We found a family!!!

Hey heyyy heyyyy howwwww y'allllllll doin?? It's Thanksgiving this week!! Can you believe how fast time flies! Shoot I was just in the MTC last week! First things first though, congrats to all my other buddies that got their mission calls! You guys that get to go to the same mission, you better enjoy it! Haha just wait though till you're comps and you have to live with eachother 24/7. Talk about a trial of your faith. Haha, nahhh i'm just messin! 

So funny story to start off the week. Our investigator pool is down to like zilch. Nothin. Nada. So we've been tracting for about 2 hours everyday this last week. On Tuesday we knocked on this door and this old woman opened it up and we asked if we could say a prayer with her, told her we were representatives of Jesus Christ. Soon as we said that this look of horror came on her face and she took a step back and said, almost in a sassy voice " I'm baptist, I've been all my life, and we've got nothing in common." Elder Townsend then said "Ma'am we're just asking to say a prayer and ask for a blessing to be on your home, because we know that prayer is something we all have in common." Haha she just stood there and didn't know what to say. Her response? "Goodbye".  We have yet to have a successful Heavenly Gift with an old lady.

There's this church in town, called the First Baptist Church. Their church is HUGE. Like a cathedral no joke. It's run more like a business than a religion you can say. Sometimes entire neighborhoods go to this church, and when we tract there Elder Townsend and I have a theory now that they have a "baptist calling system". We knock a door, they turn us down, then call the rest of the neighborhood to let them know the Mormons are out. Haha because there have been plenty of times when we've knocked a door, heard people speaking inside, and they just don't answer. Now how else do they know who it is??? 

Anyways, time for the good story. We found a family!!! We tracted into them, and they actually asked us to come back a few hours later. I thought they were just shrugging us off. But we came back later that night, and they invited us in like they knew us! Turns out 6 years ago they had taken the discussions in Missouri and were really close to being baptized, but the dad had gotten shipped off because he was in the Navy at the time. So they've been living in OK for the last 6 years and haven't had contact with the missionaries till now! Best part is that they said they'd like to get baptized and want to raise their kids in the church! So we'll see where that goes.

Another great part of this week was Elder Shayne M. Bowen's visit to our mission. IT WAS INTENSE!  Story though, that you would appreciate mom. There were a few of us Elder's in the restroom, and we were talking about Elder Bowen and what he was going to say (This was before he talked to us) and one elder said "Man I'm probably going to feel so guilty that I'm going to have to go home. It's been a fun three transfers!" I then said "Haha yaaaa, I've served a good transfer, I've done my time" kiddingly of course. Guess who walked into the restroom right as I said that? President Taylor. Can you believe the timing of that!!?!?! He heard me say that and said "We serve all our transfers!" Later on, when we were walking through the line shaking Elder Bowen's hand and President's as well, he said to me, "You ready to serve this transfer?" Haha he was joking of course but I was like aughhh! I Totally would say something like that. Oh well! 

Elder Bowen though. That guy is LEGIT. And yes I realize I used that word but this is the time where it is appropriate!! I'm not going to be able to sum up 3 1/2 hrs of him talking to us in this email, but here are a few things he said. 1.) If we knew who we were, we would act differently. Sounds nice, but really think about it. Not who we are now, but who we were in the pre-existence. He made the comment that "if you had a glimpse of who you were in the pre-existence, and how righteous you were, you would have no desire to do evil in this life." What an incredible promise! He then made that connection with the Abrahamic Covenant, and how God works with his children through covenants, and how we are a convenant keeping people. He talked about an hour about that, and then transition into the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood. It opened my eyes into what a responsibility it is to be a holder of the priesthood. While he talked about the priesthood though, he always, after he made a point to the elders about it, he never excluded the sisters or left them out. I want to get into what he said about it but I'm running out of time, so maybe next week I'll try to. 

Sorry this email was a short one.  We had to give some service before we came and it pushed us back a half hour! And I forgot my card reader, so pictures will come next week. Thanks for all those who sent me letters this week! It's a joy to hear from y'all. This week in your prayers, remember to count your many blessings! Because the Lord does bless us! Elder Bowen, (the only part he got emotional about) said "God will work in the very details of your lives if you'll let him." Never forget the Church is true through and through!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL! Keep on keepin on and if I can ever do anything for ya, give me a holler.

Elder Traasdahl, The Simple Twin