Email 44: Amazing Carlos + Mack Family + Moroni 7:48

Sent on November 18, 2013

Hey hey! Whats up everyone! Great to hear from you all :) Thanks for all of the emails and letters this week! It was a glorious week here on the Rez. I had a lot of fun and we saw great things happen!

Carlos Perez came to church! At the beginning of the week, I just prayed and prayed about what we needed to accomplish this week and I got an answer. I knew that there was someone that needed to come to church for the first time, and that if we would just focus on that simple goal, great things would happen. So we worked and worked all week. Bro Peterson and Bro Bird are just stars, we go out with them every tuesday and thursday for 2 hours. We actually found 7 new investigators last week and 9 new this week, which have been our best finding weeks in a couple of months! So we were seeing great things all week long. Sunday rolls around and we go out with Bro Peterson on Sunday for a couple of hours before church at3 oclock. We teach a few lessons and see some people and then Elder Lynch goes with Bro Bird to set up the building and I go with Bro Peterson to pick people up. Well we had not talked to Carlos since Tuesday because we couldnt ever find him, and we already had knocked on his door once that morning. But I got another clear prompting to go and TRY AGAIN! So we went back to Carlos' house and right after we knock he opens the door. First thing he says, "is church right now?" Haha. He had already made plans to run some errands with his mom and he had his 4 month old daughter with him as well, but we could tell that he had a desire to be at church. We told him that we were just there to give him the opportunity to make a choice and feel good about his choice. He thought hard for a couple minutes about how he could arrange everything so he could come but he still wasnt sure. So I told him we will be back in five minutes so he could decide. We went and failed at picking someone else up then came back to his house and knocked again. He comes outside looks at us for a couple seconds then says, "give me a minute I gotta get my daughter ready." Oh I was so HAPPY!! It ended up taking 15 minutes to get him there and everyone had to wait til 3:30 for us to start the meeting but it was all so worth it. Carlos was the one person that needed to come this week and God knew it from the very beginning. I felt such a great love for Carlos (23 year old, father who just separated with his girlfriend) as I sat by him and he participated in a lesson about the Atonement and read parts of the gospel principles manual. I am excited to continue to work with him, I love him so much!

I will attach a picture of the Mack family! They are the ones that Elder Davis and I found and Elder Davis baptized Shane (the wife) this weekend. It was terrible because I was misinformed and thought the baptism was at 7 so I showed up at 6:50 to find out that it was at 6 and it was over and everyone had gone home... So I ran to their house and apologized and got a picture with them. What a great miracle!!

There was a shooting at the Muckleshoot Casino a couple nights ago. I don't know much about it. We just got a text from one of the natives that said a few guys went in and just started firing. I think only one person was killed and more were hurt. But crazy crazy. Geez.

I am pumped for the football team! Goodness. Send them my love and tell them to hit hard and love their last game! TS 2013!

Clark, yes I remember that. It was my mom's fault.

As I was sitting next to Carlos in church, Sis. Anderson was teaching and she said something about how all of us CHOSE to come down here, how we have already once chosen to follow our Heavenly Father's plan. I just imagined being with Carlos at that time, choosing together to come and battle mortal life and prove ourselves worthy of all the Father has. For all I know he could have been begging me to never give up on him, to do all I could for him. As well as the rest of the people here. We don't know how much people are truly counting on us, and they don't know it either. We must never give up! :)

Moroni 7:48. I feel that it is not just about praying for charity, but about praying for the people!! We must pray for the person, sincerely with our our hearts as well as pray for charity, and then we will be able to more easily feel the love of Christ. As I have made my prayers very specific, and as I strive to really pour my heart out to my Heavenly Father for individuals and families, I have been blessed with a greater amount of love and desire to serve them. I love communing with my Heavenly Father. It is a wonderful gift that we have been given!

I love you all so much! So grateful for you all! Thanks for all of your love and prayers. I will continue to pray for you always. Have the best week! We must go and work miracles!

Elder Cook

PS Transfers next week. What?