Can a leopard change his spots?

We have been visiting Less Activie members and finding investigators along the way. Life is so hard for some people and so that I can understand.  But others have it really good and still don't bother with having Heavenly Father in their lives. But this all can change and that's the nature of missionary work.

We have a wonderful AP.   He is an Assistant to the President of the mission. To be an AP means you were a missionary, District leader, and Zone leader first. It means you are EXACTLY obedient to the mission rules and what the Lord is requiring of us on the mission.  It means you love the Lord, and the other missionaries.  It means you conduct many meetings and teach many trainings and still find time to go out and do missionary work AND learn the new language (in this case, Spanish).

Like I said, he is amazing.  But this Elder has to always wear long sleeve shirts here on this mission where even Elder Pack wears short sleeves.  That's because his body is covered in tatoos.  In his "former life" he didn't know the Lord.  But the gospel changes people.  The trick is to turn around, accept the gospel and stick with it and the Lord will literally shower you with blessings. 

Navajo Missionaries

We met another senior missionary couple who are Navajos.  They put in their mission papers and requested the Navajo reservation.  Surprise, they were called to the California Fresno mission!  They accepted the call and came anyway.  They arrived and were assigned to Porterville, California. And they discovered there are some Navajos there.  They have already met the chief and got his OK to proselyte the people.  They also have found some Navajo members and are visiting them. The Lord has a plan and all we have to do is have the faith to follow it!

Party Animals

Glen and I drove around to 17 families' homes to invite these less actives and investigators to our Branch mother's day dinner on Thursday.  On Friday we had the dinner.  Not everyone came.  But some came!
One of the sisters hasn't been to church in over a year.  She brought her mom, sister, and four kids.  And says she wants to come back into the church.  Tomorrow will tell.

Another sister is an investigator that we saw for the first time this week with a member accompanying us. She brought her mom, sister, and kids.  The mom is 86 and when we visited Tues. she said she felt something telling her to ask this man (Glen) to give her a blessing. She has great pain in her legs.  So Glen did and I knew it was going to help her and it did!  At the dinner she said the pain is much less.

We also worked hard to get a family to come that had been offended by a church member and wasn't coming to church anymore.  And they came!

We also had district and zone meeting on Tuesday morning.  I was asked the day before to give a 10 minute talk on Accountability.  Giving talks is nothing anymore if I can just do it in English!  So I gave the talk and near the end I was talking about the accounting that is done in the Temple ceremony and I had the best experience with the Holy Ghost! It is so wonderful to be on a full time mission and have the opportunity to work so close with the Lord.

I would like to take a moment to wish my daughters and daughters-in-law a Happy Mothers Day. These mothers are the best mothers I know and I love them. Keep in mind that Adam called Eve the mother of all living and God agreed.  And this was before she had any children! And Happy Mothers Day to all you good women reading this too.

A much better Sunday

We broke 30 for our attendance at Sacrament Meeting Sunday.  Don't laugh.  That's a 20 percent increase!  One of the young men that we got there passed the Sacrament which is a big help.  And the sister we are working with in the Chowchilla branch (30 minutes away) who hadn't been to church for thirty years, came for the second time, stayed all three meetings, and bore her testimony in Relief Sociey on Fast Sunday.

The two less active families that we were helping move (along with the missionary Elders and some members of the branch) finally got moved!  Now we can move on to other things. But those two families were really grateful and now introduce us as their friends from the church. That's exactly right.

We sure do enjoy hearing that our children and grandchildren are doing well.  The family is coming along nicely and we really appreciate their support of our mission. Dana's family sent these beautiful flowers for Mother's Day a week early which really confused Lori so she fixed Grandma B a great mother's day dinner-yesterday.  Kind of funny really. But nice.