Springtime A-comin'

Hello again everybody! We just spent about six hours POWER CLEANING our apartment. It's powerfully clean now. But boy, it wears me out.

This week was a week of miracles. On Friday night after returning from zone leader council, we called the Bishop to ask if he'd been able to convince the father of 10-year-old (name) to let his son be baptized next Sunday, the 12th. Both parents are members, but they were nervous about letting him be baptized so quickly. Anyway, the Bishop said the dad was going to China for three months and they wanted to postpone the baptism until he returned. Needless to say, we immediately rode over to the (name) Family's house.

As we were praying outside their door, two members, a mom and her 19-year-old son, pulled up on their scooter. The mom was Sister (name)’s friend, and also (name)’s primary teacher. What more evidence do you need that God sends angels to help His missionaries? The four of us talked to Sister (name) for a while, and because of their powerful testimonies, she was willing to talk to her husband about having (name) baptized on the 12th. We're going over there in a couple hours to have a family home evening with them and prepare (name) for a baptismal interview.

Another miracle was yesterday's turnout at church. We had many investigators at church, including Brother (name), who is going to be baptized next Sunday after stake conference, and two members of a family we've been teaching. They both really seemed to enjoy their experience, and the Relief Society sisters did really well at fellowshipping the mother. The fourth person was a Brother (name), who is about 22 years old. He's really willing to keep the commitments to read and pray, and we promised him lots of blessings for coming to church, so he came. We also had the highest percentage of recent converts attend church that I've ever seen--seven out of eleven attended, including one man who yelled at us on the phone a couple months ago and said he never wanted us to call him or come to his house ever again. That was pretty amazing and unexpected.

This week is a power week, meaning we set higher goals than usual and push ourselves harder than ever. We leave the door half an hour earlier and eat meals as fast as possible so we can get back to work. I'm excited for it, even though I know it's going to be exhausting. I've found that President Bishop's promise is true--happiness in missionary work is directly linked to diligence. When we work our hardest, we obtain the greatest blessings.

I guess I could explain a little more about Brother (name). He's the one who used to be an investigator, and he called us and asked to meet with us and be baptized and so forth. I'm really glad to see that he has been able to make friends at church and make changes in his life to qualify to be baptized. He's just so nice and humble. Elder Jensen told him to bring his Jehovah's Witness bible so that we could throw it away, and he did it. We told him to wear a helmet when he bikes to church; he did it. I'm really happy that the Lord blessed us to find him and help him prepare for baptism.

Well, that's about it for this week. Sorry if my email seems scattered and rushed. We cleaned so hard and so long today that we don't have a lot of time for emailing. I want you all to know I love you very much and I'm still happily working my tail off to invite others to come unto Christ. I'm still looking for a family of investigators who I can baptize all together before the end of my mission. The clock is ticking, so I'll keep praying and searching.

I love you all so much! Talk to you next week!

Love,
Carter