Hey!

At the beginning of this week, Elder Newkirk and I knocked on the Freeman Familys home. They have always been busy when we go, and we haven't had a lesson with them in over a month. Well, it was 8:30 and they were just finishing up dinner. To my surprise they happily let us in! We sat down with them and started teaching about the Restoration. As the lesson went on, their kids drew nearer and nearer from other rooms to listen. It was awesome! They had some concerns, which didn't surprise me. Steve, the dad, is Protestant, and Cecilia, the mom, is Catholic. At the end of the lesson I told them that "the things that we say are completely true. But you can't take our word for it. The only way that your going to know for yourself is if you actually read the Book, and pray WITH REAL INTENT." I have found that that can be such a hard thing for people to grasp. What is it? Intent means : the state of mind with which an act is done. And REAL means: not artificial, fraudulent, or illusory. People need to open their hearts when asking such an important question. Otherwise, they will not receive their answer. The whole family agreed that they would do JUST that! To pray with real intent. It was such an awesome lesson!

Grace went on vacation on Wednesday night, but we gave her the Book of Mormon on CD and she says she has been listening to it while she has been gone. She is such a faithful person! She is so excited to get baptized on September 8th!

So we have church on Sundays from 3-6. We try to grab something to eat quick after, which means we don't get out to the work till about 6:30. Sunday is such a crucial day to work! However, it is amazing how the Lord knows your time constraints and efforts, and blesses you in that short amount of time. We went to visit a man who we knocked into a couple days ago. We taught him a short lesson on the Restoration, and gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon. He agreed to read it and pray about it. He answered the door, but told us that he was on a conference call and asked if we could come back Tuesday night. We agreed, of course, and went on our way. I remembered that his house was the last house we knocked, and didn't finish the street. THE FIRST DOOR WE KNOCK ON: The lady answers and recognizes us as LDS Missionaries. She told us that She and her family were just leaving for a dinner party. Right away she asked us if we could come back and teach her. SWEET! We are going there this Thursday! We then went to visit a lady that we had found in the area book. We tried visiting her the day before, but her 5 year old son told us that she wasn't home (he was being babysat by his grandma). So we knock on the door, and to my surprise, lady was probably 23 years old. The look in her eyes shouted that life hadn't been good for her. We found out that she hadn't really been taught by the missionaries, but just knew them. She said that religion seemed a little far-fetched. The Spirit is an incredible thing, because right then I knew what to say to her. I told her that "the trials that you are going through, you don't have to go through them alone. Even if the idea of a higher being is far-fetched, it's better than believing in nothing. God loves you SO much! He wants to help you. He is waiting for you to follow what he says and bless your life." As I finished, she looked down. She then looked at us and asked if we could come teach her more this week. She told us that she would read the Book of Mormon that she has and pray about it. God is so good! He works so many miracles all around us! What a blessing it is for me to be able to witness them! I LOVE IT!!!!

Elder Michael Litchfield