Hey Fellas!

I'm staying In Barberton with Elder Yukish for another one. it will be great. So many good things happened this week and I'm excited to see what the Next transfer brings. We were able to find 8 new people to teach this week, one from the Pacific Island of Palau, one who was just released from prison, one who we tracted into her husband, (who we are trying to start teaching) and The other Elders found a Family of five from a member in the ward that lives in their area. We also did a lot of member work going in and teaching about the importance of gathering souls and bringing them unto Christ, Then inviting them to find a persons that they could invite to come to church and even better meet with us.

The weather here has been strange to me. it's clear and sunny, but it's very rarely over freezing. There isn't wind though so the humidity doesn't get to you as much and so it's warmer, but still pretty cold! Are you going to take Ammon to Florida and those other places to wrestle? That's pretty cool.

Who was the person that Left for their mission? Do I Know who it is? Yeah, So the world is pretty small when it comes to members in the church. I think the person that was in Hong Kong with Cassidy and Gundy is named Kaleb? I know his last name is Coburn, but that's about it.

So as we taught this week we had many really cool experiences where the spirit was really the one that did the teaching. The sister we are teaching from Palau, Saphira Kebekol, we were able to teach twice this week. her and her mom have pretty good english, but it is still pretty broken. It can be pretty hard to teach them because their comprehension isn't the greatest. But, we were able to bring a member in the ward who was raised in Fiji and his three year old son and that was a great help. Through her we are trying to start teaching her friend and her brother who also moved here From Palau. It's a really unique situation, it's very different than even teaching a child. The culture plays a very big role as well. while we were teaching we would as questions and then build off it, but one time she was just like "wait, why did you just ask me that question?" ha we were just like, oh, um we were getting to that. The member from Fiji ended up explaining things and his son, surprisingly helped out quite a bit as we taught the plan of salvation.

There isn't too much really going on just yet, There is a lot building up to it though so I'm hoping that it will continue to build and to really just catch fire so we can just teach all day every day. Which would be ideal in any circumstances.

Also, the ward leadership isn't too fond of missionaries still, so we are really doing all that it takes to get things going well. Unfortunately, their are some members here who aren't accepting of people who don't have prestigious jobs and have money. It's hard to get them to grasp the picture of that where there are elect everywhere and you don't have to be able to add to the church, that isn't the purpose of it. The purpose of the Church is to open the gate to all of God's children to Eternal Life in the Celestial Kingdom. There is one main Leader who is just the catalyst in all negativity and so we decided that we would invite him to come teaching with us in hopes to change his perspective on missionary work and the worth of souls. Sadly enough to say, he was once a bishop. It's very difficult to do work if you don't have the support of the ward leaders because they are the ones who set the standards and the examples. That's okay though if he doesn't grasp the picture because there are more than enough members who are willing to help out and fellowship those who are willing to make the changes in their lives to come unto Christ.

In Doctrine and Covenants 18 it talks about the worth of souls. In verse's 15 and 16 it talks about bringing one soul and then many souls unto Christ. As I have been thinking about this passage of scripture this week and sharing it with members in hopes to get them to do missionary work I have Reflected on what it truly means. That one soul that it mentions in 15, is us, and unless we are truly converted and have brought our soul unto Christ, we will not be very successful in bringing in the other souls. President Faust taught us that we can not convert anyone beyond our own conversion. If we expect to be able to do the Lords will, inviting others to follow his example, we need to be there first, otherwise it benefits us or them nonesuch.

That's my two cents for today. any who.

Laters!



--
Elder Michael Stone.