TRANSFER 8

I have been here for three transfers so far. we got transfer calls this morning and sadly Elder Robertson will be leaving. I am gonna miss that Elder. He is a great missionary and he worked extremely hard out here. I have no idea where he is going but time will tell and I will tell you guys next email where he is. I guess that I will be staying in Friendswood for the next 1-2 transfers. I love it here. I would miss it very much if I left. So Rhett Oliver is getting transferred this week. He is going to be spending a transfer in our mission before he goes back to California. He is a cool guy and he will be a great missionary. In other news...

This week we taught more than ever before in a week. I loved it. Usually we have alot of stuff that falls through but this week things all seemed to work out just right. Our main focus was teaching members and helping them be familiar with Preach My Gospel and how to talk to their friends about the gospel. It has been really effective and I have enjoyed doing it. I remember before my mission I knew a lot of the gospel but I didn't really know how to talk about it with others. I admit that I should have read at least chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel and chapter 4. It is a great book and tells you all that you need to nkow to share the gospel regardless of who you are. It brakes it down very simply. So this week in district meeting President Saylin asked all of the district leaders to do what they have done before and give the same training in the whole mission at the same time. We talked about how to follow the spirit more in teaching. It was really good experience and was even mission changing. Instead of preparing a lesson we are now just studying the doctrine and letting the spirit guide us in teaching fully. It is difficult to explain how it works but if you would like to know more ask me about it.

So the weather is already starting to heat up. It has been 70 degrees this whole week with the humidity starting to rise as well as how many bugs are around. I am not looking forward to the heat but if I am on a bike I will sweat away a few pounds. I make fun of myself but I only weight 202. That's not a lot for my size. Anyways. It is good to hear that things for the most of you have been pretty good. Life has been good here.

Elder Robertson and I were riding our bikes in a certain area that we felt we should go this week. No body really wanted to listen to us and it was tough. But on our way home we stopped and talked to a man that was working in his garage. His name is Leslie (a man not a girl). We start to talk with him and we don't really think he is listening. Then when we mention modern day prophets it caught his interest. He asked us to sit down and tell him more. We talked for a half an hour and it was great. He has searched around a lot of places for the truth and doesn't go to church anymore because he can't find what he is looking for. As we talked to him he brought up a lot of good questions and wanted to know a lot of stuff about our beliefs. We told him to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. He told us he would. usually when people tell you they will you usually know if they will or not. I have faith that he will. The Book of Mormon is the greatest tool of a missionary. There are promises associated with it and you cannot prove it wrong or false. There have been many theory's as to where it really came from and what it is but none of them hold. I have been thinking lately about what Elder Holland asks us to do if we want to deny the Book of Mormon. He asks us to come up with a reasonable reason why the Book of Mormon is false. By trying to account of a way that this great book was written. I have tryed to come up with some way that it is false. I know that it is true by the spirit but thinking of how others could see it as false. But the more I read it the more I understand that Joseph Smith or even an expert writer could not have come up with something as powerful and complex as the Book of Mormon there is no other answer than the one Joseph Smith gave.

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week. Thank you for letters that I have received from a number of you. Have a great week.

love,

Elder Devon J. Marr