Merry Christmas!

HEEEEEY!!!

How is it going family! Man what a week! I have a lot of stuff to tell yall about this week so I will just tell you when I call you on wednesday instead of typing it all out. This week has been something else though.

 First of all we had christmas zone conference on wednesday in North Little Rock. President Petersen is awesome. He is probably the next apostle. It was a good conference. And at the end we got to watch a movie. Ephraims Rescue. Ever seen it? Its quite the flik. I would recommend it! But enough small talk lets get down to the needy greedy. (Nacho voice)

 So when it rains out in Arkansas.....it rains hard. Friday night up until saturday night it rained non-stop. We had flash flood warnings right and left. The best part about this is Elder Spencer and I are on bike week. We promised ourselves that we were not going to let the whether stop us from working. Last week when it snowed we didn't skip a beat. So whats a little rain? Well let me tell ya  this was no walk in the park. It was more like a ride in a river. But we tried to have some sunshine on our cloudy day and make the best of it. So we rode to our appointments and it was pouring. We had 3 appointments and they were no where near each other. Well.....all of the appointments dropped! No one was there when we got there.  A good mixture of cold rain and frustration was working in its way in as it seemed like nothing was going on. It felt like we didn;t get anything done that day despite us being out the whole time. The promise in Ether 12:6 rang true though as we did not recieve a "witness until AFTER the trial of our faith."

The next day was sunday and it was impossible for our hopes to be too high for our investigators to get to church since we didn't get to meet with any of them on saturday. Well sunday morning we prayed for them all by name and then got a ride to go get all of them. We were able to reach our weekly goal and get 6 investigators to church! What a blessing. Also Jessica (our new convert) gave her first talk in sacrament meeting. She sounded like she had been a member her whole life as she spoke about the Book of Mormon. It was amazing!! The spirit was so strong. I was thinking about the growth she has had as I watched and listened to her testify in front of the whole congregation that she knows the Book of Mormon is true. The real miracles happened last night though.

On the way to one of our appointments I noticed I got a little ahead of Elder Spencer. So I stopped and waited right in front of this house. Now Elder Spencer and I have tried to do things other than knock doors at night because either people don't answer or they get mad. But I felt so strongly impressed to knock on this door that I really had no other choice it felt like! So when Elder Spencer caught up we went and knocked and were immediately let in! When we got in there were 2 mexican families of good size all sitting in the living room. We stated our purpose as representatives of the Jesus Christ and asked if we could say a prayer with them. We then asked what they would ask the Savior for if he was there with us. They said jobs and physical health. We prayed and asked for those things for them and we blessed the home. I noticed after the prayer one of the fathers had tears in his eyes. We briefly taught them about the restoration and set up return appointments with both families. They were so humble and loving. I know and can testify they have been prepared by the hand of the Lord to accept the message of the restoration because it was nothing other than the spirit of the lord and led us to them. We probably pass by that house 3 or 4 times a day and last night they were ready for us.

Every obstacle we faced this week as a companionship and the riding the the rain and wind and having appointment and appointment fall through was all worth these miracles we saw yesterday! And they truly were miracles. I know just as Joseph Smith said that "Sacrifice brings forth the blessing of heaven." I love you family. Thank you for everything you do for me. Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope we all take the time to think about what the best gift would be to get Christ for his birthday. See ya in a couple of days!