Hey Family!!
This week was about the same as all of my other weeks. It felt like it did when I was in the MTC: Weeks are like days and days are like weeks.
Today Elder Brown and I came up with a system to help us study better. There are 3 people that we have made friends with or talk to that are very deep in their understanding of the scriptures. Elder Brown talks with them fine, but I still struggle to understand exactly what they are talking about. Or why they are turning to such and such scripture as they discuss things. I'm going to be spending some time studying the New Testament. I want read through the gospels so I can know more of what exactly each Apostle is talking about and then go back and dig deeper into what they are saying. I read Matthew 1-6 this morning. After I finished each chapter I wrote down a synopsis of what was going on, so I review them when I start up again the next day. For companionship study we are reading through 3rd Nephi together and writing a synopsis when we finish a chapter. We got through chapter 9 today, which is when Christ is speaking to the Nephites who survived the destruction. It really is helping me out and I hope that we will continue to do this. I want to get a better understanding of the scriptures and feel like I have that spiritual backing to my testimony.
We are meeting with our investigator tomorrow. We saw her on Tuesday last week. She is finally opening up to us more. We are still trying to get that connection for her with the couple from the ward. We let them talk and help us teach a lot. I think is great for her because she needs to hear it from someone else besides us. She is still praying to know if she needs to be baptized. We continue to pray for her daily that she will find the answer. She had her granddaughters at her house the last time we were there. We got to meet them, but they stayed in another room and watched TV as we talked about the Gospel. Before we left to go meet with them Elder Brown couldn't think of something to talk about. I thought about it for a second and said that it probably was a "Stupor of Thought." I felt we should just go and the Spirit would direct us to what we needed to say. I sure hoped that I was being inspired. Elder Brown accepted that and we left to go see her. It worked out well. We got to focus on her concerns. The couple gave a very strong testimony how we need to be baptized into the proper church in order for us to gain all of the blessings that Heavenly Father has for us. And we also clarified a few words that she may have not understood like when we say them. For example: Saint. We believe that it means a follower of Christ; its not a title saying we are holier than anyone else.
I think that our talks went very well. I had written down what I wanted to say, but ended up saying only half of that. The rest just flowed out of my mouth and I feel that I said what Heavenly Father wanted me to. We were supposed to share any experiences that were like those good missionary stories, but I couldn't think of any. So I shared a little bit about my story of getting out here on a mission. We got a lot of compliments on our talks afterwards. I'm hoping we motivated them to try and find people for us to teach.
It is stinking hot out here! We had the car this week so it was nice!!! It rained last night with a really cool thunder storm. I hope we are going to have a milder week while we are biking around. I got my Camelback, thanks so much for sending it. Speaking of service we went to one of the members houses this weekend and helped with yard work. I found a copperhead snake in their front yard. Brother T showed it to his kids, and then he killed it since they are pretty dangerous around here. I was glad I those gloves that I bought. I was protected in case it tried to bite me.
I really do love you guys and thanks so much for your continued support and your prayers. I feel blessed to have the love of home while I am out here. If there is anything else I can think of I'll drop a letter in the mailbox to ya later today. Love ya! Elder Colton
