Dear all,

This last week was such a spiritually filling week! It started out with picking up new missionaries at the airport on Wednesday. The group was pretty big too. 13 people. One sister came from Germany, and another Elder came from Australia! We have such a diverse mission, it's neat. I have picked up 3 groups of missionaries thus far, and some of them have one or two solid missionaries and the rest are kind of in a deer-in-the-headlights state of mind. This one was different. All of them were ready to hit the ground running. I'm excited to see how they progress... Thursday was transfer meetings. Sadly, Elder Dehaan left me to go to a bike area out in the middle of nowhere. He requested to be on a bike, so I am happy for him! My new companion is Elder Oliver Newkirk. He is from North East New Mexico. He is 24 and has been out one transfer more than I have. Hopefully our different interests will mesh well together!

Saturday afternoon we had an AMAZING lesson with Grace! She has been investigating the Church off and on for about 4 years. As we were talking, she brought up a question that hit home for me. She told us that she prays every morning and every night, to find out what her purpose in life is. She said that she doesn't know why God doesn't answer her prayers... Right then the words came into my head of what she needed to hear. I looked at her and told her that I went through the exact same thing. Growing up, every morning and night I would ask the same question to God. The question was, Why me? Why did I have to be the one to have parents divorced? Of all of the people in the world, I had to be one of them. I let her know that I would get so angry, because God wouldn't give me an answer. However, I had no reason to be wrong. If anything, I should have been angry at myself. I was sitting there, waiting for God to come to ME and tell me. I told her that I didn't believe God works like that. It wasn't until I moved my feet, did God guide my footsteps to my answer. I told her that she if she wants a question answered, she has to act. It says it all throughout the Book of Mormon "if ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land." She is an incredibly faithful person, but her faith wasn't enough. She needed to show God through her ACTIONS, that she wanted an answer. We let her know that the easiest way to get an answer is to go to church, read, and pray. She was only doing 1/3 of what needed to be done. I told her that she knew that this church was true, and she dropped her head and nodded. I told her that she knew what she needed to do in order to come closer to God. She again nodded. I then asked her if she was willing to prepare to be baptized on September 8th. She looked up and stared at my companion and I for about a minute, and said yes. At that single moment, her demeanor changed. I kid you not, I saw a light enter her eyes. She knew all along that this church was true, she just didn't want to admit it. We saw her last night and she was the happiest I have ever seen. We invited her to church, but she said she had a something already planned. Sunday morning, I prayed that she would surprise us and go to church. When we got to church, she wasn't there. When we saw her that night, she told us that she went to church with her best friends in their ward. PROGRESS! She read what we left her to read, and understood what it said (2 Nephi 31). We are going to a dinner at her friends house (a member) with her and letting them know that she is getting baptized. I cannot wait to see their reactions.

I love being a missionary! This work is incredible!

Elder Michael Litchfield