From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
We did lots of hard work this week. We've been in kind of a rut on teaching and everything the past few weeks. But we broke out of it a little bit. It was pretty good. The baptisms that we were supposed to have easy this transfer kept canceling on us for the past 3 weeks, so that's not going to work out. If I stay, definitely next transfer though.
Speaking of which, transfers are coming up next week. So don't mail stuff to my house, unless it will get there before Tuesday. I know right, its crazy. When I was younger, I never thought I would reach the day where I was out for 18 months on my mission. Its crazy to think about, but it doesn't feel real. I'm now one of the oldest missionaries in the mission. My transfer and all the transfers after me were really big, so the mission has grown a little bit, and we're old now!
Not much progress to report this week. We have been teaching this guy who has it pretty rough. He's 19, and just got out of jail. He was supposed to get baptized before. So he cant get baptized now, because hes on probation. So we go over a few times a week and meet with him. To keep him on the right track.
Joey was able to come to church this week! That was awesome, and he'll be able to come next week as well. He really enjoyed it. There was also a bunch of other random people there. A member brought a friend from work, another young woman brought a friend, and then these two teenage girls showed up after their own church to see if what their church was saying about us was true. The members reacted very well, and are keeping in good contact with them. Hopefully we'll be able to teach some of them soon.
I've been doing a lot of work with the members here. I don't know if anyone know, but Gilbert is like little Salt Lake City. Well, most of Arizona has tons of members everywhere. But especially in the Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, Queen Creek, and Show Low Areas. Which is where I've spent pretty much my whole mission. The missionaries here cannot find people on their own here. It all depends on how we work with the members. And we don't know how sometimes, so we just kind of do our thing and hope. But I've been a lot more proactive about it in this area. And I hope its working. The members of the church need to have a huge shift in their understanding. They not only need to know how valuable they are, but how to actually be useful to missionary work. A lot of members don't understand the doctrines of missionary work, even all these returned missionaries. The younger ones, the ones who used Preach My Gospel get it. But sometimes are not proactive enough. The missionary purpose in Preach My Gospel, on the very first page, says INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel though Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I pains me to hear people say, "we're setting an example, and someday maybe..." If its not inviting, its not missionary work. Being an example is what you covenanted to do when you were baptized. Inviting is not even hard, especially when you're already talking about it. If every gospel conversation we, as members of the church, had included an invitation to do something that will increase their faith, the convert baptisms of the church would double, like President Hinckley said. I've seen families be baptized simply because they were invited to church. The converting power of the Gospel is real. There is a sweet spirit that is there, and that they will recognize, and that sometimes we forget. Never forget that!
Anyways,
Love,
Elder Feller.
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