We have baptism scheduled for this Saturday, an 11 year-old girl named D. We also have several baptismal dates for March. And with our mission president's counsel to spend three hours each day finding, we're finding so many new investigators with a lot of potential. For example, on Saturday we were riding our bikes and we passed a man in a trailer park doing something with his car. We both felt we should go talk to him, so we turned around and went back. When we told him that all we wanted to do was leave a blessing in his home, he invited us in. His whole family was there, including five sons. They were very nice, and just had a Mormon-ish look about them. They felt the Spirit as we left the blessing, and invited us back. We're hoping to see them today.
Oh, funny story! Again, riding our bikes, we saw a man with a teenager and a young kid. When the kid saw us he said, "Run! It's the Mormons!" And he took off running! The other two just ignored him, and so he said, "Look behind you! Vaya (go)!" And he disappeared around the corner! Well the man talked to us, and it turns out he was one of the sister missionaries' investigators. I couldn't believe that someone had literally ran away from us, even a kid.
Another story: We got a referral and went to go contact him. There were two dogs and a bunch of their puppies guarding the gate. They weren't that big, but they were not acting friendly at all, barking and growling. But we had to contact this referral. So with faith that God would protect me, I opened the gate and stepped in. A second or two later the dogs were perfectly happy to have us there. I like to think that they were calmed down by angels.
We had a Trainer/Trainee meeting in Fresno last week. I love meetings with President Gelwix and his assistants. They're always so inspiring and motivating. We talked about how our purpose in life is to become like Christ. And as missionaries, our purpose is to invite and help other people to do that. Everything we do is just a part of that, including baptism. We can't lose focus of that bigger picture. We also talked about the prayer, and how the purpose of prayer is to strengthen our relationship with God and bring our will in line with His. And we locked our hearts! There's a talk that President Benson (I think it was him) gave in a mission many, many years ago called, "Lock Your Hearts." Falling in love is not allowed in the California Fresno mission. So they have a tradition of buying plastic locks for all the new missionaries, and we get to decorate them and then lock them in this frame (I should have taken a picture) and give the keys to the coordinating sisters. We get them back at the end of our mission. It seemed a very fitting thing to do on Valentine's Day. :) Oh by they way, I got your package while I was there. Thank you so much!
Elder Christofferson and Elder Rasband are coming to Fresno this week for a Priesthood Leadership Training. I won't get to see Elder Christofferson, but Elder Rasband and President Gelwix are holding a special stake conference in my stake. That should be really good!
Anyway, I hope everything is going well back home. Tell everyone that they can feel free to write me letters, but that I have hardly anytime to reply, so they should be aware they might not get a reply for awhile.
This work is God's work, and this is His church! I'm so excited to see the growth of the church in the next several years and to be able to be a part of it.
I love you all!
-Elder Ryan Lofthouse-
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