This week was again a good week. Gregory is on-date for baptism!!!!!! It was such a funny lesson! We were teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the end of the lesson we asked Greg if he would be baptized and he was like: "Yeah for sure! If that's what God wants me to do, I will do it." He has a bad smoking problem, so we told him that he would have to quit smoking. He told us that he has been wanting to for a long time, but never really had any drive to do so. He told us that he wouldn't smoke again. A couple days later we find out that he has his WHOLE family quitting smoking! His Daughter-in-law  told me that she had never seen him this happy and healthy. Their family sometimes listens to our lessons, but it's hit or miss with them. He is doing an incredible job in being a good example for them! December 15th he will be baptized!!! He really has changed a ton.

This last Friday missionaries in a neighboring area learned of an old woman who was in the hospital suffering from breast cancer who really wished she had Christmas lights up on her house.  While she was in the hospital, we put up the lights.  That night, the lady came home from the hospital, her husband carried her into the house and turned on the lights for her.  She was really excited and expressed significant joy for her wish to have come true!  Approximately four minutes later, this sweet lady slipped into a coma.  She passed away that night. Her family kept calling us and our mission president thanking us for our service. The missionaries in that area just received 10 new investigators just from that one act of service!!! HECK YA!

Sunday night we had a cool little miracle. We had just been told to go away from a former investigators door step. We were sitting in the car. It was 8:45 PM. I told Elder Norris "We only have 15 min left!!!" He told me that we should say a prayer. We said a prayer asking Heavenly Father for a miracle. As we sat in the car, Elder Norris was like, lets go knock on that one door. It was random, but we did it. Behind the door we met Dale. He is a Junior in High School who has read the Book of Mormon for 2 years. He hates his Catholic roots, and has been talking to a youth in our ward at school about the church. He had asked her to get the missionaries to come to his house a few days prior. We had no idea, but were excited nonetheless! We talked about the Book of Mormon and have a return appointment with him this week!

Sunday after church I was able to give my first baptismal interview! It was for a girl who grew up Muslim, but is converting to our church. Her Dad is Muslim and her mom is a Mormon. The interview was great! She had a firm testimony of this gospel and has a true desire to get baptized! It was an honor for me to participate in that process. She will be getting baptized this Friday night, and is having 15 of her non-member friends come to witness it. SWEET!

Our zone has really picked it up with their obedience, and the blessings are coming!

I'm SOOOOOOO FULL from Thanksgiving!!!! Way better than the food I had last year in the MTC!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Another week in Spotsylvania. Home of bluegrass and hillbillies. This last week was a really good week! We had a lesson with a lady named Terri. She has been talking with the missionaries for YEARS. She tells us that she would convert if she were younger, but she feels too old. We were reading the Book of Mormon with her and all of a sudden it hit me. God revealed to me what her concern was. She's scared. She's scared of what her family would think. She's scared of what her friends would think. She's scared of the different lifestyle. When I brought this up to her she became very solemn. I am here today to testify to you all that the Spirit was incredibly strong in that room at that moment. After a moment of silence, she revealed to us that the first time she read the Book of Mormon was right before she went to bed one night. As she tried to go to sleep, she wasn't able too. The curiosity of the Book kept her awake. She would then read another chapter, and then try to fall asleep. This occurred all throughout the night. She told us that in the morning she knew that the Book of Mormon was true, but put it in the back of her mind. We talked to her about overcoming fear and trusting in God. She's still got a ways to go, but the end is in sight!

We also went to visit a media referral that hadn't been home the past 9 times we tried to visit them. Guess what haha... They answered. It's a Mom with her two teen sons. They are Jehovah Witnesses, but are fed up with them. Her Husband and in-laws passed away within a matter of years apart while they were living in Wyoming. Their church did nothing to help them out, while their LDS neighbor did. The neighbor was incredible in helping them through that hard time in their lives and set an amazing example. This family moved out here to live with her parents. Years ago one of the sons did something that he probably shouldn't have, and the JW's shunned him and are continuing to shun him. Anyone who talks to him gets in trouble as well. It's a horrible situation. The Mom wants her sons to make friends in the LDS church and get involved in as many activities as possible. We have taught them the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and they tell us that it rings true in their hearts. They didn't come to church yesterday which was a HUGE bummer, but they told us that they will come next Sunday. We are going to be working with the Young Men's president and the Relief Society President to fellowship this family. The gospel can improve their lives so much right now! 

Since Elder Norris served here is first transfer (16 months ago) we have been contacting former investigators like CRAZY! President and Sister Riggs have emphasized the importance of keeping a good area book and contacting former investigators. We have been able to reconnect with a lot of people who weren't ready to accept the gospel back then, but are ready to now. I LOVE IT!

I was able to go to a meeting with other missionaries from this mission at the mission home. We discussed different things that need to change among missionaries and their work ethic. My companion and I are going to report to our zone tomorrow. I also found out that Elder Packer of the Seventy will be visiting our mission in the beginning of December! He will be speaking to just our mission! AND I have the incredible opportunity to be one of the missionaries involved in a smaller, more private meeting after the big one to the mission.

Our Zone's new motto: John 14:15

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well transfers have come and gone. I am still here in Spotsylvania. My new companion is Elder Parker Norris, from North Ogden Utah. We are having a blast together!!!!!! He is very obedient and has a strong drive to work hard. He has been out almost 17 months. This area is the area that he started his mission in too, so he was very excited to see everyone that he knew over a year ago. He only spent six weeks here, so he feels he has a lot of work to finish here. I'm very excited!... On Saturday we went over the Michael Moore's house. He made it pretty clear that he was set on his Methodist belief, but was fine with us continuing to teach his daughter, Victoria. Victoria had read the first 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon that week, and was able to re-tell the stories that she read about! Her favorite story was the Tree of Life. We were able to explain to her what everything represented, and she said she liked it even more. It was incredible how much information she retained from reading it. Before we could even begin with the lesson, she told us that she wants to get baptized. I think she told us that like ten times throughout the lesson too. She said that she had prayed about the church and the Book of Mormon, and received an answer that all of it is true! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! She went back to her Mom's house in North Carolina Sunday morning to start school again. She does 9 weeks on and 3 weeks off. The young women were sad that she wasn't able to go to church, but Victoria told us that she is going to find an LDS church down there and go to it every week. She gave us a card that had her address in it so we can send missionaries there. In the note she also told us that before she had met us, she was depressed. She questioned whether there was a God. She wrote that meeting us was one of the greatest moments of her life, and that she wants us to be at her baptism! She has incredible faith and determination!!!! We are very excited to see her progression in the Gospel.

Greg came to church again on Sunday. He has an infection in his tooth which causes severe pain in his jaw and head, but he still came! The whole time too (because he got a ride with a member, hehe)! Even though he had pain in his head, he was still able to recognize the spirit. The lesson in 3rd hour was on providing for your children and being good examples for them. After church he told us that he loved the lesson and that he felt really good. When he introduced himself in Priesthood he said: "Hi my name is Greg. This is my third time here, and i'm not a Mormon yet.".... YET! hahahahah!!! I love it! We are going over to his house Tuesday night for dinner. We are going to teach the rest of his family and bring them closer to Christ!

I love my mission. Every aspect of it. The highs and the lows. Every day is an adventure!!!!

Love you all!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Sorry for the late email... again. Monday we were helping one of our investigators, Gregory (he is in his 50s), move a shed at his Mom's house. It took us a long time and him and his brother were arguing the whole time, which didn't help...

This last weekend we saw some incredible miracles!!!! So Saturday our ward mission leader offered to drive us out to Partlow ( the outer part of our area. 45 min drive to get there) to visit some less active members and potential investigators. I was in the back of his truck while elder tolle was talking to him in the front. As we were driving, an idea came to my head to text Michael Moore. We had met him 4 weeks prior riding our bikes, but hadn't been able to see him. He responded right away and asked when the soonest we could come. So we went over there that night and had dinner with him. Before the dinner he pulled us aside and said that his daughter, who is 14, was struggling with "worldly" things. He wanted her to go to a good church. So as the night went on we talked the whole family about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We invited Michael and his wife to church, but they said that they couldn't because they had to take care of their handicapped 2 year old son. So we invited Victoria (his daughter) and she said yes! So we quickly called a family who lived around the corner to give her a ride and she said yes! As we left their home, I also felt impressed to call Gregory and invite him to church. He hadn't been in a couple months. He said yes too! So we arranged a ride for him as well. Both came to church on Sunday! The young women in the ward did an incredible job with Victoria! Made her feel right at home as she entered the building. Throughout the whole 3 hours she kept telling us that she loves it here. We were with Greg most of the 3 hours and he enjoyed it as well! Sunday night we went to go visit the Small family (the family who picked Victoria up from her house). As we were driving to their house, we noticed that an SUV was making every turn we made. So we made some test turns and they still followed us! We went down and around dead ends and they followed us!!! A lady in the car would roll down her window and scream at us as we passed her on the dead ends. She followed us for 30 mins! I am man enough to say that I was pretty freaked out at this point. We decided to go to a members home where we knew they had a gun (haha we didn't know if they had a gun in their car!!!). We pulled into their driveway and they came outside. The car pulled up and a lady inside just started crying and saying "IM SO SORRY!"... Apparently her Son, who is 15, ran away from home a couple days prior, and someone told her that they had seen him in a neighborhood that we were working in. She drove past us and thought I was him. She told us that she thought it was him because if it wasn't, the cops would be called. That probably would have saved us some time. However! We got her information and she invited us to have dinner at her house next week and teach them more about our religion! Crazy huh?! It gets better!... So Monday night we went to the Smalls, because we weren't able to go Sunday night cause of the stalker lady. When we got there, Sister Small told us that she had just gotten off the phone with Michael Moore. He told her that Victoria had an incredible time at church, and wants to continue going to it and join it! He also told her about his handicapped son and Brother Small told us that he felt impressed that we should go over and give him a blessing. So we went over and William (the son) wouldn't let us get close to him, probably because he was scared. Michael still wanted us to give him a blessing, so he got him to go to sleep after 20 min, and we gave him a blessing. Michael wants to start going to our church now too!... Crazy to think that if that lady hadn't followed us, we would have visited the Smalls Sunday night and not Monday night. And we might not have known that William needed a blessing. The Lord works in MYSTERIOUS WAYS!!!!!!!!! 

Transfers are tomorrow. I'm staying and Elder Tolle is leaving. This next Transfer should be an interesting one!!!

 

It will also be interesting to see the reaction of the people here to the elections!!!

Elder Michael Litchfield