Dear Mom,
Happy Birthday Mom!! Well, another week gone by... this time is too quick. I appreciate your email. Thank you for filling me in on things happening back home. It is good to hear about peoples Spiritual progression and the experiences you all are having. This last week was a busy one. We had our whole Zone together for our Zone Meeting (once per transfer), there are a total of 22 missionaries in the Zone and this was the first time I've talked with them all in one place. Elder Ellis and I did training for about 30 min each and then had some Question/Answer time and a testimony meeting at the end. We drove up to Vail on Saturday to do a baptismal interview which took like 10-15 min. and then drove back! So that took like all day and the roads were pretty bad, so it took like 2-1/2 hours one way. I was asked to speak on Sunday for 15-20 minutes in the student ward (Table Mountain) about how to make our prayers more powerful and sincere, and then this morning I gave a training in District Meeting for 20-25 minutes on Repentance... it's been busy!! But I love it! :)
We are going to try and visit Andrea and her family at 4:00 today. We'll see how it goes! It's not a set appointment but that's the time that felt right and we didn't want to visit them tonight after our dinner in case it was too late, so we're going to try them today even though it's our P-day. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven!
Cinda is doing alright. She is still struggling with giving up smoking. If she is going to be baptized on the 26th she needs to quit by tomorrow. We'll see! She had a friend up in Brighton whom she went to church with about twice and then wanted to come to a closer ward, so she sent in a request for missionaries through Mormon.org and that's how we found her.
Trisha and Dick didn't show up to dinner last Wednesday:/ We're going to stop by sometime and see if they are willing to let us in.
Smokey is doing great! We had a powerful lesson with him this past week about baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and President and Sister Maynes came with us. He is so elect, I hope you guys can meet him someday. We have become pretty good friends.
I don't remember if I told you about Diedre or not, but she came to church for the first time 3 weeks ago. She's a senior in High School. She came with a friend. She initially started coming because she was doing a research project about the church. We met with her to "answer some questions" and taught her the first lesson! haha. She is on date to be baptized March 2nd! I often feel like I do so little in this work. I have truly realized that we are not and cannot be the ones who do the converting. I am amazed at the way the Spirit works in people.
Give my love to the whole family. I was able to finally get some letters off this past week that I have been procrastinating on for so long, and I plan on getting some in the mail this week for you guys. Thank you for being so good to me. For teaching me and loving me and being patient with me. Have a magnificent week! I bought a really good jump rope last week that should last for a long time and will start using it every morning as soon as the bruise on my heal goes away (bruised a couple weeks ago playing ultimate). I hope you all are making a conscious effort to take care of yourselves and be healthy. I am trying to do the same! Love you all.
Onward!
Elder W. Marks
Happy Birthday Mom!! Well, another week gone by... this time is too quick. I appreciate your email. Thank you for filling me in on things happening back home. It is good to hear about peoples Spiritual progression and the experiences you all are having. This last week was a busy one. We had our whole Zone together for our Zone Meeting (once per transfer), there are a total of 22 missionaries in the Zone and this was the first time I've talked with them all in one place. Elder Ellis and I did training for about 30 min each and then had some Question/Answer time and a testimony meeting at the end. We drove up to Vail on Saturday to do a baptismal interview which took like 10-15 min. and then drove back! So that took like all day and the roads were pretty bad, so it took like 2-1/2 hours one way. I was asked to speak on Sunday for 15-20 minutes in the student ward (Table Mountain) about how to make our prayers more powerful and sincere, and then this morning I gave a training in District Meeting for 20-25 minutes on Repentance... it's been busy!! But I love it! :)
We are going to try and visit Andrea and her family at 4:00 today. We'll see how it goes! It's not a set appointment but that's the time that felt right and we didn't want to visit them tonight after our dinner in case it was too late, so we're going to try them today even though it's our P-day. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven!
Cinda is doing alright. She is still struggling with giving up smoking. If she is going to be baptized on the 26th she needs to quit by tomorrow. We'll see! She had a friend up in Brighton whom she went to church with about twice and then wanted to come to a closer ward, so she sent in a request for missionaries through Mormon.org and that's how we found her.
Trisha and Dick didn't show up to dinner last Wednesday:/ We're going to stop by sometime and see if they are willing to let us in.
Smokey is doing great! We had a powerful lesson with him this past week about baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and President and Sister Maynes came with us. He is so elect, I hope you guys can meet him someday. We have become pretty good friends.
I don't remember if I told you about Diedre or not, but she came to church for the first time 3 weeks ago. She's a senior in High School. She came with a friend. She initially started coming because she was doing a research project about the church. We met with her to "answer some questions" and taught her the first lesson! haha. She is on date to be baptized March 2nd! I often feel like I do so little in this work. I have truly realized that we are not and cannot be the ones who do the converting. I am amazed at the way the Spirit works in people.
Give my love to the whole family. I was able to finally get some letters off this past week that I have been procrastinating on for so long, and I plan on getting some in the mail this week for you guys. Thank you for being so good to me. For teaching me and loving me and being patient with me. Have a magnificent week! I bought a really good jump rope last week that should last for a long time and will start using it every morning as soon as the bruise on my heal goes away (bruised a couple weeks ago playing ultimate). I hope you all are making a conscious effort to take care of yourselves and be healthy. I am trying to do the same! Love you all.
Onward!
Elder W. Marks