Dear Family,
I am so sad about Uriah. I have prayed for his family quite a bit these last few days. That is so hard for his mom. However, I bet the reunion with Colt was pretty special. They are probably running a race together right now. I heard that the cross country motto was Run like a Colt; Rule like a King. I am so thankful for life after death and the chance that we get to see our loved ones again. Hopefully this trial will make them stronger and will help them strengthen their testimonies.
I will write President Kunz a letter today. The one year mark is probably really hard. We just have to trust that Colt is where he is supposed to be. We actually had a pretty good coversation with the family we are working with about that very subject. He has some minor issues with the church but likes what we have overall. I told him that i don't know why blacks couldn't receive the priesthood until 1978 or why homosexuality is a sin or why Joseph Smith didn't show everyone the gold plates, but I know that the Book of Mormon is true and so I just have to overlook those things. he said the same thing about his father in law and how he died at a relatively young age and how is wife has never been the same. Sometimes we just don't know why, but we just have to trust that there is a reason. We gave them a soft baptismal challenge, which basically means that if they came to know that this church was true, then they said they would get baptized. The dad actually hasn't been baptized in any church and he said that he would like to, so we took a step forward with them this week.
We actually had some really bizarre lessons this week. Three of the weirdest discussions I have had so far all happened this week. On Tuesday, we went to teach a less active older lady named Barbara. She brought her less active son and his wife who is not a member. So we were trying to teach the non member, but she had been up since 3 in the morning and was super tired. I quoted the First Vision, which is like the most spiritual part of the whole lesson, and she just dozed off. As soon as I was done, her head snapped up. She kept falling asleep at random points during the lesson; one time she was actually snoring! We were like, do we keep teaching, or...???? And then, Barbara's son, who is about 50 and has some serious health (and probably mental) challenges, randomly gets up and lets his dog inside. It is a pretty big lab and it was young and energetic and kept barking super loud. He was trying to hang on to his collar, but the dog lurched forward and brought him all the way to the ground. The dog dragged him for a second as he was laying on the ground, but he finally let go. Haha! and then the dog jumped on Elder Livingston and was licking his face. It was so weird. Poor Barbara was so embarrassed. Then we challenged the daughter in law to get baptized and she said, yes! She lives out of our area, so we will (gladly) hand them over to some different missionaries. I would have thought it was all a dream if Elder Livingston hadn't experienced the same thing.
The next weird lesson was that same night! This lady named Heidi just called us up and wanted to take the discussions. She is also a less active who just moved here and wants to get her life back in order. she sat us down and was like just teach the lessons and I will ask questions when I have them. We were trying to get a background on her previous gospel knowledge, but she wouldn't give us anything. We asked about her family and she said that she doesn't have any living relatives (???) and we asked where she grew up and she said she was starting to get uncomfortable. Just bizarre. She probably said 10 words during our lesson and we were done in half an hour. Apparently she liked it because she wanted us to come back!
The other lesson was on Saturday. We tracted into this really nice guy named Barry about a month ago. We have been dong service for him and then sharing a scripture from the Book of Mormon. We have been trying to get him away from his wife because she is CRAZY! He said that she was sick and wouldn't be able to join us today. We were so pumped and started prying that whatever was keeping her down would keep her down long enough for us to talk to Barry. Well, apparently a miracle happened because she was right there waiting for us when we came in. She had all this anti stuff in her hands and she was trying to hide it with her Bible. We tried to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon, but she shared an experience that she had while driving by the Portland Temple. She said that she looked at the Angel Moroni (apparently pronounced more-un) looked away, and then looked back and saw a gargoyle in Moroni's place! Crazy, huh? then she pointed out a realization that came to her during the last time that we were there. We had it outside and as soon as we opened up the Bible, the chickens just came galloping (yes, she said galloping) in to hear the word of God. But, as soon as we opened the "Mormon Book" the chickens started to leave. Even Barry rolled his eyes at that one. I should've maybe made the point that maybe they came because they thought that we were gong to feed them and then when they realized we weren't, they left! But she is set that Satan is leading our church! HaHa! They are both super ice though, and Barry is a really cool guy who just kind of follows what his wife says and does.
That is pretty much the update for this week. We had a really good week in general. We are going back to Handlebar Uncle Alan sometime this week. We also taught Christ as well. Ilse is fading fast. We finally got in contact with her and she said she would be in church, but then she bailed. She said she loves horses, so could you maybe send me a few pictures of our horses? You never know. Nick is a stud. He is set on getting baptized. We just have to make sure that he stays active after his baptism.
Have you read President Monson's message in the Ensign this month? Are we even prepared? Is it true that Obama declared war last Wednesday? I tell people everyday that I am so thankful that we have a prophet who leads us and guides us and it usually resonates with people. We have to make sure that we are following what he says, because things are gong to get crazy here in the last days.
Thanks for your letters and updates. That is too bad that the football team lost. I really hope they can turn it around. Camas High School's football team is one of the best in the nation. EVERYBODY goes to the games on Friday nights. They were undefeated and lost a heart breaker in the state championship last year when somebody fumbled on the 10 yard line with a 6 point lead and less than a minute left and the other team returned it 90 yards to win it. They are supposedly even better this year and they crushed the 3rd ranked team in the state on Friday. By the way, how are the Browns and Sooners doing? I love you and thanks for all that you do for me.
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