Email from Elder Lofthouse 9/8/14 Time's Flying!

Hello!

On one of our first days together a couple weeks ago, after yet another rejection from someone, my companion stated very simply, "Missionary work is hard!" It sure is. A lot of our investigators didn't show up to church yesterday and we now only have one baptismal date and it's not very solid. But we found a lot of new people this week and I think that as we focus on the Doctrine of Christ and helping these people to accept a baptismal commitment we'll be able to see baptisms in the weeks to come. 

C has been experiencing a lot of opposition. People in her family have been telling her lots of things about Joseph Smith and the church and she told us that she almost asked us not to come by anymore just to give her a little relief. We had a good lesson with her, but I'm a little worried that she didn't show up to church on Sunday. We have an appointment with her tonight. 

Right after that lesson with C we had a lesson with Vand his family. V sounds like he has developed a very strong testimony of the Restoration. His wife still has doubts, but the rest of his family seem to really like the church too. So, I'm not sure why they didn't come to church on Sunday. Hopefully we'll figure that out this week.

I'm excited for the future of this mission because I feel it will only have more and more success. I feel that way about the church as a whole. A lot of great things are starting to happen and I can't wait to see what happens in the next decade. I'm SO excited for General Conference (as always). We're going to make an effort to get investigators to watch it in members' homes this time because I've never had much success with that in the past. 

I can't believe how quickly time is passing. I'm already down to 10 weeks. I still have so much left to do! One of my personal goals coming out on my mission was to be able to talk more with people. I've gotten a lot better at talking to people I don't know, and Elder Mora has told me that me talking with him will help him not get homesick so I've been trying to push myself and I've started improving in my ability to just keep talking with him. I'm really glad he's my companion because I feel that not only will I help him, but he's going to help me reach the fullest potential I can before I go home. We're hitting these last 10 weeks hard!

I love you all, and hope you are doing well!  

Have a great week!

Elder Lofthouse