Yo - 3 things...

Yo

1. About a week and a half ago Elder Morse and I went to the Monsons (member in our ward) house to share a quick message with them. Turns out their parents were visiting from Pleasant Grove Utah! They also work at the MTC. Oh ya and the fathers name is Thomas R. Monson. We shared a quick message sang them a song and left. A few days later we came back and the Thomas Monson and wife were still in town. They said that due to some car trouble they had spent a lot of time at Les Schwab. They had a good gospel conversation with one of the workers named Justin and he said he was interested in hearing from the missionaries. We just met with him last night at the Monsons house and the lesson went really well. I was floored that Thomas Monson comes into town for 4 days finds us an awesome person to teach, sets it up so we can teach in a members home then leaves. 

2. Last p-day I got an email from somebody named Travis. He said that he was interested in meeting with missionaries. So we set up a time and met with him. He is super solid! It was incredible to hear how God has been guiding him and how he has courageously followed. He had met with missionaries about a year and a half ago but didn't follow through with baptism. But he said that he knew that God wanted him to start meeting with us again. 

3. Last Monday I was on exchanges in the Troy area. Troy is a tiny town 30 minutes outside of Moscow. There are also a few other tiny towns in their area. Elder Dugan and I were together. I came out with Elder Dugan by the way so it was fun to be reunited with him. We decided to got tracting for a while and we had the classic "Homecoming talk" experience. After being rejected a few houses in a row we knocked on one and a lady answered the door. It was obvious she wasn't very interested and she mentioned that she attended another one of the churches in town. We stalled by asking her if we could sing her a song (I had my ukelele). You could tell she kind of wanted to say no but she couldn't resist so she agreed. The song was about familes which got her talking. We had a good discussion about protecting the family in our society. Then she asked us a question, "Are your families strong in their faith in God?" We both said yes. "Thas really really good" This kind of gave me the impression that hers wasn't and it concerned her a little bit. So we talked a little bit about the spirit world. She became very interested and asked "do you want a drink of water? Come on in." She got us some water and sat us down at the table and got everyone else in the house to come join us. So we started teaching! It went super smooth. Every question she asked was super good. At one point I started quoting a scripture then I looked down at my scriptures and I had unknowingly flipped right open to it! She eventually opened up to us about how her father didn't believe in God and had passed away. She was pretty worried about what would happen to him. It was amazing to see the relief that came on her face when we told her about Gods plan. Unfortunately I don't get to teach the family because  they're not in my area but I'll try to stay informed on how things go with them.

Elder Morse and I got to speak on Sunday again. We got asked on Thursday if we could do it. The member of the Bishopric that asked us was gone about a month ago on the Sunday that we spoke so he asked us if we could speak. We were both super excited for the opportunity. When we got to church everyone was like "why are you speaking again?" but by then it was too late. Our name was already on the program. HA HA! We both talked on faith. I learned a ton preparing for it! Faith is a deep concept. We know that its believing in something we can't see but we also know that we can do some crazy stuff with faith.  

"and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea."

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-Elder (Andre) Johnson