is not progressing. We did, however, show her The Testaments yesterday, which she enjoyed a lot. She was touched by the new perspective that Christ's visit to the Americas brought. We asked her to pray about whether it was real, and she said she would. But, people have their agency; people often don't pray because they're afraid that they WILL get an answer and they'll then be committed.

Such is the case with Brother Saadeh, the father in the home in which we teach John Rainy. He is not a member, but, as the bishop says, he's the "most active nonmember in our ward." He comes every week, participates in family prayer and scripture study, sits in on the lessons, supports his kids going to BYU, and even has an assignment in the ward (basically a calling... but only members can have callings). It comes down to, he's basically afraid to really pray with real intent to ask if it's true because he knows that he'll get an answer.

I'm sure he'll join the church someday.

On Sunday, we had a Bishop's fireside. Brother Saadeh was there, John Rainy was there, a new investigator John Moran was there too. There was a great lesson by the bishop and then he committed John Moran to baptism, and tried with Brother Saadeh. You could tell that he wanted to say yes, but he said he felt he wasn't ready. The situation was very intense. So the bishop instead committed him to go to lunch with him and discuss it. The Saadehs are a very great family.

Xiaoyan came to church on Sunday. We went on exchanges so I could accompany her to the ward in her area. She only had time for sacrament meeting, but I think she liked it. I haven't taught her again yet.

Yesterday we had Zone Conference. We learned about the great apostasy. We also heard a reaming on obedience issues. 4 missionaries have been sent home this transfer and there has been too much disobedience, so president thought it important to do a bit of chastening. I hope the missionaries his message was aimed at take it into practice and get their acts together.
Anyway, that's about it for now. It's been a good week. we're working hard, doing our best. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

EVERYBODY goes to Saddleback

Dear Family,

It has been a good week. We have done a lot of tracting. We live in the shadow of a mega-church with tens of thousands of members called Saddleback. EVERYBODY goes to Saddleback, and they occasionally hold anti-Mormon classes there. It's hardened a lot of peoples hearts against the true church. So, we don't have a lot of success tracting, but we do it to show the Lord our willingness to work and in hopes to find that golden family.

We have an investigator who will be baptized early next month named John Rainy. He is friends with a girl who is at BYU right now and decided to look into the church and discovered its truthfulness. So, he's very steady and we are excited for him. We are also teaching a Korean family who are very nice and open. There is a 17 year old girl who is just waiting until she turns 18 to be baptized. There is a woman named Jan Smith who is very involved in Saddleback, but is also very nice and lets us in; we have a few roadblocks though, so we might not be able to teach her much longer. There's a nonmember married to a member named Owen Mongan that we are also working with. And those are the investigators that I "inherited." This transfer we are fasting to find a family that we can teach and baptize by the end of the transfer. We fasted Sunday. On Sunday night we checked on a Chinese referral named Xiaoyan Song and she was interested and made an appointment for Monday night. I worked my Chinese networking skills and got a couple Chinese members from Irvine to join us for the lesson and she's going to be coming to church and taking the lessons now. So, already a new promising investigator. Also, on Sunday a member brought a nonmember named John Moran who agreed to take the discussions and we're going to meet with him next Monday night at the bishop's house. Things are already looking up from that fast, and we'll keep working hard. There are some other people who look like they'll come to fruition soon too.

Our ward is a very large one. It has over 10 missionaries out in the mission field from there. We had a good Easter program and a good Easter dinner with one of the families. So, everything is going well. Tracting long hours during the day is kind of frustrating, but it's okay.

I don't need a bicycle. We have a full-time car because it's just that hilly.

Have a great week. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Myers

Transfered to Lake Forest

Dear Family,
Things are going well. they are about as hectic as they could possibly be - I got transferred up to the northernmost part of the mission, Lake Forest in Orange County. We serve in a beautiful green hilly country; and we are living with a member family. My new companion is Elder Holt from Montana. He converted to the church in 2004. He is a very well-mannered respectable young missionary. He's been out about two months. I am now a senior companion and am going to be doing English work for a while.

Well, so things have kind of started anew for me. It's a brand new area, a new companion, new place to live, everything. It feels like the day I arrived in the field again, almost, except that I have memories of the people I taught down south. Last night I said goodbye to Darla, and amazingly her husband seems to have opened up to coming to church on Sunday. We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday, which was certainly a testament to fasting. One of our investigators, Min Lin got up in testimony meeting and bore a testimony of the reality of God. This is from a lady that, when I met her a few months ago, had no interest or knowledge about God; she was raised in China where they had taught her that God doesn't exist. To see her stand up and talk for a minute was a very moving experience.

Stan that we found also came to church. His fiance flipped out at the last minute and tried her hardest to get him not to come, but he finally made it. That was a huge success, he's going to be such an asset to the ward, and it's going to help his life so much.

Elder Gibbons now has abrand new Chinese missionary straight from the MTC. His name is Elder Gould, or Guo Zhanglao. His Chinese isn't bad, from what I've heard so far, so I hope they do well.

We found another family to teach too. The parents are less active and have two 16 year old boys (not twins-- Brady Bunch style) who they haven't raised in the church. But they had always planned on letting the boys learn about the church and choose for themselves when they got older, and so we came in and committed them to hear the lessons. In all, Elder Gibbons and I found 23 new investigators last transfer, which is a mind-blowing number. I definitely attribute the success to praying by name for all the people we have been working with. Earning the Lord's trust is the most important thing we can do, and when we do that, He puts more people in our path. Remember, the Lord won't open doors if you're not prepared to enter. Maybe your part would be to open your mouth about the gospel, or give a book of mormon, or a pass along card. But if you are prepared, he will prompt you with the holy ghost, and you will help the missionary work go forward.

I'm glad you watched Elder Ballard's talk. We talked about it in our wards too.

Well, I still have a little bit of time, but I can't remember anything else that happened, my mind is kind of fried from the move. I've got a new planner, so I can't just look through the last week's plans. So, I better end it up now. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Myers

more investigators

On thursday, we found two new investigators, a part member family named the Steinbornes. The parents are less active but they want us to teach their kids now. So, that's excellent news. They are a brother and sister named mark and alexandra. They have heard the lessons before, but for some reason the mom put a halt to it, saying it was "going too fast." So, we'll take our time. We're going to teach them every friday now. We also met with a chinese investigator, Mr. Dai, with the new sister in our zone from Hong Kong. We brought her and she taught wonderfully in chinese and really brought a lot to the lesson. So we're going to let the sisters teach them now.

Remember how last week I told about looking for this elusive family named the Cole family? We knew their complex but not their door? Well, we found them. We didn't know it was them, but we knocked on the door and met a black man named Derek. We asked if we could visit with him, and he let us in. He is very well versed in the bible, and is willing to let us come back and visit. However, he's not the most golden investigator. He wants proof of the book of mormon's truth and although we can provide evidences, it's impossible to prove, just like it's impossible to prove that Christ is the Son of God -- except through the influence of the holy ghost. At the end of the discussion, I asked his last name, and he said Cole. We were really excited we had found them. But, we taught again today (yes, on P-day... it was a sacrifice :P) and I don't know how far we can get with him. I lent him "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard and we'll give him a book of mormon.

On friday, we went up to Orange County to teach a recent convert, Kristin. She's the 9 year old adopted from china. Her english has really gotten good in the 4 months she's been here.

Saturday and Sunday were conference, of course. We watched all 4 sessions and the priesthood session. It was very good. I hope you saw the talk by elder ballard in the last session about becoming a gospel-sharing home. Those things he said were very very true. I hope you will be able to watch that talk again or read it again and incorporate what he taught. Remember that he said that if we do this, it will help tens of thousands find the gospel.

Yesterday, as we were walking to our next appointment, we, in the habit of talking with everyone, walked to a bus stop a little out of the way and there found an old investigator Derek that we had been looking for! He told us he'd be ready for church this week so we could pick him up.

On sunday we taught a couple named Roselilly and Harry at a members home. They want to keep meeting with us and learning about Mormonism. They have enough desire, I think, if we can help them and taech with the spirit. They are good people. He's an austrian, a former professional competetive skydiver and a current computer programmer. She's from the phillipines. They met online and are now happily married.

We finally met with Tyeshay's mom last night. She's now investigating too. It seems so easy to get people to hear the lessons, but it's really a blessing from the lord that hearts have been softened enough to let us in and let us teach. And that's about it for this week.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you have a great week. Stay safe. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers