Huo Ji Junglou

This week I went on exchanges with our district leader Elder Tsui. His English is alright. He had to learn it for the mission. He speaks just fine but sometimes he has a hard time understanding others. So when he talks to people on the street he is very straight forward and to the point. I love it. He is not scared to say anything and gets right to his purpose. I love him. He is a strong member of the church and he is going to continue to be a great missionary.

This week was a little bit sad by the end of the week. We had a few people not make it to church. We really thought that some of them said that they would be there but they did not show up. It was a little disheartening. I wish people would just come to church. But besides that it was a good week. We have some investigators who read the Book of Mormon like they found it in buried treasure. The book has such a power in it that people who do not normally feel the spirit or even those that do. Can feel the spirit and love to feel it. I love the scriptures. It is like eating food. It just nourishes you.

This email will be a short one just to let you know. We are trying to find more investigators to teach. We have been doing a lot of finding lately. We have found some success from just riding around on our bikes and talking with whoever we see. I am not a huge fan of knocking doors. In some places it is the best way to find but in my past few areas it has been very ineffective. We are finding more people to teach. The members of the ward are more than willing to come out with us to teach but I have not been able to teach a members friend. We are doing our best to find people to teach but referrals from the members are the best. Member's friends who are not already members of the church have a drastically better chance of both joining the church and staying active in the church than people that the missionaries find and teach. Our mission president has shown us statistics on it. I have not had a baptism on my mission that is not a member referral or a part member family. I have taught many that are not but they have never come to baptism. I invite each of you who read this to pray to know who you can share the gospel with and invite to be taught by the missionaries with you. It will change your life and the life of those you share the gospel with.
I have seen so much happiness on my mission when a part member gets baptized or a member referral gets baptized. It brings families and friends closer together. At the end of April I will be going to a sealing for one of those part member families. I believe that if the member who was already friends with the family would have asked his friend in the part member family to come over for a lesson with the missionaries and dinner that the family would have been reactivated much sooner and the wife would have been baptized much much sooner. But the active member did not act. The missionaries were going to visit a less active member and ran into his brother who is the husband of the part member family. Then they asked if they could come over and have a lesson. So they did and the remainder of the family was baptized and reactivated. It happens. How I wish that the active Brother would have acted and tried to have them over before to meet with us. I am sure that he was the last person that he thought would be reactivated. But it happened. I just wish he could have been the foundation of the coming back to church and to have participated in their baptism and reactivation in a larger way.

I invite all of you to pray sincerely to know who of your friends should be invited to be taught by the missionaries, with you there. Fear is opposed to faith. Exercise your faith and try. I know that the Lord will guide you in the right way and you will know what to do. Even though I only have until May 3rd send me a letter and let me know how it goes. I love you all and I thank you for your support and for your love have a great week and be strong. If you need any help with sharing the gospel with your friends then call the missionaries. They can give you tips and pointers. And if you are not a member than call the missionaries and have them come over and explain all the crazy stuff i talk about every week and why I love it so much. I love you all and have a great week.

love,

ELDER MARR