Week 21 - Greetings Family & Loved Ones!

I really am starting to run out of subject line phrases..I will have to think more about that today and write some down! How is everyone!? You should all know that I am doing really good. Training has been a blast, and my companion is easily becoming one of my best friends. Missionary work really becomes so much easier when you have a companion that you get along with really well. We have been crazy busy lately though. We hardly have to sit down and think of what we should do the next day in our daily planning sessions because we already have so many things planned. It is nice having it that way though. We have been able to keep working with a lot of the less-actives and investigators as before, while also adding a new investigator this week! She lives in this house with some members. There are like 6 or 7 Philipinos living in this house. She has been here for about a month. Her name is April, she was raised as a Baptist. Our member, Eric, invited her to join us during our supper and lesson. It went well! We gave her a Book of Mormon of her own now, and we will meet with her this week again! 

We were able to teach most all of our investigators this week, or at least get in contact with about all of them. Hopefully this next week we can get lessons with those who we missed last week. It takes a lot of scheduling things to happen, but I know the Lord will make things happen if it is the right time. There is a lot of work to be done in the area. The members I wouldn't say are doing phenomenal about giving referrals and everything right now, but we are still staying busy. Hopefully it will change. Especially with all of the talks in conference about missionary work along with temple marriage, hopefully that sparks some thoughts with members of who they know can benefit from that type of message, and then they take the initiative to spread the gospel. It is something that every single person can and should work towards...how great it is to know we can have eternal families. 

I loved watching conference this weekend! It was the first time for me that I really watched the entire thing. I had so many questions answered. So many insights and personal revelations that I can apply both now and in the future. A few ideas or themes that stuck out to me were; Come unto Christ, The most important missionary work you do is in your own homes, the importance of obedience, and the great importance of Temple Marriage, and really being a disciple of Christ. Yes I know, a lot of those ideas are interrelated, but they each can stand on their own being very important pieces of doctrine and ideas. There were many other things that I found to be very insightful, I could probably go on for days about what I learned in conference this year! Hopefully you all had a similar experience while watching. I know that there are great truths to be found while watching conference. If you didn't have a chance to watch, they should be online shortly! There is still a chance for you! Make a family home evening out of a talk or something! I found that even the talks that you may seem you have heard before, the Holy Ghost can speak to you just the same. It may be a similar idea, but that doesn't mean your life is in the position that can benefit from that now.

The weather up here is still pretty cold. It snowed most of the weekend. Today it is about -6 Celsius when we came into the library to email..hopefully it warms up though. Good news though, we are no longer required to wear our suits everyday now. It is now just to meetings and everything. It is nice to be out of that suit! Sometimes you just get sick of wearing the same thing all the time! 

Some of the experiences and people we have been talking to lately have been really interesting/challenging. People often pose the hardest questions they have to the missionaries it seems like! And let's be honest it's me, and then my greenie companion..do you really think we have all the answers? I can tell you this though, as missionaries we truly do have our mouths filled. We are given in the very moment what we shall say. The Lord never leaves us to fight this battle on our own. We have had people who come to us thinking they can stump us, and at first it seems as though they have. Then before you know it you are talking and relaying information or bearing testimony you did not know you possess. That makes me think of Elder Holland's talk yesterday. We must first acknowledge the knowledge we do possess before you we even begin to admit our inadequacies. How true it is. I know that if we go forth boldly and testify of what we do know to be true, our Savior will make up the rest. Whether it be through the words we speak, or softening the hearts of the listener, he has a hand in all things that we do. 

Hopefully things will progress in the upcoming weeks. I hope that our investigators and less-actives were all able to get the answer they needed from conference. Maybe it will light that fire for some of them and get that ball rolling. Hopefully the weather will warm up so we can continue to find success with tracting and street contacting because people will actually come outside! Keep us in your prayers! 

I love you all!

Love, Elder McFall