Day 15 on the Mission Front

I have to apologize! I forgot to tell everyone in my last letter that my P-Day was moved to Tuesday for this week; we had our zone conference yesterday so they had to reorganize our schedule.

This week has been full! of miracles and blessings! FULL! Our entire district is having the greatest... well, I'd say luck, but its not luck. We're all being exactly obedient and we're all being blessed to see this area bloom. It's gotten to the point, that when we walk up to people, they say, "Oh, I just talked to some other missionaries." :) Or we'll be talking to someone and I look over my shoulder and on the other side of the road, I see the Elders talking to someone else that managed to sneak by us. Its great!

Oh! Okay... Amazing story! So we have this investigator who is completely ready for baptism. But she's living with her boyfriend (which means she can't be baptized), and they've been together for 12 years. She wants to marry him, but she won't until he stops drinking. See the whole problem? And every time the Elders have wanted to go teach him, he was drinking and it didn't work. BUT! Guess who came to church on Sunday! Her boyfriend did! And he loved it! He agreed to meet with the missionaries and made a ton of friends and yay!!!

Remember how last week, I said we had 25 lessons? Well... this week... 30 lessons!!! We almost reached 32, but the last two fell through (sad day!). But 30 is great! My companion, Sister Goodman, is amazing! She keeps us so busy! Everyone say I have the best companion in the whole mission, which is probably true since President Cusick brags about her at every single meeting we have. :) Its really great. I hope that I can be just as powerful as she is when I'm done being trained.

I have a bike, and a car, but mostly, we walk. There are so many people walking right past the church and we just nab them and drag them in to the church building. :) We now have 7, yes, 7 baptismal dates set and 6 of them are in June, although at least one of those probably won't be ready to be baptized. And we have one that we're just waiting for his mom's schedule so she can be there for it.

At the Zone Conference yesterday, Elder Clark from the Seventy spoke to us. He said some amazing things and answered a lot of my prayers. But at one point, through the jokes and everything, he put the majority of us (like 120 missionaries) in tears. He told anyone that had a friend or family member that was inactive from the church to stand up. Everyone did. Which was surprising to me. But then he went up to one of the Elders in the first row and asked who was inactive. The Elder said his sister. And Elder Clark asked what he'd pay to bring her back to the church, and then the missionary started crying and of course he said, everything. Elder Clark's point was that the people we teach aren't just people on the street. They're somebody's brother, sister, mother, father, etc. And we need to work our hardest to help them. We're the answer to people's prayers and we have to work our best to help these people improve their lives and to be the best they can. This isn't about how many baptisms we can get. This is about how many people we can help. That's the beauty of what we believe; that the gospel can help people become better than they were, and help them fight these challenges. I've been titling my letters 'Day _ on the Mission Front,' because I know that this is a battle. I've seen it since I've been out here. Its been hard to combat that. But we're winning. And we will win.

Sorry for that tangent there. I'm out of time now, but I know that what I'm doing, is the most important thing in the world right now, and its where I'm supposed to be. Its been hard, and yes, I've felt homesick. But there is no amount you could pay me to back down now.

I love you all, and, like I said, I miss you! Be safe!. (I hear you're having thunderstorms?!)

Love,
Sister Wheeler