Weekly Letter 3/7/2011

Hello there my family! It's so good to hear from you all this week. We here in Tainan have been seeing more than our fair share of miracles as we preached the good word of God among our brothers and sisters.

Both (name) and (name) have rolled into week A, so we're planning a double baptismal service this Saturday. It's been so amazing seeing these good brothers progress to this point and decide to make this sacred covenant with their Heavenly Father. Brother (name) has really not had any problems with anything we've taught him; he's willing to live every commandment without a problem. Brother (name) only problem has been that he thought his studying Confucius would interfere with his being baptized, but we focused a lot on how this is the only truth, and if he puts this first there's no reason he can't continue to study the writings of other people. I love both of these men so much. Brother (name) is always smiling in spite of it being hard for him to walk or do other things. And he's always happy for us to teach him a word or two of English.

We also saw a miracle with our most recent convert, (name). On Friday Elder Turk called him and he said something about how he was ashamed and he would never come back to church. Then he hung up and would not answer our calls (he kept picking up and hanging up, no matter what phone we called from). On Saturday we biked all the way out to his house and knocked on his door and rang his doorbell for about ten minutes, because I could hear him on the other side but he wouldn't talk to us. We left him a note and left. Then on Sunday morning he called me and told me it was because he'd lost his Book of Mormon and was afraid we would be angry. So he came to church and we gave him his new member triple combination. Looking back on this experience, I'm glad we did what we did, because if nothing else, the Lord knows we will do anything in our power to hold on to the fruits of our labors--the souls of our brothers and sisters.

I know without a doubt that this is God's work. I thank my Heavenly Father every day that he's given me this chance to be His servant preaching repentance to His children. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and it was translated by God's prophet Joseph Smith. Through this restored gospel, we can overcome any and every trial that comes our way. The strength of our Savior Jesus Christ will carry us through anything. I want you all to know how much I love you, and also that my testimony grows and grows every single day. I know that this is the most important thing I could be doing with this time, and my mission has changed me in more ways than I can count.

I love you all so much. You're in my prayers every night, and I know our Father is taking care of you and me. Until next week,

Carter