I'll Be Home For Christmas

First snow in Holton, Kansas

We had zone conference on Tuesday at which we got to see Pres Bell and he said 'so you got your date back!' and I was really confused because I hadn't heard anything about it. So he said he would double check and he said that I was indeed going home the 18th. Of course, I'm excited about it! I have to keep myself from singing, “I'll be home for Christmas.”

This week we had a lot of meetings. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday. It was all about giving up our will and how WE want to do things and doing the LORD's work the LORD's way. It was a pretty good conference. We have a 'zone conference' every quarter. And at every zone conference the 'departing missionaries' bear their testimonies. And it was my turn to go up. So that was special. Don't remember most of what I said. I kept it short though.

Elder Schwitzer also came to the mission and we drove down to Emporia for that. It was really amazing. We learned about making the Book of Mormon more real to people. He explained that baptism isn't just the washing away of sins as we usually refer to it. But rather it's making a commitment to keep the commandments and obey God. And he said that receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost isn't the 'baptism of fire'. The gift is a gift. The baptism of fire is the feeling of doing and being better and the burning of being forgiven. It doesn't just happen once it happens again and again. So that blew my mind and I’m looking forward to studying this more.

On Saturday we got a call from a brother in the ward, he explained that the RS president had been in a car accident and that I would need to speak along with another Elder in her stead. Sister Murphy was asked to speak two weeks earlier so she had been preparing this whole time. We had no time to prepare because we had plans the whole day. Then we were last minute called to be in Ward Council so we didn't have time before church either. I wrote down some notes. The Elder went before me and spoke for like three minutes. I stepped up and gave my talk in about seven minutes and poor sister Murphy had thirty minutes to fill. She did great though! 

Our investigator is progressing toward baptism. He still needs Salt Lake approval to be baptized but in the meantime he is quitting smoking and chewing and drinking coffee and he really is willing to help us in any way that we need. He drives himself to church and participates in the lessons. It's great. He's going to be baptized. 

Love you!