Unity = Miracles

Dear Mom and Dad,

Wow- I have a lot to say. A young man in my ward got his mission call to San Diego. He is an Australian cowboy from the country so that will be a shock for him, but he is so excited. Every time he sees me he says "CALIFORNIA!!!" He is going to be a champion.

I have mentioned in the last few emails that I am finally figuring out how to be a missionary and something amazing happened this week. It started in PEC meeting on Thursday. We have the best ward leaders in the world so I was wondering why the font wasn't filled every week! So I started off our report in PEC thanking the ward for everything they are helping us with and then asked for help as Elder Walston and I have set a goal for one baptism a month. I asked for their prayers and suddenly a light went on. We have a ward fast for missionary work in October. Elder Walston and I set a baptism date for October 17 with our next door neighbor! Ward families are now praying for our investigators by name. On Sunday, we were invited into the Relief Society (and priesthood) to tell them our goal for 1 baptism every month and our mission goal to have members at every lesson. I started off by telling them we want unity with the ward so bad since unity is key to seeing miracles. We then passed Availability Rosters for fellowship and told them that if we call on them it is because we prayerfully selected who would be perfect fellowship. I am so careful to not make one mistake...of course I will but like Michael said to me in a letter, that this could be my last area and my last chance to do everything perfect.

Our next door neighbor that we have a baptism date for is a 17 yr old girl named Megan. Elder Walston said that she doesn't seem way keen into it and because she was a teenager I was very stand offish about the situation. Quite frankly I went with an attitude of "we are going to chop this investigator if she hasn't read or prayed." I went without faith and I was humbled. For the lesson we reviewed the Restoration and read the Intro to the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong and we would see a repentance process. We could see her faith growing and a desire for Baptism and the Holy Ghost was definitely present. Only concern is her very protective mother who won't let her get a ride with some members to church because they are strangers. We will be able to take care of that.

I do have some sad and bad news. I mentioned to you mom that I was going to bring your Mothers Day present when I got home. What your present was- was the copy of the Book of Mormon that I had read that I got my real testimony from. It was marked like crazy and it meant a lot to me. I took it to the fireside of Elder Callister with our investigators but somehow, somewhere it got lost. My best bet is that it fell out of the car. It was in a cardboard, protective case so hopefully someone found it and will read it. But I am sorry mom. The Book of Mormon means the world to me. I know it is true scripture. It should not be taken lightly. I remember back to the first time I got a small testimony of the Book of Mormon. I was in the early years of high school. I remember one night just holding the Book of Mormon and thinking about how good it felt to hold it. I felt the spirit just holding it! It grew from there to now... where I MUST read some everyday. (* I'll have to let him know that the "gift" isn't tangible. What he gained is the gift.)

Well, its about that time. I would love to ask for your prayers for the Somerset Ward and Danielle and Derril. Bishop and ourselves are going to go speak to Derril who is the father of Danielle. She is 12 and wants to get baptized but we want to make sure her non-member father will provide a way for her to get to church if a member can't get her a ride. Our Bishop is awesome.. but I gotta go so I love you all and thanks for your prayers.

Love you mom and dad.

-Elder Hales