Good stuff is happening in this ward

July 15, 2013

Hello Family!

This week hasn't been anything special but we did get to teach Tony and the Spect family.  We taught Tony about the restoration using some red plastic Solo cups that we set up like the structure of the church the way it was when Jesus Christ was here.  We talked about how Joseph Smith had restored the Church in same way in these latter days.  Tony seemed to understand the authority and organization better and the member that was with us was able to give some good thoughts and insights about the restoration.  At the end, Tony asked for the member’s number and asked if he could start driving with him to church on Sunday.  We were glad to see that Tony and Brother Moul were hitting it off and establishing a good friendship.  We also tried to see Elva that same day, which was Friday, but she never answered her door.  We did however get to visit with her on her porch on Saturday.  She brought up some concerns, one being about the Joseph Smith and another being some Word of Wisdom issues.  We had planned for her baptism to be the 27^th of July but she said she wants to be completely clean before she gets baptized.  We agreed, but then she said that it could take a year.  I am glad that she is taking things seriously and it's good to see that she has the desire to repent.  She still didn't come to church this week, so our new focus will be to find out her concerns about going to church.  We will probably try taking her on a tour of the church so she can feel more comfortable when she actually does come. 

This week we saw the Spect family who we have a lesson with tonight.  The mother is a member and her biological sons are members but not active. Her husband is not a member and he has two kids named Ethan and Felicity and none of them are members.  We have been teaching Ethan and Felicity for a couple of weeks now and last week Ethan joined the cub scouts at the church which he was very excited about.  Ethan wants to be baptized so we have been focusing on him and Felicity when we teach because he is 8 almost 9 and she is 7.  The lessons that we have been having with them have been good but we have had to come up with some new ways of teaching because they are kids but they are both attentive and very good kids.  Ethan is into magic, so every time we go over he shows us one of his new magic tricks.  It is fun to teach them because they are so willing to do what we invite them to do and so excited about doing it.  We will be trying to get their father more involved tonight by asking him some good questions and we will be talking about Moroni 10:4-5 with them. 

Salvador is struggling.  We have tried to contact him several times this week but he has hasn't called us back or answered his door so we don't know what is going on with him.  I believe he is trapped in the worldly things.  We will keep working with him but not making it so much of a focus. 

I am amazed with the ward here and their excitement to get involved with the missionary efforts.  Our ward mission leader is gung-ho about getting us more work.   He and one of the ward missionaries have come up with a great plan to get all the members involved in the missionary effort.  Each week there will be two families signed up and their job is to come up with something for us to do whether it is helping their neighbors move or showing them how to make a Mormon.org profile.  The members with be giving us something to do instead of us always coming up with something for them to do.  Good stuff is happening in this ward as far as missionary work so that is exciting. 

I love you family!

Elder Mouritsen