Happy Monday!

There's not a holiday this week as far as I know, so we have to celebrate something.
Hello, family! It's great to hear from you. It's hard to believe another week has FLOWN by. Dillon mentioned that 10 months has gone by really quickly, and I have to agree. I'm actually kind of afraid to come up on my one year mark.

First of all, I'm happy to report that (name) was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church this weekend. He's doing really well. He actually showed up about half an hour early for his baptism because "Today is the most important day of my life." It's been so great to see him make this sacred covenant with his Father in Heaven. I still remember our first contact with him: we found his address without a phone number on an old list of investigators from a few months ago and biked way down to Tainan City South District (took us about an hour because we were contacting on the way). We got there and he was willing to meet with us right away; he said he missed the other Elders and wondered why they just stopped meeting with him. The Lord truly has guided us in finding and baptizing this man.

Our week B, (name), unfortunately did not roll to week A because he had a toothache and didn't come to church, but when we visited him after church he was willing to set another goal and he told us that he had been praying and reading his scriptures that morning. So even though he couldn't come, he definitely understands the sacred nature of the Sabbath Day! This man is so humble. I really love teaching him and helping him learn more about his Father.

We've also been blessed with a couple of other really great progressing investigators. (name) is in week B, and he's very willing to be baptized. He came to Brother (name)'s baptism and was making friends with several of our young single members. We also met with a (name) who came to church on Sunday. Last week when we met with him he said he knew the Bible was true because the Holy Ghost bore witness to him, and when we invited him to be baptized he said, "Yes! I've been looking for the opportunity to be baptized, but I didn't know how. Then," (pointing to Elder Turk) "you ran into me on the street!"

Finally, (name), who has been progressing slowly for a long time, is still not sure he wants to be baptized, but last night we prayed with him and in his prayer he told Heavenly Father he loves Him. After the prayer we just kept kneeling and I said, "Your Heavenly Father loves you too." He just couldn't stop smiling as he said "I really do love Him." Seeing investigators develop true love for God is one of the sweetest things in the world. When that happens, you know a person is being truly converted to Christ.

In other news, I did my first baptismal interview on Saturday after our investigator was baptized. Pretty fast, but it wasn't quite as scary as I thought it would be. As in all things, we just have to rely on the Spirit to tell us whether or not that person really has repented of her sins and is ready for baptism. She passed the interview, but then disappeared the next day--her cell phone is no longer in use and she's not at home. Poor Sister Cooper and Sister Huang. Which reminds me, we have a really fun district. We have the Zone Leaders (Elder Bickmore and Elder Cocke), both of whom are really funny people, and Sister Cooper, a black sister who is incredibly funny as well. Sister Huang is fifteen years old. Yeah. 15. She volunteered to be a part-time missionary because the mission didn't have enough sisters. She's doing surprisingly well. And her English is really good because she was born in America.

I'm also really loving this Book of Mormon reading activity. Did I tell you? President challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in three months, marking the names of Christ, words of Christ, attributes of Christ, and doctrine of Christ (articles of faith #4) in four different colors. I'd encourage you all to try the same thing with a clean paperback copy of the Book of Mormon. It's really been increasing my testimony of this book.

Well, my time's just about up. I sure love you all. Today's power cleaning day as well, so I get to spend most of my preparation day scrubbing scum and junk. =D Wishing you a happier Monday than me,

Love,
Carter