Week 28

Greetings once more everyone! I have been hearing about a whole lot of wintry weather that has been happening out there this past week. I hope everyone was able to get unfroze and resume their normal day to day things and be safe. 

Things out here in the Valley are going well. We had a bit of slow week last week. A lot of appointments canceled on us for whatever reason. But we did find 2 new investigators. So that was really really good.  We need to increase our teaching pool because pretty soon (this weekend) we are going to be losing 2 of our investigators. But it is all good, because.... They are getting Baptized!!

Pam has been working with missionaries for almost 7 years. She is on track to get baptized this Saturday at 4:00 P.M. Then on Sunday at 5:00 P.M. We will also be baptizing Cobe Reck. So this weekend should be a really good weekend. We have the Mission President coming this evening to interview Pam for Baptism. So long as everything goes well we will help her to enter in at the strait gate. So that is very exciting. 

Otherwise I have been doing really well. I have begun to memorize scriptures. I started doing that about 3 weeks ago and then last week the mission president announced we will begin having scriptures to memorize as a mission. So I know that was inspired. I have already seen the blessings of having scriptures memorized. It helps me to be able to teach with more power and authority. It really is an act of faith on our behalf to start memorizing them.  And when we act in faith then miracles start to happen. It takes a lot of commitment and work to memorize scriptures word for word. But it pays dividends when people hear that and the Spirit can follow through more powerfully because of our efforts. Just something I noticed. But that really applies to all areas of our life other then just in a spiritual sense. When that same effort is applied to anything blessings will follow. That I know to be true. When we work, Things happen.

But otherwise this week is very promising. We are going to go out and find some more people to teach and keep this area going. Everyone is saying that once spring gets here there will be a lot more people here. So if I end up staying here that long there should be some really good progress. 

Well time is running out. I should be going. But I love you all. 

As one of the other missionaries said recently. The Church is true and the Book is Blue. 

Until next week 

-Elder Valentine

Week 27

Greetings everyone! I hope this email finds all of you doing well. I have to say that I am doing well. This past week has been a great week. And I have to say this coming week also looks promising. 

Last Monday we went and did a little bit of light hiking in Colorado City. They have some pretty good hiking surprisingly. Then we had appointments up on the Mountain and picked up a new investigator. Always exciting. Then on Thursday we also picked up another new investigator. He is our next door neighbor. His name is Roger. He is in his 60's and hasn't always been so nice. He actually quit drinking about 5 years ago and decided he wanted to quit smoking now too. But anyways he told us we were not going to convert him.  The Bishop of the Orderville 2nd ward actually got us through the door. He told Roger that we are not teaching enough and that we need someone to practice on. So Roger agreed to help. So that is why he told us he isn't going to convert. But he was talking about how he believes that Adam and Eve lived on the American Continent and how he believes that it is selfish to think that of all the worlds that exist that we are the only one that is inhabited. I just got so excited when he said that. I just told him everything that he was saying is pretty much what we believe. So much so that he actually agreed to take a Book of Mormon and read it. Which is awesome!!!!! I just get really excited about that. He says that he is not religious but that he is spiritual. So I have faith that he will want to learn more. If he truly reads the Book of Mormon I know he will want to learn more. 

Then I don't remember what days but we gave 4 blessings last week. A lot of people have been sick around here. A lot. So we have been giving a lot of blessings in general. It is amazing to be able to administer to those that are sick. It is truly following in the footsteps of Christ. 

Another thing that I have been working on is to memorize passages of scriptures. I have memorized 6 scriptures so far. Maybe 7. President Monson made a promise that if we would memorize one scripture a day for our whole missions we would have a photographic memory. So I started kinda late but I am going to try to memorize as many as I can. Plus the mission president is going to come out with a list of scriptures to memorize. I got very excited about that. It really helps you to teach with more power and authority when you can verbatim, quote the words of the Lord. It helps the spirit to work more strongly. Like reading out of the scriptures is great. But having the scriptures become part of us gives us greater power. So that is something that I am working on. 

well that is just a brief summary of my week. I have a hard time believing another has come and gone. We are already half way through this transfer. Hard to believe. But anyways. I didn't take any pictures this past week. Horrible I know. I will try to have some for next week. But anywho, I love you all! Have a great week.

-Elder Valentine 

Week 26

The only way that I know how long I have been out is to write this email. I have to go and look at what week we were on last week.... But It is hard to believe that last week was my 6 month mark. I don't know how that happened. But anyways I didn't burn anything. I feel like that is a waste.

But anywho this past week has been a great week. We have been finding new people to teach and have been helping those we have been teaching get closer to being baptized. One amazing experience that we have had out here is the fast we had yesterday. The whole southwest area fasted for rain or snow yesterday. Literally around 5:30 it started snowing. It was clear during the morning. And the weather forecast for this week said highs in the 60's and clear when we looked last week. Now they are saying snow and more snow. So I just have to say fasting and prayer really do bring about miracles. And if as a large region we can pray and fast for moisture and then receive it think about what other miracles we could experience if we exercised our faith accordingly.

So otherwise not too much else to report on. We are just keepin on keepin on. Things continually improve here in the Kanab 2 area. I love you all and hope that everyone is doing well. I will talk to you all later.

-Elder Valentine