This last week was a great week! I got to talk to my amazing parents which is the greatest gift a missionary can get!

We're teaching a lady named Sonja right now. Elder Norris found her when he was here his first transfer, and she is more prepared now! She is still pretty stubborn, but she is preparing to be baptized on Feb. 9th. We just need her to COME TO CHURCH! She said after her shoulder surgery she will be more inclined to come, but who knows...

Greg is doing amazing! He was supposed to get the priesthood on Sunday, but his medicine is taking a toll on him. He came to Sacrament meeting with his wife, but he had to go home after and sleep. His wife, Lilly, LOVED CHURCH! She wanted to stay the whole time! We went to a mission-home fireside Sunday night. Recent Converts to the church bear their testimony and tell their conversion story. Greg was one of them. We rode up with them. 2 and a half hours in the car!!! Traffic in DC is HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We made it safely and it was a great event. His wife and daughter came as well. Nina, his daughter, told us after that she wants to get baptized SO BAD! But she is nervous about quitting coffee, and she is not married. She is trying to get her affairs in order so that she is worthy. She is making HUGE progress! Greg is going to baptize his wife on January 19th!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THAT!!!! That family is SO humble! It's incredible.

We had a lesson with a lady who has been super flakey. She cancelled our lesson with her on Saturday, but we went anyway. She was home and let us come in. She bombarded us with Anti-LDS questions that she found on the internet. It was sad to see her willingness to believe such nonsense. The stuff she was saying didn't even make sense!

For the 3rd hour of church, all of the teachers met together to talk about the new curriculum. Elder Cluff and I were asked to teach all of the youth about Preach My Gospel. I feel it went really well! They weren't a talkative group, but we heard good things from their parents afterward. We showed some videos from "The District". They really enjoyed that. On LDS.org, search "The District"!!! They are awesome!!!

We get to watch 2 movies tonight for New Years! Cars 2 and Despicable Me! FUN FUN FUN!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Greg got baptized!!!!!! It was amazing! He started chemo the day before and was wiped out. He told us that nothing could stop his baptism. Saturday he came to the Church with his family and was ready to go. His wife and daughters were there and after they told us that they finally found what they have been looking for in a religion. They are going to be baptized on January 17. We are going to work with Greg to get the Priesthood so that he can baptize them. We had his fellow-shipper/ride-to-church baptize him. It was really cool to see that bond be made between them. Greg asked if I would confer upon him the Holy Ghost. I was more than happy to do so. His family came to church on Sunday and loved it!

Kathy Osbourn came to the ward Christmas party on Friday night. She was able to meet the relief society presidency and became friends with them. PERFECT! Saturday night we had a couple in the ward drive us and Kathy up to the temple visitors center to watch the DC choir sing (Kathy is really into that kind of music, and it just so happens that the director of the choir is in our ward... so we got really good seats haha) The entire time the couple that drove us were answering her questions. It was incredible. She loves those members now, and we are going to have more lessons at their home. Kathy is such a faithful person. She has gone through so much hardship. She is accepting the Gospel and we can see it in her countenance. She notices it too. We are going to set her on date in our next lesson.

Elder Norris is now the new Assistant to the President. So I will be getting a new companion and staying in Spotsylvania for another 6 weeks. This is by far my favorite area, but I was sad to see Elder Norris leave. We have so many people that are going to get baptized in January. We worked incredibly hard and saw so many miracles. He will make an excellent Assistant.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Well, I feel a lot better today then I did last Monday! Having a fever of 102 is not fun! I pretty much slept from 4pm to 8 am. President approved me of sleeping in which was much needed! Elder Norris is a stud. He still woke up at 6:30 and stayed obedient. He was quiet all morning so as to let me sleep. MY COMPANION IS THE BEST!

Greg came to church on Sunday! Which means he can get baptized this Saturday! He has been smoke free for 5 days now, and is doing amazing! His whole family is smoke-free! At church, someone asked if Greg was a member. He told them that he will be on Saturday, and that his family will be very soon too! Heck ya! As soon as they can figure out their working on Sunday problems, they will get baptized. Greg really wants to go to the temple as a family! The plan is for him to baptize his family. What an incredible experience that will be for him. The ward loves him too. Such a great transition has taken place from us to the ward. Greg is already talking about how excited he is to Home teach! That's what this church needs! Members who are excited to do their home teaching! He will make an incredible Priesthood holder.

Lauren came to church as well! We found out that a recent convert lives right around the corner from her. This recent convert has an incredible conversion story that meshes perfectly with what Lauren is going through. Coincidence that they live so close to each other? I THINK NOT! Lauren grew up a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church, but became Agnostic in her teen years. She is 23 now. We are praying that the she will recognize the Light of Christ that is in her. I gotta say that teaching her has been a tricky one. But she has changed SO MUCH since we first met her. She has gone from totally NOT believing there is a God, to coming to church and actually asking questions if there really is a God. We have even gotten her to pray and ask for a confirmation that God exists! We see REAL GROWTH happening within her and it is incredible to be a witness of that.

Elder Packer (son of President Packer) came to the mission! We had a conference with him yesterday. It started at 8:15 am! If any of you have ever been to DC, you know how awful the traffic is! Going northbound on I95 in the morning is THE WORST! We had to wake up at 4:30 am, picked up another companionship at 5:30 am and drove 50 miles to the Stake Center where it was held at. We didn't get there till 8:00 am. One of the negatives of living the furthest south in the mission. Traffic on the way back was just as bad. We didn't get home till 5:00pm. The conference was from 8:15 am-3:00 PM. There was a meeting before and after the conference for a small group of missionaries (8 in total) and I had the priviledge of being one of them! It was incredible! In the small meetings, we had the opportunity to ask Elder Packer questions about the Gospel, being a missionary, and life after the mission. It was an experience that I will never forget (that's why I have a journal haha!). I don't know what caused it, maybe lack of sleep and food, but in the middle of the conference I felt like I had to throw up. I told Elder Norris that I had to use the restroom and we left the chapel. I ran to the batheroom (while running I was taking off my suit coat as to not get it messy) and threw up in the toilet. Such a gross feeling, but after I was perfectly ok. Elder Norris grabbed me a bottle of water and a mint while I was in the bathroom. But other than that experience, the conference was awesome! In the small group, I asked Elder Packer for his advice on getting missionaries to have a desire to be obedient. His response was short. He told us that missionaries are disobedient because they lack the faith of the blessings that come from obedience, and that their testimonies are struggling. He told us to concentrate on strengthening their testimonies, and by doing so obedience will improve. 

Funny story... Since being with Elder Norris, any time we encounter a BIG dog, the dog attacks (not really attacks, but barks and jumps on) Elder Norris. He has never been a dog person either which makes it that much more funny. So anytime we hear dogs in a house that we knock on, he steps behind me.  One time a big dog ran around me and jumped on him as the person opened the door to their house hahahahahahahah!

Happy Holidays!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Not many big things happened this week, so this email might be short! Sorry!

We had a great lesson with Greg and his daughter about quitting smoking. They started the program to quit. Greg is excited about his baptism on the 15th! He was going to come to church yesterday, but his wife's car broke down on her way to work, so he had to deal with that. But he says that he is going to make sure he is there next week and the week after. 

We did a TON of service this week too! We raked leaves for a total of 10 hours this week. THERE ARE SO MANY LEAVES IN VIRGINIA! One day we raked for 4 hours. We didn't even finish. We are going to finish this week. We have been able to pick up quite a bit of potential investigators doing this though! They stop by and ask if we are a company. One thing leads to another and we are invited to go back to their house and talk to them about our religion! HAHA

There are a lot of ticks here too. And Elder Norris and I are pretty sure we got bit by a couple while raking leaves. Lime disease is common in this area too. Great............

The Christmas devotional from SLC was awesome! We watched it with a part member family (the member mom hasn't been to church in over 30 years)! The non member girl, who is agnostic, really enjoyed it and even took notes! We introduced her to a member that lived around the corner from her. They are going to carpool to church this Sunday! HECK YA!

Hope all is well! CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!

Elder Michael Litchfield