1 November 2010

I’m glad it seems like everyone is doing fine. I hope Halloween went well. Cody asked if I had an orange tie. Nope. Halloween is interesting here. At like 3 PM we started seeing kids go out, only a few went out with parents. The costumes consist of masks and witches, little creativity. It was hard to knock doors, though, because the kids were stealing our targets.

Mom said something about Steven’s eagle project and having good examples. It struck me because in my talk yesterday, I spoke a bit about examples. A ward member got his mission call this week and went to the pulpit and spoke a bit. He said he had to be an example to his younger siblings. Then I spoke about the power of older brothers. I am where I am because of that power. Many people don’t fully understand that power. Then I spoke about my older brother Jesus Christ. It was really powerful to me. Then I spoke about the priesthood and how exercising the priesthood in my life has helped me in specific experiences. I chose that topic because our recent covert and an investigator’s husband need to be getting the priesthood shortly. I was happy with how it went because I didn’t have much time to plan either. Saturday I get the message, “And oh yeah, you have to give a talk,” but I didn’t know if it was a joke or an assignment. I remembered Sunday morning, pondered a bit in preparation, and after the sacrament my branch president announced my talk. Fun.

The miracle of this week is being able to be a zone leader over my old area and see the heavens open and change that entire area. Before I got to that branch they had two baptisms in the year. When I left they had three. One month later they have seven, and their goal for this next month is five. Three people got baptized last Saturday. One was a reference I got. Another was a contact on a P-day. The other was a street contact. I can’t believe the miracles. It was sad not being at the baptism, but at least I have the photos.

If you could pray for something specifically for me, those prayers would help us a lot. Our goal this week as a zone is to find two new investigators every day. We’re looking for the people that are prepared to be baptized now.

Thanks for everything. I love you lots. Have fun working, Dad.

Elder Whitaker