Elder P. Traasdahl: November 2013

Mi familia! SO SO SO good to hear from you!(Elder Curry says hi by the way) Dad and Braden, I never got around to that hike y'all went on, so I'm glad you two did! Those pictures were awesome!! Austin, I'm with on the dance party, no me gusta. The punch bowl is my go to position. Stir and pour, Stir and pour. You can never fail with that move! haha.

Well this week my testimony has been built immensely! Gabriel is such a solid guy, he's right on track to be baptized on Nov. 9th. He came to church yesterday and he also came to a baptism for someone else on saturday. While at the baptism he read the testimony of Joseph Smith the entire time, over and over. On Sunday too he asked us "on our next lesson, I want to go over the things I need to know to make sure I'm ready for my baptism." I'm not sure if I've told you about Mark yet but he was a referral from the OU sisters, and he's the biggest okie talker ever. I was about to write him off, but at the end we invited him to read and pray about the B.O.M., come to church, and invited him to be baptized on november 30th! The spirit was workin on him because he said yes to all 3! He came to the baptism as well and also to church. And check it out, here's the biggest hand of God moment of the week. So remember how last week I told you how David, former super solid guy kinda just fell off the map? Well we stopped by Jason and Angela's place, since we hadn't seen them in a while, and he was there playing video games. We only had 10 min to visit, so we had a short lesson on things we could do to have the spirit with us throughout the week. David then opened up to us and told us how he told his parents that he was looking into the church and how they frowned upon and starting attacking him for it, so he stopped reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it.

We then testified of the truthfulness of our message and that God will answer an honest questioning of prayer. It was awesome because the spirit was so strong and we both hadn't born that powerful of testimonies in a long time and after we left it felt like we were walking on clouds. That next morning he told us he took off work and was going to come to church! & then said "I've been a little discouraged the past twoo weeks after I talked to my parents about going to your church but every time you come into our house I can feel the spirit... therefore I know God is with you ... and I've felt like I should go for quite sometime now!" It was awesome!!!

During Gospel Principles he asked some questions, and the whole class tried to answer and it confused him even more, but afterwards he told us "I'm just trying to find the truth, and I can't deny that the spirit is with you guys. So I've gotta know what's right." I've seen so many times now that God really does work by small and simples means, and by those small moments, small witnesses of the spirit, great miracles and great testimonies come to pass! I also know that any doubt or any question can be answered by an honest, sincere petition to God.

Last quick miracle we had a lesson with Bobby and Mary, some investigators we picked up because of the boundary switch. She's been Jehovah Witness her whole life, 60 some odd years. Bobby has been non-denom. She knows JW isn't the way, but is scared to go any other because she believed so much in it. Every scripture we were trying to share with her she wouldn't believe, citing "sheeps in wolves clothing" and thinking that's what this "could" be. The whole time though Bobby is sitting there quietly. He then speaks up and says "I have a scripture to read". Guess which one he read? Moroni 10: 3-5!! And Mary loved it!! Because Bobby found it and not us. The spirit was working on him to find it and prompted him to read it. They commited each other to read those verses each day, each time before they begin to read the B.O.M! I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, I know this is their work, and I know they love us and know us. I know that they answer our prayers!!! Love you!

Elder Traasdahl