Tracting in the park

Dear Family,

So, this week has been interesting. On last Tuesday night I went on exchanges with Ryan Schoessow, who is leaving on a mission in 2 weeks. We tracted and then practiced teaching the first lesson to the family he home teaches. On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Bird in Lake Forest; we did some gardening in very hot weather for an old lady. That night we taught a lesson to a member family. Thursday, we did service at the library and taught Mary. We also did a lot of finding activities, but I can't remember exactly what we did. On Friday, we planned, and then made a lot of check-backs. No new investigators from it.

On Saturday morning we made another checkback - a Muslim man named Hameed. He let us in and we taught him the message of the restoration. He told us we could come back. He had a couple questions, but I asked president garner how to answer them, so now we're prepared. I don't know if he's sincere about really investigating though.

Jeff Evans got back this week and we taught him. He had done a lot of reading on his vacation, and now he's really excited about what it all means. So, we're working with him. We have a couple appointments lined up for this week - tonight, we're seeing Nadre, and tomorrow night, we're going to visit Jeff.

Also, on Saturday, President Warnick from the mission presidency called and wanted to interview elder Nielson. So we had to go down to Mission Viejo and have him interviewed. It had to do with a false rumor (started by a less-than-stellar missionary) that he had called a girl in his last area and told her he wanted to marry her. Uhh.... whatever. so that got cleared up.
3 times this week, I went to give a baptismal interview for Elder Bird and Elder King's investigator, and 3 times, he didn't show up. He's got a pretty hard crazy life, so I can't condemn him for it, but hopefully the fourth time's a charm. He's supposed to be baptized this Saturday.

On Sunday, I went with Ryan Schoessow on exchanges again, and we went to the park to contact people. It was awesome; we taught a guy while he was washing his truck, then we taught a few other people just hanging around (and left them with commitments), and finally, we approached this couple with 6 kids, and taught them for 2 hours. They had a lot of questions (they had heard a LOT of anti-Mormon stuff) but by the end they were very interested and I got their address and phone number. Unfortunately, it's not in our area, so we'll have to hand them over to other missionaries. They kept telling the kids they can go play, but the kids just sat watching, saying "no, this is interesting."

Monday was labor day, and we got special permission to go play ultimate frisbee with our ward. After that, I went on exchanges with Elder Pebley. Holidays are the BEST days to contact people and to tract. We taught 4 long lessons at the door that day, plus teaching Mary. A couple of those people were REALLY hard-hearted; one man in particular refuses to read any book but the bible. Period. Not magazines, not novels, anything. Uh, okay. How do you teach the restored gospel to somebody like that?

And finally, tuesday, yesterday, we had interviews with President Garner.

We also were able to get in the house of Brother Andre's Taiwanese neighbors. He just asked them if we could go see their huge fish tank, and of course they wanted to show. Then I happened to speak Chinese, and talked to the kids and them, and it was very cool. Brother Andre's going to keep working on them, but now they've at least met the missionaries.
Anyway, that's about all the time I have. Thanks for the letter, Michelle; I'll have to write back, eh?

I hope you're all doing well. I'll make sure to write Grandma and Grandpa and thank them for their awesome support. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers