6.20.11

Dear world,

What up. So, this past week was way good. I think it's the best week numbers-wise that i've ever had, but of course numbers don't really mean squat, it's the people behind em that are important, but my companion and I had 10 new investigators this week. I know right? Holy freaken cow. We were very blessed this past week.

Let's see.... well, Elder Jones types like he wants to destroy the keyboard next to me, and you know I have a hard time focusing with noise, but i'll do my best to write a good letter.

Tuesday, we had D-meetin, ate some Taco Bell like always, we had a bombin' lesson with Rachel that night, but unfortunatley after that she went M.I.A for the rest of the week. We haven't seen her since. She was suppossed to be baptized Saturday, but she wont answer her phone calls or her door... It's rough. Hopefully she'll come around. Baptism seems to scare her, and it's frustrating because I feel like she's so ready, her heart is in the right place, and she's been learning this stuff for over a year now, I know she has a testimony... Elder Kelly seems to be the only Elder who can set a baptismal date with her, but he's an AP, so he'll come in the area for a couple days, and go see her and commit her to baptism, then he'll leave, and she'll back out at the last minute. That seems to be the cycle. I think we're gonna put her on the back burner for a little while and focus on a few of our other investigators, President Drewes always told us that we need to focus on the "YES sayers" those people who are making commitments and following through with their commitments. We need people who are ready to change. I know Rachel will be baptized one day, hopefully I'll be there to see that day, but I think Elder Jones and I need to focus on the people who are ready now, and are willing to make sacrifices for what they believe in.

Wednesday was bueno. We took my man Ronnie Jackson out teaching with us. Almost all of our appointments fell through, which is very common. We ended up meeting with a less-active lady and we had a really cool lesson with her and her grandchildren. Then we took Ronnie back to his apartment, and decided to have FHE with the Jacksons, I feel like they just need some family bonding time, so we got them all together and taught them how to play some "BS". That was awesome, lol. Keisha got way into it, and so did the rest of them. If i've learned anything in Memphis, it's don't upset a big black woman... and that apartment was filled with em, and we played a heated game of cards. It was intense, lol. There was a lot of yelling and hollerin', but it only made it that much more fun haha. I love them, they're awesome. I think Michelle (Keisha's mom) really enjoyed it too. That evening I decided we should just go contacting and try to increase our teaching pool. So we were walking down the street and up ahead I see this house with like 10 teenage black girls all just chillin' on the porch, and I had just got done talking about how we need to open our mouth to everyone we see, even if it's uncomfortable... lol. and I wasn't about to be a hypocrite... So when we got up there, I took a deep breath, and went and stood in the middle of 10 black girls and asked if we could share a message. Right after I asked there was the most akward silence of my entire life... lol. One of them started talking to me though, and then all of them started to warm up to us, and we were able to share the restoration with 7 of them right there on the porch, it was awesome. We committed the 7 to baptism, and they all want to get baptized on the 9th of July. They weren't able to make it to church Sunday though... we have an appointment with them tommorrow, hopefully it goes well. That was 7 of our new investigators for the week. So that was pretty sweet.

The rest of the days all kinda blend together, but my favorite part of the week was teaching this Lady named Mary. She's super legit. She doesn't speak English, she only speaks "Nuer", her and her daughter Martha are from Sudan, and they came to America like 16 years ago. Martha speaks English way good, so she's our translator, and when Martha first came over to translate for us she said that she wasn't too interested herself, because she's catholic, but she was fine with translating for us. Well we shared The Restoration with them, and Martha and Mary both loved it, and they both came to church with us yesterday! They are so awesome, and Mary wore the coolest dress to church, I guess it was the type of clothes they wear in Sudan, it was legit. She's the nicest lady, and even though she doesn't speak English she says hi to everyone and gives everyone hugs, lol. She's so cool, and it's really fun teaching her, we use a lot of pointing and hand gestures and stuff. She's my favorite investigator, hopefully we're gonna set a date for her to be baptized soon, I'm planning on setting the date this week. I really wish that we had a Nuer Book Of Mormon though. I called the office and Sister Hogan said she looked it up and that they don't make Book Of Mormons in Nuer... But Mary said she's about to take an English class so she's excited because she wants to be able to read the Book Of Mormon on her own. She's awesome.

Then we found this other guy Joseph, and he's way cool, he's been through a lot. He's been shot a couple times, and he lost his leg a few years ago, and he's only like 23. He is an awesome guy though, and he took the 1st lesson pretty well, hopefully we'll be able to meet with him again this week.

Oh, something else cool that happened; Elder Badger called me the other night and told me that Erica (an investigator Elder Badger and I found in Frayser) called him up the other day and told him she was ready to be baptized and that she had gotten her answer. It's so awesome! Almost everyone Elder Badger and I found those 2 transfers has either gotten baptized already or is planning on being baptized within the month. We have had 7 baptisms together, and Erica and her 2 kids will make it 10. I had 4 more with Elder Hardy, and 1 with Elder Jones so far, and we have 9 dates set currently. So much work is getting done, and there's so much work to do! I love it.

Transfer calls happened this morning, and..... I'm staying another one with Elder Jones in Raleigh. This transfer will be 7 weeks long. So I'm gonna be with Elder Jones all the way up until sometime in August. I'm excited though, we have a lot to work with here and a lot of new ideas to help the ward out, there's just so much to do, I'm excited for the next 7 weeks! and I have this opportunity to learn to have more patience with Elder Jones.

Yesterday in church, Sister Cherry was teaching the new member class, and we were talking about gifts of the spirit, any way she asked someone to read a scripture, and I guess she got the reference wrong, I think she said Moroni 9: 8 and 9, I'm pretty sure that was it, and any way, Moroni 9:8 is possibly the most grusome scripture in the Book Of Mormon, it talks about canabolism, and Elder Lester started reading it, and I look around and all the recent converts looked super disturbed, and she stops him halfway through and she was like "shut your Book Of Mormons! I don't think that was the right scripture" it was super funny. I'm glad Mary couldn't understand what was being read, lol.

That's pretty much everything that been going on here, nothing too crazy. You know what I found out? You can't walk around bear foot in Tennessee, or else you'll get eaten alive by chiggers... its the worst, lol. I was grillin in the back yard at the Frayser house, so obviously I was bear foot, and now it looks like my feet have some nasty disease. Now I have to wear shoes when I grill... lesson learned.

We get a new mission President Wednesday, that's gonna be wierd and exciting, and Elder Fry, my buddy, got a call this morning and he's getting transfered out of Frayser, so he's leaving the ward :( I'm gonna miss that guy, he's awesome. I bet I'll see him around in the next year and a half though.

Well family, I love ya, keep it real, I hope you enjoyed the pictures, Thanx for everything, have an awesome week!

- Elder LeBaron