So most of you have heard about the new missions opened up. WELL there is one being opened in Virginia! Which will change out mission boundaries. 2 zones from our mission will be part of the Richmond mission. It wont happen until July though. Crazy news around the mission though. Everyone is worried that they will switch missions. It's crazy how close you get to the people you serve with on your mission, ESPECIALLY your Mission President. I would not like to switch mission presidents. I LOVE PRESIDENT RIGGS! He is truly incredible. But alas, it is all in the Lord's hands. If I am mean't to switch, I will switch. 

We are working with Nina to get married. Her baptism date is THIS SATURDAY! I believe in miracles hahaha! We are going over there tonight and she should know by then. She doesn't even want a wedding! She just wants to be married so she can be worthy to live the law of chastity... Actually, ever since she has learned about the law of chastity, she has obeyed it! HAHAHAHA! Her faith is so incredible! Pray for her!

My last full week in Spotslyvania has come. March 7 is transfers. It feels like this is my home! I will be sad to say goodbye to a lot of the people in this area! But the area is in good hands with Elder Cluff. 

Love ya!!!

Elder Michael Litchfield

We had a baptism on Friday! Ariana was baptized by her Step-Dad, Greg. It was an amazing baptism. The spirit was so strong! Ariana said she feels so clean! YES! The impact of her decision to be baptized will not only affect her, but her 4 year old daughter as well. The ward loves that family and the family loves the ward! I am so grateful to have met them.

After the baptism, Nina came up to us and told us that she is going to be baptized before I leave (which will be March 7). She said she got the marriage papers and is going to give them to Joey and let him know that nothing will stand in her way of being baptized. What incredible courage she has! I love it!

The temple was open yesterday. We got a ride with a couple in our ward. It has been almost 7 months since I last went! It has been a year since my companion went! It was such a great day!!!!!

Sorry this is short! Not a lot of time to email! 

Elder Michael Litchfield

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Ariana was interviewed for her baptism. She passed with flying colors. It AMAZES Elder Cluff and I at the progress she has made! She went from avoiding us, to listening to us from another room, to sitting in the same room, to commenting on the lessons, to actually praying! When we first asked her to pray it was like pulling teeth. Now she prays no sweat! Her love for the gospel increases each time I see her. It also helps to have her Mom, who was baptized less than a month ago, constantly bear testimony to her about how true this church is. We talked with Nina (Ariana's sister) about getting married... It seems like all of my emails talk about her getting married. Well, she is going to the courthouse today and getting the marriage papers. She is going to give them to her boyfriend and tell him to sign them so she can get baptized. HECK YA NINA! How can he say no to that?! haha!

We had Zone Leader Council on Thursday this last week and it was really intense! President Riggs is making a lot of changes in the mission! It's awesome! Change keeps us from becoming complacent. The success of this mission is going to skyrocket. President Riggs is such an incredible mission president (now, every missionary will say their president is incredible). He will always and forever be my mission president.

We have this new investigator named Bryan Brown. He calls himself "to be or not to be". He's a great guy and even came to church last Sunday. He's super weird though haha. He never looks at us when we have lessons. He looks at the wall to the right or left of us. One time he was even talking to us for a solid 6 minutes with his back to us. The guy is strange, but he is a child of God nonetheless. He is willing to make the changes in his life necessary to live a Christ-like life.

This week is a busy week with Zone Training, Interviews with President, and Ariana's baptism. For Zone Training we are going to have each missionary right down on a piece of paper how many months they have left on their mission. We are then going to give each of them a picture of Jesus Christ. We are going to talk to them about how much they can give to Jesus Christ in the time they have left. We hope it will give them a little fire under their butts get out there and work.

Elder Michael Litchfield

I STAYED!!!!!

I will be in Spotsylvania for 5 more weeks (it's a short transfer)!!! I will be with Elder Cluff too!!! I was SO happy to stay! Elder Norris told me that this will be my last transfer here. Sad....

We had a REALLY good lesson with Ariana on Saturday! We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She asked lots of questions which was good! WE were able to answer them and comfort her. She is so excited for her baptism on the 15th. We are too! We're trying to get Joey, Nina's boyfriend, to sit in on the lessons with us. He is starting to warm up to us, but we still have a lot of work to do. 

Each week Elder Cluff and I do ALL that we can to get our investigators to church. Usually 1 or 2 investigators come to church each week. Yesterday, 6 INVESTIGATORS came to church!!!! Our gospel principles class was PACKED with recent converts, less active members, and investigators! We had to bring in more chairs from other rooms so everyone could sit down. Elder Cluff and I taught the lesson this week. It was on Missionary work. It was a great lesson and Kathy Osbourn (she finally came to church!!!) was crying and bore her testimony in class about how loving members of the church are. We hope to set her on date for baptism this week!

We had 25 new missionaries come into the mission this week! 12 of them were Sisters! In the next two transfers we are getting 50 missionaries and more than half are sisters! only 15 are going home too! 

Scripture for the week: 1Peter 3:15 "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready alwaysto give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"

This week I have truly realize how much Satan is working against the Gospel... Every time we try to set up an appointment with Tony (neighbor of a member who referred us to him) he is either sick or busy. HOW CAN YOU BE BUSY WHEN YOU PLAY VIDEO GAMES ALL DAY?! Frustrating to say the least... But we continue to try. We had an incredible lesson with Nina and Ariana, so incredible that Ariana committed to get baptized on February 15th! This is a true miracle, because 2 months ago she didn't even like the idea of going to church in general, and would hide from us every time we came by. Elder Holland said in a talk at the MTC in 2000 "80% of investigators that attend a baptismal service, go on to get baptized themselves." Ariana has been to her Mom and her Dads baptism. How could she not have a desire to get baptized?! Side note: A companionship drove an hour to bring their investigator to Lilly's baptism. This area hadn't had a baptism in almost a year! Well, that investigator is getting baptized in February! He felt the spirit at the baptism and had the desire to follow Christs example! SO COOL!

Anyways... Nina has told us that as right after she gets married (and I mean right after as literally as possible) she wants to get baptized. We just need to get her fiance of 15 years to man up. Her whole family, and his, are waiting and waiting for them to get married. He has never really been interested in listening to the lessons, but Saturday (after the incredible lesson), Nina invited him to a fireside where recent converts speak about their conversion. To all of our surprise, he said yes! So for the next 24 hours we were SO EXCITED! Then here comes the adversary to mess up everything... Their whole family got sick overnight.... Are you kidding me? And not just like a cough sick. 2 of them had to go to the hospital! So we didn't go to the fireside... I couldn't believe it as the whole downfall of our plans unraveled. We're just going to have to fight back twice as hard now. Funny thing is, Nina and Ariana recognized that the adversary was working to thwart our plans. They are going to pray and read twice as much to fight back!!! HECK YA!

I continue my reading of Jesus the Christ and absolutely love it.

I love the Gospel. This church is true. I'm having the time of my life!!!!!

Elder Michael Darrin Litchfield

Below:

Pictures of Lillys baptism! Greg baptized her! He got baptized a month ago!!! The other two ladies are Nina and Ariana, and the little girl is Viani. Oh and my companion, Elder Cluff...

Hello!!!

Lilly got baptized on Saturday! Her husband, Greg, baptized her. If you remember, Greg got baptized in December! Such an incredible thing to see! Lilly asked me if I would confirm her. It was a great honor. Their two daughters were at the baptism and they were in tears. We are hoping their oldest daughter, Nina, will get married so she can get baptized.

We had a meeting ALL day Thursday. Longest meeting of my life. The two guys that are in charge of the missionary department at SLC came to our mission. One of them was the mission president of the District 2 missionaries! We learned about how to effectively teach less active members as well as use the pamphlets  that we have AND a new way of introducing the Book Of Mormon. We also changed a lot of things for the mission and are getting ready for a TON of missionaries to come in! It's awesome!

Love you all!

Elder Michael Litchfield

I don’t have much time to email this week! So it will be a short one!

Greg and Lilly came to church and brought their 2 grandkids! The 4 of them loved church! Greg received the Priesthood and is ready to baptize Lilly on the 19th. We are working with their 2 daughters still. Hopefully we will see some miracles this week with them!

We had a really cool experience with Sonja this week! We brought an older couple from the ward to a lesson with her on Wednesday. Turns out, the husband of the couple went to high school with Sonja’s deceased husband. Such a great connection was made! Sonja now has a fellowshipper! All she needs to do now is COME TO CHURCH! Hopefully after her surgery this Wednesday she will feel better and come to church.

Till next week!

Elder Michael Litchfield