Dear Mom,

I have been transferred. I don't know where I'm going or who I'm going to be with, but I just know that I'm leaving Union City. I'm kind of sad about that. I'm going to miss Union City a lot. I kind of hope that I'm in a driving area for the rest of the hot summer. I guess we'll see. I've been District Leader now for two transfers. I thought for sure that I wasn't going to be a District Leader anymore. I'm still a District Leader. I'm happy about that. I love helping out the other missionaries. However, since I was so sure about me not being District Leader anymore, I haven't prepared a District Meeting at all. So I'm going to have to quickly come up with something for Wednesday. At the same time, I'm going to have to pack up and unpack in my new area. STRESS.. I'm excited though.

Last Monday, one of the members, Brother De Leon, in our area went to the hospital for a surgery to take out his tonsils. Apparently, he hadn't told the doctors at the hospital that he had taken Motrin before he went in. He started to hemorrhage during the surgery and came close to death. But they fixed him up and put all sorts of tubes and things down his throat to keep him from swallowing any more blood. We were told that when he woke up he felt like he was choking or suffocating. They had to keep him asleep. On Wednesday, we took Bishop Chavez to the hospital in Paterson to go visit Brother De Leon. It was pretty crazy to see him hooked up to so many machines. He had already received a Priesthood Blessing, so we just wanted to see him and maybe share a spiritual message with him to make him feel a little better. He was sleeping when we got there. Then his wife woke him up, but he could barely wake up. He was really weak, so he just moved his hand to show us that he wanted us to shake his hand. It was sad to see him in that condition. His wife, who isn't a member because of some legal stuff and can't get baptized, asked us to give her a blessing. So Bishop Chavez gave a pretty cool blessing. I think we helped her a lot. We talked to her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Later that day, we visited with a member named Sister Galicia. She's been in and out of activity. It's because of her relationship with the members in Union City though. I haven't been here for a while, but apparently, something was happening with her husband and a lot of the members starting talking bad about her and were saying things that really offended her. Sister Galicia has a super strong testimony and hasn't stopped reading or praying. She goes to church in Union City about once a month, but she travels to other wards to go to church weekly. When we visited with her on Wednesday, we read out of 3 Nephi 11, the chapter in which Jesus Christ descends from heaven to the Nephites. Later during that chapter, Jesus Christ teaches that contention is of the devil. She started crying and telling us how she doesn't have anything against any member, but she just doesn't like going to the Union City ward because of what was happening with her husband a few years ago. We helped her feel better and told her to talk to the Stake President about trying to get her records moved to another ward. She said that she would want to do that and told us that she will talk to the Stake President soon. Another reason why she had wanted us to come over that day was to bless her house. She said that for years now, she has been seeing and hearing abnormal things for years. She said that they had started out with things that weren't so scary. Then they started turning into things a little more scary. She said that one scary thing happened when she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a dark man standing over her husband. She told the man that she wasn't scared because they had the authority of Jesus Christ. She said that when she mentioned 'Jesus Christ' the man flinched back. She said that when those things happened she has never been scared of those things happening, but she wants them to stop. So I blessed the house by the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood. We told her that it's by her faith in Jesus Christ and His Priesthood authority that those things would stop. I've always wanted to bless a haunted house!!

So this last week, we've been finding a couple new investigators, and less-actives. We've also been able get a couple more investigators going really strongly towards baptism. It's been a good week and those lessons have been fun. Well, time to move on. That's what I don't like about transfers; many times you leave when your area is doing really good and starting to see a bunch of fruits of your labor.

There is that Ikea here in New Jersey that I haven't been to in a while. Maybe I can go sometime again soon. That Brother De Leon that I was talking about earlier, he actually works at Ikea! He doesn't do anything on the main floor. He doesn't hardly speak any English, so he can't really do anything with costumers. Pretty cool though.

Awesome story from Spencer! Thanks for sharing.

Q of the W:

1.  Currently, how many ties do you own?

That's a great question, and I honestly don't know. There are many though. I'll have to count.

2.  Have you ever had a confrontation with another person about their church?

Several times. Usually people don't really fight in behalf of their church, but they fight that their church is sufficient for them and that no one can say which is a true church or not. There are also many Jehovah Witnesses that tell everyone why everyone else's church is wrong. They think that Jehovah is God the Father and that everyone worships Jesus Christ too much. They've changed the Bible and thus cannot call it the Bible, but call it the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. They also think that the Book of Mormon comes from the devil. Boy are they wrong. I've had a couple of them tell me that we focus on the Son too much and not enough on the Father. They're just weird. It actually proves them wrong in the Bible. If you look closely, it refers to Lord Jehovah in the Old Testament as the Judge, Savior, and Mediator. It also refers to Jesus Christ as those things. They believe that God the Father is those three. They contradict themselves, that's why this long explanation was confusing. Sorry...

3.  What is the first thing you challenge people to do if they are interested in the Church?  Do you have them pray or read the Book of Mormon first?  Do you tell them about the Holy Ghost right away?

Read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. In Preach My Gospel, President Kimball teaches that the Book of Mormon is the key of our religion. That if anyone has any problem with something in the church, they should refer back to the Book of Mormon, to know of its truthfulness.

Love you mom! Miss you lots!

-Justin