You've Got to Read These Stories

As you probably noticed, Dave's blog went all weird because I haven't been updating it regularly! Dave is still enjoying being an Assistant to the President, and is learning a lot about leadership and training. I wish I could sit in on one of his training meetings, because I bet he is an excellent teacher. Well, I'm not good at summing up emails, so here are some clips from his past few. I've condensed some of them, so bear with me:



November:

"Yesterday the Newhall 1st ward had a Fun Run activity that Elder Lamb and I attended in the morning. We didn't plan on running, we were just going to visit with the members but they were all giving us a hard time that we were not running so we decided to run just the mile section of it. Long story short, we ended up running the entire 5K. I came in 1st in my age group... largely because I was the only participant in my age group. I am extremely out of shape, and almost didn't make it back to the starting line. I hadn't run even a mile in probably 5-6 months so it probably wasn't the best idea to try 3 miles. I am so sore today it hurts to move."

"We had a very interesting lesson on saturday with a couple of ladies that we tracted into ... it is hard to leave a lesson like that knowing that a person does not understand the blessings that are being rejected. It is amazing how much the gospel becomes a part of you. In the beginning of my mission I doubt it would have really bothered me much, but now it is heartbreaking at times to see people reject or refuse to understand the importance of the gospel."

"On Elder Lamb and I conducted a district meeting way up in the middle of the desert ... so we made the 3 hour drive ... it wasn't the greatest of meetings. First of all, it was freezing. I thought that being in the desert it would be fairly warm, but instead it was about 50 degrees with a 30 mph wind. And secondly, it was very uncomfortable trying to sit 14 missionaries close together on a bunch of rocks (sitting on cold rocks makes it feel even colder) ... but it got worse in the middle of our training. Out of nowhere several of the missionaries scream and jump up and scatter from the rock they were sitting on. Being really confused and not quite sure what is going on I look at the rock that they were sitting on and see a massive tarantula almost the size of my hand walking across the rock. I have never seen people scatter so fast before, jumping across boulders and rocks."

"I definately recieved a miracle of health during the week. My cold/sinus infection completely went away. Monday night I started developing the cough that I usually don't get over for a week or two, but monday night I got a blessing from Elder Lamb and 1 other missionary and the cough was completely gone for the entire week. By wed I felt 100% again and I had a voice again. The tender mercies of the Lord are never ending."

"So last week we knocked doors, contacted on the streets, visited many of the former investigators, and everything else that we could think of doing. We also fasted that we would be able to find those who are ready to listen to the message of the restored gospel. In the past 8 days we have found 6 new people to teach, 2 families and an individual. For our trainings we were able to bear sincere testimony that the Lord is directing the work and will lead us to those who He has prepared if we honestly search for them and have the faith to be led. We had seen personally that miracle during the week."

"We recieved a referral from another set of missionaries ... he was a student at the Master's college ... the only place to meet would be on campus ... it felt a little like walking into a lions den ... we didn't really have a chance to teach, but we answered questions for the next hour. His professor wanted to take every opportunity to show us why our church can't be true though. He had a paper that had several gospel principles and then two collums of information; one, "Mormon Beliefs", and the other "What the Bible Teaches". As hard as he tried to disprove our faith, he couldn't do it. And with each attempt it gave us another chance to bear testimony of how we have come to know the truth of the gospel and how they could as well if they had a desire to know."

December:
"The mission reached a milestone last week when we officially hit 400 baptisms for the year. The mission has not done that for 14 years. So far there are 55 more investigators that have a baptismal date for before the end of the year as well. It could be the most successful year in the history of the San Fernando Mission. It is exciting to be a part of it. It is also fun to hear of all of the success stories from around the mission. Miracles are happening all around and many of them stem from the reading of the Book of Mormon. It is amazing the converting power of the Book of Mormon. "

"Elder Lamb and I also had a cool experience tracting this week. On Wed we scheduled an hour to knock doors, but because it had been raining all day, we decided that if it was raining we would do something else instead. It rained the entire day until the hour that we were scheduled to tract, so we started knocking doors on a street that we had decided earlier. We found one lady, Carol, that invited us in right there and we were able to share a short message with her and have a return appointment for this week. Right after that we found another lady that is good friends with a member of the ward and asked us to come back and share with her what we believe. Right after these 2 doors, it started to rain again. It is a testimony that the Lord will prepare the way for His children to receive the gospel. He caused it to stop raining just long enough so that we could run into those people."

Isn't it neat to witness, through Dave's experiences, the power of the gospel, and the miracles that happen every day through our faith?