The importance of enduring to the end

June 27, 2006
Dear Family,

There are passalong cards for mormon.org with the Salt Lake Temple on it. Unfortunately, none of them have pictures of Christ on one side. But, you could probably make something yourself, mom. You're crafty (in a good sense). In fact, I'll send you a couple of the Salt Lake Temple ones.

That's awesome that Dixie was able to bring a neighbor to church to hear her son speak. That's an awesome opportunity to share the gospel. I expect each of you to have at least one nonmember there when I get back ;P.

Next week is transfers, and I'll probably get a new companion, so stay tuned. Elder Holt and I have done a lot getting the members to trust the missionaries (before elder holt there was a pretty infamous missionary kind of wreaking havoc). Not that we've done anything but do our job and be obedient, but it's gone a long way.

We have another baptismal date with a lady named Mary. She's 80 years old. She had been taught before by elders, then sisters in her ward. She dropped the sisters because they didn't teach to her understanding. But, she really liked the elders, so we're teaching her again now, and it's going very well. Her baptism date is July 8. We'll have to work hard to get everything taught to her (she is eighty years old; she's not quite senile or anything, but she does need more help understanding basic concepts)

On Sunday night we went on exchanges with the priests. After visiting all the people we had planned to, we still had an extra half-hour, so I took my exchange ( the bishop's son ) tracting. We could have taken the easy way out and just gone and visited an active member, but instead, we just knocked doors and endured to the end, when it was time to meet back. Heh, members never like tracting. Anyway, we tracted an apartment building, and the last door we knocked on before going home, we met a really nice guy who said we could come back and meet with him in a few days. It just goes to show the importance of enduring to the end.

We had a couple other good meetings. Chris is progressing very well; hopefully he'll get his answer soon. I'm impressed that he reads and prays about everything that we give him; he has the "real intent required."

We've been teaching a lot of lessons; we taught 4 yesterday alone. So, we're keeping busy, and that's the way we like it.

Today, Elder Holt was called with a survey, and after he answered the question, he asked the lady if she'd be interested in learning more about Christ from missionaries. She said yes (whether out of politeness or not, we'll probably never know) and he gave her the number to the referral center in the MTC.

We met a Chinese family who has a 9 year old son who wants to learn about Christianity. (sound familiar?) His name is Alex. His parents said he can come to church, and we're going to give him the children's Book of Mormon stories. His mom is Buddhist, but fine letting him convert as long as the religion stresses him being a good person and doing good things. So, there's a really big potential there.

That's about all, though. Thanks for the letters and the support. I love you all.

Love,
Andy