Well... My last email had a lot of concerns that I had in dealing with the poor attitudes and the murmurings of some of the leaders in the mission. We had Mission Leadership Council on Wednesday. President Wilson asked Elder Neumeyer and I to give a training. He asked me to talk about obedience. I went over my time allotted, which is never good, but afterward President thanked me for the words that I shared. I focused my thoughts on attitude. Mainly Doctrine and Covenants section 123 verse 17. Doing all things cheerfully that lie in our power. I drew a parrallel to the story of Abraham. How he was asked from God to sacrifice his son. He didn't ask why, he didn't ask the purpose for doing this, he didn't say it was a dumb thing to be asked to do. He just obeyed. Often times we get caught up in the "Whys"... Why do we have to do this. I am a prime example of this! and my parents and those who know me can attest to this. I always wanted a reason for why I was asked to do things. What did it bring me? CONTENTION! What do we learn from the scriptures about contention? It is not of God, but of the Devil. I didn't understand the true principle of obedience. I did what I was asked of me (most of the time haha) but I did it with a poor attitude. I needed to be more like Abraham. When asked to do something. He was obedient and did it. His faith was so strong that he knew that blessings would come from being obedient in ALL things. I then talked about Zions Camp. If you aren't familiar with Zions Camp, I highly recommend learning about it. These men were asked by a key holder to leave their homes and travel miles (roughly from Richmond to the southern most point of Florida) to help save the saints. The people were obedient, but when they were taken out of their comfort zones, they complained! Complaining didn't make the journey any faster, or any easier for that matter. The purpose of the camp was to test their obedience.

We had two really cool miracles this last week! On Tuesday we had a lesson set up with a lady that we met in Walmart. We took a priest from the ward with us, it was his first lesson with the missionaries. It was such a good lesson! Her son got baptized in Chicago a while ago, and she always wondered what he got into. She said that if she found these things to be true, she would get baptized, and she would do whatever it took to find out. She accepted the invitation to come to church and read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She lives in a different ward boundaries, so we passed her on to those missionaries. They sure were excited when we told them about her and gave them her information. I would be too haha!

The next miracle happend Friday night. Every first Friday of the month, there is a big art festival in Downtown Richmond. Lots of people come and are walking along the street. Missionaries set up a lemonade stand and talk to people on the street. it was early in the night, not too many people out yet, when a small kid approached me quietly. I asked him if he wanted some lemonade, and he shyly nodded. His Mom followed him and I made sure it was ok to give her son some lemonade. She saw that I had a restoration pamphlet in my hand with a picture of Jesus on it. She told me that she loved Jesus. I laughed and asked her if she goes to church. She said she didn't. I asked her if she wanted to go to church. She said sure! The church was a block away, and I asked her if she wanted to see the inside of the church right now. She said sure again! So we took her and her 11 year old son on a church tour. It went really well! After the tour we asked if we could sit down and talk more. She said she needed to get home for her son, but he piped in and said he wanted to stay. Hallelujah! So we sat down in the chapel and taught the restoration. It was the most spiritual lesson I have ever taught in my life. Everything rang true to her in her heart. She told us at the end that she knew that all of this was true. We set her to be baptized on August 31st. Her and her son. They are so excited! I'm so happy to have met Theronda and Jaylin. They live in another area as well. So we passed them on to the respective missionaries. They were stoked when we told them about her! I would be too! haha! In alma 29:14 it talks about rejoicing in the success of his brethren. It's amazing!

Well, that sums up the highlights of my week.

Love you all!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Ps... My former companion wrote an article about murmuring while we were together. It's really really good. It talks about how we are more like Laman and Lemuel than we think.