Hello everyone :) all those emails about state track were awesome!! I am so happy for the boys and the girls teams. West Side is just a dynasty. Best place in the world. Tell Coach Moser congrats for me. He puts a lot into those kids and I never appreciated him and the other coaches enough! But tell everyone I said good work! I knew Tate would tear things up this year. What a stud. And Addie that is awesome that you scored as a freshman! Not a lot of people do that. And the gnome story is hilarious. They better put it in the trophy case next to the trophy!
So.. I have never had such a strong testimony of how weak and simple I truly am and how I can do NOTHING on my own. I have never had a stronger testimony of the scripture Proverbs 3:5-6, which I have read so many times. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths. Right now is truly a great time in the White River area. This past week we saw many miracles. We have been praying so hard to find new investigators and one day early in the week I was praying that we could get some referrals that would be solid investigators. This week there were 15 people put on date in our area and Elder Davis and I only found 7 of them. We had 8 on-date referrals sent to us. In the past few weeks we have had maybe one or two. So we have a little bit more of a teaching pool now! It was truly an answer to many prayers.
One of the referrals that we recieved was from the Spanish Sisters and it was a lady named Mckenzie. The sisters said they knocked on her door and she was not interested at all and she was telling them how active she was in her own church. They talked a little bit more and then all of the sudden she just became so excited about the message they had. The sisters taught her more about the book of mormon and what it was and what it meant. Mckenzie said she had been to our church a lot when she was a kid but never understood the difference. She told the sisters that she wanted to start reading the Book of Mormon right away! So the Sisters gave us the referral and a couple days later (Saturday night) we went by her house with a member of the ward. She came outside and we had an hour lesson on her porch. She told us how she has no idea why she let the sisters talk to her, that she normally closes the door and doesn't talk to anyone. She said it was just something about them that captivated her and she wanted to listen, she didn't want them to leave. She also read some of the Book of Mormon and said that it all "makes sense." And whats more... she is the mother of four kids!! Ages 14, 11, 10, and 4. A family! :) What a glorious thing it was to witness the Spirit connecting to the light of Christ within a person. That is the only way this work works. It is such a miracle and we are praying that they continue to progress in the gospel and enter into the waters of baptism soon!
Sundays are the best and most stressful days! It feels like all of the work you have done that week comes down to sunday, and whether your investigators will keep their commitment to come to church that week. We have had a hard time with this lately, we will have like 5 or 6 or 7 commitments to come to church and then no one shows up. And the same thing happened this week. We had worked so hard all week and then none of our investigators that we were hoping to come to church came. I sat there in the beginning of sacrament and started to question what I was doing wrong, why we couldn't help people progress, but then I stopped myself. I looked back at the week and asked myself, "did you work hard? were you obedient? did you do what was asked of you?" I felt like I had done all of those things the best I could, then the scripture Proverbs 3:5-6 came back to me. Trust in the Lord. I do not always understand why things happen the way that they do, rarely do I understand actually. But what I do understand is that the Lord is in charge. This is His Work. I promised myself right there that I would not be discouraged. I immediately was filled with an excitement for the week to come and I knew that we are going to see many mighty miracles this week!
I love the Temple so much. We had an awesome discussion about temples in Elders Quorumon Sunday. Make the temple a priority. It truly is the purpose of life. This life is the time to prepare to meet God, and we prepare to meet God through the temple.
I attached the mission newsletter this week just so you can get a feel for what this mission feels like at this time. There has never been a more exciting time! There has never been this many miracles happening! This week is truly going to be a great one. Elder Davis and I feel incredibly great about the miracles that are going to happen in White River this week. We have determined to go out with more faith and trust in the Lord than ever before! The time is now for this area and this mission! I love it so much :)
I love you all!! I want you to know that I know Jesus Christ Lives! He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world! Heavenly Father loves us all and He has a plan for us! The gospel and priesthood authority has been restored to the earth!! There is a prophet who leads and guides us! The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, the Savior, and it is evidence that the Authority has been restored. That book is so powerful. It will change your eternity if you let it. Temples are truly the House of God and the purpose of life. We must go there with our families! What a beautiful, marvelous, glorious, and happy message this is :) I love it all so much and I AM NEVER COMING HOME! ;) have a great week! Love you!
Elder Cook
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