That was such an amazing night

January 11, 2007

Dear Family,

Well, the letter's even later this week- we had interviews on Wednesday, so today, Thursday, is P-day.

I hope you can stay safe for the storm and that you won't be too isolated.

This week, we did a lot of street contacting right when the schools got out. We gave away lots and lots of Book of Mormons, but we only gave them away if they promised to read them. We gave out many more pamphlets. We got several phone numbers, emails, and addresses. The English missionaries will be following up with them. We've talked to several hundred people outside of regular tracting this week.

We also taught Georgio, Patrick's 7 year old son, a couple times. He went back to Arcadia, and I made sure the missionaries up there got over to take care of him.

Something interesting happened this week. Elder Long, my roommate, happened to be serving in Ramona, about 20 minutes away, last transfer. He asked me if I had ever gotten the referral he had tried to give to me- a Chinese lady in ramona was interested. I hadn't. he said he had given it to the zone leaders in the Poway Zone, so I called them and they gave me the phone number for this lady. The next day, my zone leader approached me and said, "Hey, Elder Myers, I found this name and phone number in my old planner, do you know who this is?" It was the same person. So, a referral, lost for 2-3 weeks now surfaced not once, but twice in less than 24 hours. This is what we call a good mistake, for the timing was miraculous: when I called her (her name is Wen Ying) she had just found out that her mother had passed away. I was able to help a little bit, but then I had sister pong call. People are so much more receptive to the gospel at those times when they know they really need it. Anytime you know somebody who has a death in the family or a new baby, you need to give a referral for that person to the missionaries.

We got the new pamphlets in Chinese this week. We were able to give a few out- we gave one to each of Mr. Fan's roommates. Mr. Fan was very busy with work this week, so he didn't make much progress, but he's still okay.

Friday night we went to Evelyn's house for dinner -but neglected to call and confirm. She wasn't expecting us, there had been a communication error. They had other guests over, but she still invited us in and made us food. We're going over again Saturday. We were hoping to teach a lesson, but the situation didn't permit it. One of the people they had over was studying film, so I was able to talk to him.

It's looking more and more like Ronalds wife Yunnie is going to be able to be baptized. We fasted for her with many of the branch members this week. At the testimony meeting, their son Calvin bore his testimony on the unity that has come into their family since the sisters came and started teaching his mom the gospel. He was crying and Yunnie started crying. It was a very moving experience. Elder Moreno also cried during his own testimony.

Steve Dow has resurfaced. He showed up to church on Sunday. Both of his parents have passed away in the last year, since he last investigated, and he's having a really hard time. We have an appointment tonight with him.

We went to the MCRD on Sunday, and I taught a marine who is very open. The marines there are all so prepared. The one I taught last week is doing well too.

One night, as we were tracting, we street contacted a couple Mexicans and it started raining, so we asked if we could go to their house to teach them. They let us, and we had a return appointment for our roommates. Also, one time when a member was taking us out to dinner once and we were waiting there for him, we saw a kid outside down the block who looked Mexican. When we got closer, we saw he was rolling some cigarettes and had some alcohol. We sat next to him, and Elder Moreno taught him that one day he was going to wake up and realize that he wasn't going down the right path. His name was Michael; he's only 17 years old. Michael knew he was right and gave us his address and phone number and said he wanted to change. We went over to his house that night (on the way, we talked to a guy sitting on a chair in his driveway and he was really interested; now he is reading the Book of Mormon) and Elder Moreno told his mom we wanted to help their family by teaching the restored gospel, and we thought since we were young, we could identify with the son. She let us in, and he taught her the restoration, and we have a return appointment. On these Spanish return appointments, Elder Moreno will be going with one of our roommates so that we can turn them over to them. That was such an amazing night; we had a lot of success, and things just worked out right.

Tuesday's zone conference was awesome. Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the first quorum of the seventy (he is also the church historian and recorder) spoke for 2-3 hours and gave a lot of good insights. His main training was on faith and missionary work. There was truly an outpouring of the spirit.

Yesterday I went on exchanges with our roommates so that Elder Moreno could hand over some of the Spanish investigators. I went with Elder Gregory and we taught Calvin and Jimmy, then went to some Mexicans. I still can't speak Spanish, but I am understanding it more and more.

My backpack's zipper broke. I might have to use some of my Christmas money on a new backpack.

That's about it from this week. I hope you survive the storm comfortably. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers