Dear Mom,

I think I am going to send my camera home so you all can look at it. I just don't have any time to do anything like that. P-Day is packed enough as it is. We share a van with two other companionships. It's a little harder, but we all hang out with each other on P-Day and it makes it a lot of fun.

Spanish is coming along. I still get frustrated with it because sometimes I still can't understand people and I don't know exactly how to say certain things sometimes. But I'm working on it. When I get home, it'll be easier and harder to learn Spanish. I'll be able to read more stuff in Spanish and have more liberty to watch things and read things in Spanish. But I won't be using nearly as much as I do now. That'll be sad. I'll try and find ways to use it more often. I can order at Costa Vida and Carls Jr every day... Just kidding, that would be a waste of money.

It sounds like you had a fun birthday! I'm so happy. Next year, you might have to post-pone your birthday a couple days. I don't know if I'll be home on the 10th. 

No snow storms for a while. Luckily it's been pretty warm here. It's actually been unusually warm here. About 50 degrees during the day. About 30 degrees at night. I won't be surprised when it gets super cold though. I'm just enjoying it while it lasts!

I'm so excited for Kaylee's baptism! I'm sad that I'm going to miss it, but I'm still very happy to by on my mission. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

This past week has been pretty good. I'm still getting to know the area and the members. There are some very good members in this area. There are plenty of less-active members to work with. We actually had a less-active member contact us and ask us for the Bishop's phone number. He wants to come back. He said that he needs to work out something first and that he had a problem with some ''people''. I don't exactly know what that means, but I'll let the Bishop take care of that.

We've found some new investigators that we're very excited about. We're staying positive and we are planning on setting baptismal dates with them soon. We had an awesome lesson with a new investigator this last week. We found this lady from the Dominican Republic who said that she's pretty religious and enjoys going to her church. We found her when we went to try and see a member in this apartment building. When we were talking to  him from the downstairs lobby area. We called him from the doorbell system, another girl came in the door when we were talking to him. He told us that he's busy and can't meet with us then. When we were done, the girl (early 20's) said that we could come up and try to convert her mom. I thought for a second that she might have been a member. She's not. We set up an appointment to return. We went back a few days later with a 19 year old guy in our ward. He's from Mexico and doesn't speak much English. He is super cool! Very nice and friendly and impossible to not like. He came with us to teach her. He's putting in his mission papers right now. We had a very cool experience teaching her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She never disagreed on anything, and she had good questions. The Spirit was there and I know that she felt it. When we introduced her to the Book of Mormon, I promised her that it can bless her life more than she can imagine. She looked at the book and then asked us, "So if I don't read this book, God won't give me those blessings?" I didn't know what to say. That's a tough question to answer. Our 19 year old team up, Alan, jumped right in and said, "Of course you won't! That's why we want you to read the book." It was such an awesome moment! Alan had it perfect too. You can't receive blessings if you don't read it! I know that Alan is going to be an amazing missionary. He even shared the first vision. He had it memorized perfectly. Overall, it was a great lesson. Hopefully she responds correctly to the Book of Mormon. We've been taught that we can't 'beat around the bush' when teaching people. If we do, they won't know why we're there. They need to know it how it is, but in a loving way. Just like Jesus Christ taught. Teaching plainly and boldly the truth, exactly how we know it. Those who believed on Him, dropped everything they had and were converted to Him. Those who didn't want to, walked away and refused the blessings that awaited them. We're praying that this lady, Fabiola, will be converted to Him and His Gospel. There's others like her, but I don't have the time to talk about all of them. That was the highlight of the week.

We love our members here and are trying to help them the best we can.

Love you mom! Talk to you soon.

-Justin 

Q of the W:

1.  Did you get your 'happy halfway' package? 

Yes. Thank you so much!

2.  Do the apartments' kitchens come with all the pots and pans and other stuff?

Yes they do. Some apartment have more than others, but we have enough.

3.  When you talk to members who are not active...what is the one main question you ask them to help them come back to church?

Usually we try to get them to think about their baptism. Who the missionaries were, how they felt, and why they wanted to be baptized. That usually helps us get to know more about where we should start. Some people say things like the missionaries convinced them, or they were baptized at eight, but never went. Kind of sad, but we try our best to love them and help them.