This week was a great week!  We have been working with Jamie and Andy a lot.  They have been going through a lot of trials lately like their water wasn't turned on and they have literally no furniture in their home and etc...  We brought a member with us one night and he offered to help them pay to turn their water on and gave them tables and chairs.  It was amazing to see the commitment this member had to helping others.  We were able to teach Jamie and Andy part of the Plan of Salvation last week too and they loved it.  Jamie told us that she had always wondered where we came from and that it was awesome to now have the answer.  The spirit was very strong in that lesson and Jamie and Andy just soaked it all up.  We ended after talking about the fall of Adam and Eve.  The Fall is one of the unique parts of our message, because we convey it a completely different way from the world.  As we were able to explain that it was part of God's plan and show them in the scriptures like in 2 Nephi 2:22-25, the spirit was able to testify of its truthfulness.  Jamie and Andy also came to church this Sunday with their whole family.  They loved it and want to go to church every Sunday!  There is only one problem though that will also interfere with their baptism.  Andy recently got out of jail and is having to go to an anger management class every Saturday and Sunday from 9-10 am.  That would prevent him from being able to receive the Holy Ghost until he finishes all of his classes.  So, we may have to push back their baptismal date based on how that all works out. 

  This week we really struggled with finding new people to teach.  And, Saturday night as we looked at our actuals we had no new investigators.  We decided to pray as a companionship that we would be able to find 4 new investigators the next day when we would only have 3 hours of proselyting for the day because we had church for 6 hours and a baptism to go to in Baytown which I will talk about later.  I also personally decided to fast that we would find 4 new people to teach.  When the day had gone by and it was time to proselyte I had the thought pop into my head that there was no way that we could get even 1 new investigator in the time that we had seeing that we had an appointment with someone at 8 and that would take up the rest of our night.  I then thought to myself God can do anything, if he could tear down the prison that Alma and Amulek had been placed in by the Ammonites, if God could give Ammon sufficient strength to defeat all those Lamanites who came against him, then God could definitely help us teach a few new people the Restored Gospel.  Right after I thought that we went and tried a family that we had knocked into during the Hour of Power and they were there!  And, they allowed us to teach them our message.  That just shows that God can do anything!

  Like I mentioned earlier, I was able to go to Baytown to witness a young teenager named Chris who is 16, whom Elder Davis and I taught, get baptized.  It was an amazing experience.  Watching him get baptized made me realize how important this work really is.  I love being able to share this wonderful unique message.  (I will send a picture later Elder Davis took it on his camera)

  The last experience that has happened this week is one that I have experienced before, but one that is so profound.  I had taken money out of my account at the beginning of the month for fast offerings.  But, week after week I continued to forget to bring it to church.  I finally remembered this week.  Just some background really quick, in this ward we are lucky to get fed 2 times a week.  After church and everything we had a dinner appointment for every night.  It was a miracle.  Also as we were shopping yesterday a member bought all our food for us.  I know that if we will give God back what is already his that he will bless us to where we will not have room enough to receive it.  I love y'all and hope y'all have an awesome week!

Elder Willden