Thanksgiving in Ottumwa ~ Pumpkin Pie and Puppies

This week was super fun, we taught and walked and made pie.  We ate Thanksgiving dinner out in the middle of nowhere with a member family who just had a little of puppies. They are incredible!

We found a little marshallese boy this week named JC, whose mom had been baptized like 20 years ago and gone inactive. We were trying to talk to mack and beana again, but they're always asleep. But we pulled into their driveway and when we looked up from our prayer there was a new car there with a new marshallese family that moved in with mack and Beana. We decided to try to talk to them, and that's when we found out about the moms baptism. JC Is a really shy kid, and couldn't read. But the second time we came over, we showed him some videos of the book of mormon that the church has made and his entire personality changed, he loved them and now he wants us over every day. His mom was telling us that she had been praying for guidance about her son, she knows he is special and she wanted the best for him, so she asked God. Then she saw us praying and she told us that when she saw us praying she felt the spirit real strong, and she knew we had come for JC. It was a really cool experience and JC is progressing really well to baptism. 

Also, I have been really worried about mack, an investigator. He got a job at a meat plant here called JBS and he works 12 hours, 6-7 days a week. I have only seen him once this transfer and it bums me out because E Wood and I were really close with him. But we went back to see JC last night, and once again we looked up from praying and mack was right there, so i got to see him for probably the last time. Its sad, but I know Heavenly Father gave me that opportunity, and I'm very grateful for it.

This week, elder Caterson and I made 3 trays of my aunt debby's awesome pumpkin cookies, and 3 pumpkin pies made from scratch, with a crust and filling recipe from an awesome recent convert named stacy.

God guides us in everything we do and that is such a privilege, I love being out here and I'm sad to probably see Ottumwa go this next week. 

I love you all, I'm grateful for everything you all have done to help me

Week in pictures

A Decent Week

I've got like 4 minutes to write this so it'll be brief. Sorry if I didn't reply to some of your emails, i saw them and will reply when i can

This week we continued teaching all of m's family. He kind of stopped progressing so we turned to his family, they're doing well and they like to play soccer with us.

Also we helped a member teach her unruly class of youth and it was cool. We taught about teaching and it went well.

I love you all

Exchanges and A Marshallese Miracle

This week I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Caterson and one of my zone leaders, Elder Roskelly. They were both super awesome.

With Elder Caterson, we did a lot of knocking, talked through Karate Kid, and 1 1/2 Lord of the Rings movies while we worked. Towards the end we found this lady named M who wants to get baptized, and the other elders are working really well with her. So awesome.

With Elder Roskelly, we also did a lot of knocking and found this Guy named R and his wife S. If you've read my emails before, you know that Fairfield is a special place. For example, S told us that she had had a telepathic communication with the center of the earth a few times. Really interesting people, but also super nice. I love Fairfield a lot.

Recently we have been getting held in the refiners fire a lot. People keep on telling us they will come to church but don't. That happened again this week and I was really mad. But we were able to find this group of like 7ish Marshallese ten year olds who we taught, and they want to come to church with each other and accepted a baptismal invite. SO cool. We slayed them in a quick game of soccer and then they fought over the one Book of Mormon we have. I love seeing people, especially young ones, with a real desire to learn. 

I love you all a lot. In the words of the massive gingerbread man from Shrek 2: "Be good."