9/20/10 Shotgun Talk & New Investigator

Family,

As for what has been going on here.... a lot has happened in the past week. Last week I said that this week would be the best I've had in a while. and it has...

This week I started out by just doing the normal stuff, but I had a meeting with one of our investigators. "P", we went over to his house and taught him about baptism. We then asked him if he would be baptised in like a month, and of course he said no. We expected that. So we then used the situation to ask him what would be holding him back, and trying to help him see his concerns about changing his life. Really though it felt and he acted like he just didn't fully desire to do anything. so in the end we asked him to come to church and he said he would.( later in the week, he ended up not coming which by this point is a good indicator that we should give him some time and come back in about a month or so to see if he is ready to start acting on what we are teaching. Some good news though is that we have been in the process of meeting with some other man"D", who is a Nepalese man. We were able to get ahold of him this week, and he said that he was really busy, but he would be at church and we could discuss the gospel then. Funny thing was, that he actually did it. He came during sunday school, and we taught him a little of the gospel. He was really open and agreed to meet with us some more and start reading the Book of Mormon. OH, he speaks English well , and he can speak Finnish well enough to get by. He is buying a restaurant here in Savonlinna. Anyways it was really good,and the best part was that I could tell he was feeling the spirit, despite some other factors,( that is another story). Thats about how the work here is going.

Another thing, this week was that we had a special training meeting in Oulu, and it was really good. President Brown focused on teaching by the spirit, and receiving revelation as you are teaching. It was really good, and I have been trying to work on this for a long time so it was nice to get that form this meeting. Another thing was that pres gave us a challenge to re read the B of M before Christmas, while marking 4 things: Christ and his references(names), his attributes, his words, and the doctrines of the BofM.... all in different colors. His challenge was aiming at giving us more spiritual power that would come from the Book of Mormon. Personally, I was and am excited to do this. I definately felt like this would help me have a stronger conviction and more powerful testimony.

Lastly, this Sunday I gave a shotgun talk... I found out sat. night that the person who should be giving a talk was out of town for his son ( another story) and so I gave a long winded thought as a talk. It wasn't very good. ....lol. I laughed at how dad this week, in his letter, said how great his talk was..... sort of ironic.

anyways thats this week. Thanks again for writing and I love you all.
trev

ps oh, I got the retainer fixed already.... it was 25 euros. but I have the receipt... so I'll try and get the form filled out. bah... I'll have to talk to you next week about it more though. Pretty much, its under control at the moment. oh and I wanted to ask, but you can answer in your next week email--- What are the girls sizes and yours? I would like to be ready this Christmas on gifts and I thought I should know. lol. I'm guessing you are a medium and what is that in euro numbers? 40? or an american 8?..... anyway, just curious.

oh lastly, I got a letter from Elizabeth today... I was quite surprised.... thought you might like to know. lol. It was good to hear how she was doing. Yes, I did get my present off to Emily for her birthday.... last week in fact..... me beaming......:)
I'm on the ball ....oh, yeah.....
ok well, I got to go..... love you !