Mormonism at a Glance

This new LDS church video is a great summary of who we, 

the Mormons, 

are, and what we believe.

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ 

that Katie is devoting 18 months of

her life to share with those who

have the desire to grow in faith and join an

imperfect group of people as we strive

to serve the Lord and each other.

"&*%$#@&%?" - August 25, 2013 - From Vienna

FIrst of all, I have to gladly report that despite my last post of coming to terms with the fact that there was NO REAL letter, it turns out  there really WAS a letter in the mail to us.  Sad, but true,  it really did get lost.  Kate has a tendency to lose things, but the fact that she passed this tendency on to the Austrian/US postal service is truly distressing!

Family!  I'm honestly heartbroken that my letter hasn't gotten to you. Yes I did write you a paper letter!! I don't know what I did wrong!

The quote of the week is from when one of our investigators swore during an appointment and I repeated what she said, except I repeated it with a question mark at the end. I was asking what it meant. But Sister Judd and the elders just looked at me in horror, and then I remembered what it meant.

Zone conference was amazing!  I got to spend more time with Pres. and Sister Miles and we even shared a lesson with them on Saturday!   They are both very inspiring. I called you last night and left a message, but I did commit someone to baptism this week! It was during in appointment at the church that we had on Saturday right after you and Sister Miles left. The investigator's name is Jenni. She didn't want to set a date yet and Saturday was only our second lesson with her, but she is very prepared to receive the gospel. We will see her again today. She has a copy of the gospel principles book and has already read more than half of it.

Both Pres. and Sister Miles sincerely asked me on Friday how I'm doing. And I told them that I'm doing really well, because I really am!  But I still have a concern about how tired I am. I know that all missionaries are tired sometimes.  I just am kind of concerned, and I know Sister Judd is too, because I have a hard time staying alert during some of our meetings. And I'm just really tired a lot of the time. Do you have any recommendations?

My other big news is I committed someone to baptism this week.... Jenni!  I  She's totally golden. (FYI - "Golden" is a term missionaries use to describe someone who the Lord has really prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  When they meet the missionaries, things just fall into place and they are ready to have the spirit testify to them that the Gospel is true).   We met her after church one day on the bus because she was meeting one of our members who actually doesn't come to our ward very often because he usually goes to church with his parents in Wells.  We had an appointment with her on Saturday night at the church right after Pres. and Sister Miles left.  She didn't want to set a date yet and Saturday was only our second lesson with her, but she is very prepared to receive the gospel. We will see her again today (Monday). She has a copy of the gospel principles book and has already read more than half of it. (FYI - "Gospel Principles" is a book written in an easy to read format which explains the beliefs of the LDS Church on 47 topics such as the atonement, baptism, the fall of Adam and Eve, Eternal Marriage, the Law of Chastity, the Law of tithing etc).  

I told you more about her in a letter that I'm working on that you'll probably get in two weeks, if you get it at all! Ugh. That letter had better get to you! It is also my journal! At least part of it! Hey so have you done any Vienna research? If you have, and you want to share it with me, that would be great.

You asked why the first picture you saw of Sister Judd she had dark hair and the rest she's blond.  Sister Judd is a hair dyer. Kind of like Ashley. Her hair just likes to change colors. She wasn't going to dye it on her mission but she did and that's why her hair was dark in the picture and blondish in real life.

Not last week but the week before we went to the Donauturm (Danube Tower)  for P-Day. It was great because you get a good view of the city. Vienna is huge. 

Sister Judd and I are the only German-Speaking sister missionaries in Vienna, so we have to reach everyone!! It's cool because we actually work with a lot of different wards and in a lot of different areas because some people want to see sisters. We're still primarily in our ward and in our area, but we are also spread out. (FYI - This is a good time to explain about what a ward is. A ward is a congregation.  What makes it very different in the LDS Church is that you don't go "congregation shopping".  Your church records are with the ward according to where you live.  This is actually really important because a core value of the church is that we take care of each other.   Every family has a pair of men in the ward that are responsible for your family.  They visit at least once a month and should be aware of any challenges you are facing.  If you need help, they are there for you.  Every adult woman in the church has Visiting Teachers...a pair of women that visit her at least once a month and have similar responsibilities.) Do you remember how I told you there are elders from Sankt Polten in my district? Well we are teaching one woman who lives there. She was referred by a member (yessss!) and the member thought she should meet with sisters because she's going through a really messy divorce. So she really just needs peace and comfort. And we finally met with her last week in Sankt Polten and she's really great. She really wanted our appointment this week to be on Tuesday because she has to go to court on Wednesday and she thinks it will give her strength. So we're meeting with her tomorrow. Cool, huh? Right now I think she thinks of us more as therapists I think but I'm really hopeful that she'll embrace the gospel. And her kids! That would be unreal. I got the jist of what she said in our first lesson, but she talked a lot and her accent is different.

So this week was my first austausch (FYI - Austauch means "exchange" and an exchange is when you trade out companions for a day or so.) and my first zone conference! I served in the international ward on austausch with Sister Harman (P.S. it's Kristine Harman and Shaedee Woods . . . actually I can't remember how you spell it). So I taught in English that day and it was great.

So because we had zone conference President and Sister Miles were in town (also Sister Kervinen and she got to sleep over again!). So zone conference was on Friday and on Saturday President and Sister Miles had some time to do joint teaches. So we asked them to come to our appointment with Mary -name has been changed- (have I told you about her?). We love her so much.  So she had flaked on an appointment earlier in the week but she was acting way excited about this appointment on Saturday and we felt like it would be great if President and Sister Miles were there. She loves people and she would love them and they would love her. But the appointment fell out at the last minute. We were heartbroken and President and Sister Miles were already on their way. We were already at the church having GMK (no idea what that is) and it was just so stressful. And this is kind of funny, probably just because I'm so immature, but what we had planned to teach Mary was about the law of chastity and repentance. The last time we met she had confided in us that she felt broken because of past sins and she talked about how much she looks up to her parents for how true they are to one another (I'm not really sure any of this should go on the internet). And she has already been taught all the lessons and it was really ready for the next logical step. But it's time for our appointment and there's no Mary.  But President and Sister Miles are there feeling bad for us because we're so sad about Mary. And we tell them all about her and about why we had chosen this lesson and then President Miles says he wants us to teach them the lesson we had prepared for Mary. Now how many of you can say that you and your companion taught your mission president and his wife the law of chastity? Well, I can now say that. President Miles had a great time asking us hard questions about everything. Repentance is really important (obviously) and he really made us explain it in detail. He's so great. He and Sister Miles both are. But it was kinda funny! They told Sister Judd and me that we teach really well together and that I contributed a lot even though I'm not very confident in my German yet. They told me to be more confident and not look to Sister Judd for confirmation because I can communicate even if my grammar isn't perfect.

We still haven't really talked to Mary. She cancelled on us twice last week, and that wasn't the first time, so obviously she doesn't get (A) that we really do have busy schedules but we're just willing to turn our world upside down for her because we like her so much and (B) that this message is really important! This is her salvation! And all of the peace and happiness that she wants! So hopefully she'll come around but we know that she needs to know for herself that's it's important enough for her to follow through. She had a baptismal date and everything when I got here and then she went on vacations (I haven't been appreciating these long and very frequent European vacations. It's okay though because it has helped us to be extra good about finding new investigators).

Vienna Zone Conference - All the Sisters
Armstrong, Kervinen, Lewis, Judd, Woods, Harman, Miles, Winters & Scoggin

Everyone in the ZONE at Zone Conference -
I'm liking that I can pick her out quick in that pretty coral blouse! 

Our mission president sent us this quote this week. I love it. Wanna print it and send it to me? Also want to print that Ghandi quote that you sent me for me again? You should include this with the blog post.

“Anyone who does any kind on missionary work will have occasion to ask, why is it so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaked wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

“You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ this is the truth and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.”

-Jeffery R. Holland MTC talk @ Provo MTC June 20, 2000

Lindsey I did get your letter! I loved it so much! It was perfect! Thank you so much. I want more letters. Except I don't have time to write anyone so it doesn't really work.

Family I love you sooooo much. I put a bunch of random pictures in Dropbox, and I lot of them are ugly. Ha ha don't use them all. And for some reason the more recent ones aren't on there. Love you!  

what letter?

Some of us (actually probably only Franklin, Lindsey and I) distinctly recall that in the email we received on

August 12, 2013 

Sister Kate wrote these thrilling words....

"I'm excited for you to get my letter"

However, it has been two weeks and the above referenced letter

HAS NOT ARRIVED!  

Now, it's not like she is in some third world country where one might actually 

expect problems with the mail, for Heaven's sake....she's in AUSTRIA!

Oh dear...I honestly JUST realized as I'm writing this...what if she wasn't talking about a mailed letter at all???
What if she was just making reference to the email letter
in which she said the above statement (which, of course, we were very happy to get).  
I happen to know for a fact, however,
that there is another person who HAS gotten at least one handwritten letter from Austria from her.  Hmmm.....I'm starting
to realize maybe life has gotten to the point where we rank below him . 
Or maybe she just knows we will love her no matter what.
Which we do.

I will now officially stop checking our mailbox first thing when coming
home from work.  

TOMORROW IS P-DAY!
We'll get an email!  I mean, LETTER! 

The trials of a missionary mom! 

"What's the difference between thick and bad?" - August 19, 2013 from Vienna

Welllll…Family!  I just deleted the draft I had been working on. I probably shouldn't have told you that because you'll be even more mad than I am. But I'm heartbroken. Waaaaaaaaaaaaa. I promise I love you so much family!

Okay so last week a family in our ward brought a friend to church (best thing ever). She attended the lesson we taught in the Sunday School class especially for investigators. Afterwards she had some questions about the Pre-Earth life that we were more than happy to set up a time to answer. Major bonus: she felt the Spirit at church. So we met with her and she's just way cool. I full on told her that she reminds me of my mom. Just a little bit though. And she sent us home with . . . Kangen water! 12 wine bottles full of it. And she's also way into essential oils. She told us she was already planning on coming to church the next week. And she did and then we invited her to come to the Huy's house for dinner after church and she did and Richard had a really good talk with her about commandments. We will see her again this week!

So I hadn't really done much service but we did a lot this week! We helped this family in our ward take care of their garden. And we went out to a less active's house and were planning on gardening for them but basically their yard is a jungle and we wouldn't have even known where to start and they said they would rather just talk. So that's what we did to serve them. Remember our best friend Miga? Her mission call came! To our house! And she got called to our mission! It was amazing.

So I'm not sure what pictures made it on to the Drop Box (did that work?) but I took one of the shelf in our apartment that's all different languages of the Book of Mormon. We have so many! And when I was in Munich they took us on a tour of the mission office and there was a room that was basically full of Books of Mormon in every language imaginable. So far I have given out books in Persian, Arabic, and this week I will give out one in Igbo (I didn't have an Igbo Book of Mormon on me when I met my friend from Nigeria on the bus, but we will bring it to her this week). We also gave out a BOM in Serbian.

This brings me to my latest fascination. How do they translate the Book of Mormon? I don't mean the original translation, but into other languages. Who translates it? Who decides who translates it? How does it work? Do they always translate from English? That would be such an important job! Obviously languages don't transfer directly and the connotations matter a lot! So will you please research this for me?

Here is the quote of the week. Last week's was boring. So Elder Richman, who serves in our ward, had a conversation with our GML (ward mission leader) that went something like this:
"Perry, do I have a really thick American accent when I speak German?"

Perry: "Yes."

"But is it bad?"

Perry: "What's the difference between thick and bad?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

So over two weeks ago my best friend Courtney Bingham became a Duffy and I haven't heard anything about it! Somebody fill me in! Chels? Phil? Ashley Holt? Matt? Court? I want to hear about it! I'm just so happy for them. Thanks Mommy for sending me some of their engagements. I seriously loved them.

Also, I'm in an internet cafe close to where I live and across from me at another computer is someone is smoking like crazy and I'm pretty sure that he's whispering Harry Potter spells. Also, smoking is clearly forbidden as shown by the "Rachen veroten" sign. I just have to learn how to use every minute of the day more effectively. Which is extra hard when I'm so tired.

I love you family....Sister Kate

"Sister Lewis mit zwei flags" - August 12, 2013 from Vienna

Okay so so many great things happened this week! I don't even know where to start.

First, the other day we decided to do some work with the area book. I don't even know how to explain the area book. It's a "record of the dealings with God's children in your area." So I was calling past potential investigators and Sister Judd was calling past investigators. And making phone calls auf Deutsch is terrifying! If I actually get someone to talk to me, there's no way I'm going to be able to understand what they're saying. And we were just trading off using the phone because Sister Judd said using speaker phone made it even harder to understand. I have a few more people to follow up on, but at least one of the potential investigators that I called is now an investigator. He's so cool and the Lord has totally prepared him to accept the gospel. He came to church yesterday. The catch is he's not actually in our ward, so after one lesson with him we had a lesson with him and a set of elders in his ward. And in that lesson we gave him a tour of the church he would be attending. And it was cool. And I had actually never done a tour of a church building with an investigator before, so mostly just the elders and Sister Judd did a really good job. Last in the tour comes the baptismal font, and when they opened it the Spirit was just soaring. We had our lesson with him in that room.

This is what I told the mission president about it:

Another good week! I'm learning so much. One of the highlights of my week was finding a new investigator by calling past potentials. We met with him, he came to waffle night (even though we weren't there), and we met with him again. We invited the elders who actually serve in the ward where he lives. During that meeting we gave him a church tour, and the Spirit was so strong. He really opened up to us and told us all about the role religion has played in his life. Then he came to church! He was really excited about receiving a Book of Mormon in Persian, but it was hard to assign him reading because we didn't realize at first that the entire BOM is not yet translated into Persian. So the one we gave him only has excerpts. I really hope he continues to progress.

Okay so I'm really sorry I'm the worst writer ever. Thank goodness that you have a handwritten letter coming within the next few days. The real reason I told you hardly anything is because I was trying to figure out DropBox. I found out that we have permission from the mission president to use DropBox, so I sent one up.

So now you have a lot of random pictures that you might not understand. I will try to explain one. There's a picture of my name on the flag. One time when I moved districts in the MTC there was this little chart about whose turn it was to read and pray. And my name wasn't on it yet. And I said something, so Brüder Hill put my name on the big flag hanging up in our classroom. And then eventually they added a little flag for me so that I was on the chart but my name remained on the big flag. Eventually Sister Kervinen got  "jealous" and wrote her name underneath mine in little letters. And later people just wrote funny things on it. And one time when Brüder Hill was asking me a question he addressed me as "Sister Lewis mit zwei flags." Except he said flags in German. I can't remember how you say that in German. But it was funny. So that can be the quote of the week. "Sister Lewis mit zwei flags." Even though it happened forever ago. And I'm probably the only person who thinks it's funny. Well maybe Sister Kervinen does too.

I'm sure this is one of those "guess you had to be there stories"! 

But I love the little silly stories.

And Sister Kervinen got to come sleep over for two nights! It was so good for both of us. Especially for her. The sisters that we live with are the sister training leaders and so Sister Kervinen was here on tausch. 

Last week we we went to Schloss Schonbrunn on P-Day. That's what others of these pictures are from. The elders in the lederhosen are our elders that we serve in the same ward with. So we see them a lot.

Much of Schloss Schonbrunn was built in the 1700's although the
history of the buildings on this site go back to the 1400s and it has a
prominent place in the history of the Hapsburg dynasty. It has 1441 rooms
decorated in primarily the Rococo style and is Wien's #1 tourist attraction. 

This is the Neptune Fountain in the gardens of the Palace. 
It was built in the 1770's.

Sorry this is the worst email. I love you all. The work is good. I'm excited for you to get my letter. I love letters. If you ever send me anything will you put ore of those fruit/veggie packets in it and also that black shirt with the zipper that I didn't bring?

Alles gute,

Sister Lewis

Looks like a slumber party in her apartment, don't you think?

"Schmale und gerade Pfad" - August 5, 2013 from Vienna (Wien)

Dear Family!  Ready for the million random things I have written down to tell you? Okay here goes.

First of all, last Monday on our P-Day, we went to St. Stephan's Cathedral (Stephansdom)! The other missionaries in our area were playing games on P-Day but I pretty much sort of refused. But Sister Judd was pretty much on the same page. It was so hot that no one wanted to go out but I still did! So we went to Stephan's Dome which is something most people had already done.  The girl with us is Miga, one of our ward missionaries and we're waiting on her mission call. It's coming to our apartment! We love her. She is pretty much our best friend. She's from Mongolia like Bogi and they're super close friends too.

My group of incoming missionaries was the biggest yet in our mission! And probably the biggest our mission will ever have. There were 32 of us. Some came from the Preston, England MTC, which they are going to be doing more and more for our mission. Eventually all missionaries going to our mission will go to the Preston MTC.  (FYI- There are about 15 MTCs - Missionary Training Centers - around the world)

In our mission they call us "goldens" instead of "greenies." Just so that we know for sure how valued we are. We come in with so much enthusiasm and potential, so we really are golden. (FYI – The term “greenie” is usually used for a brand new missionary just coming out of the MTC and into the field)

One cool thing that we do in my zone is every night when we do daily planning and count up our numbers from that day (how many less actives we visited, how many potential investigators we found . . .) we also count how many "wunders" we saw that day. We just count the little miracles that we are grateful for. And then we text the zone leaders our number and in the morning the zone leaders send out a text with the number of miracles that we saw the day before as a zone. Cool, huh? I love it. (FYI – I also know we are blessed when we SEARCH for and acknowledge the tender mercies of the Lord each day in our life.  When we recognize those little things that we might otherwise take for granted, we are truly happier!)

Right now I'm breathing in some serious secondhand smoke in this internet cafe. And the guy is seriously one foot away from the "Rauchen Verboten" sign. That means smoking is forbidden.

My trainer is great. This is the part where you all stop reading and say a prayer of Thanksgiving. I'm so glad I like her. She's an amazing teacher and I actually just feel like she really is who I need to learn from right now. Sometimes she feels like I ask too many questions, because I think I'm kind of demanding about it. And I expect her to know everything about the German language and about everything and I just love to ask her questions. So I'm learning that I shouldn't just feel entitled to asking questions whenever I want. Does that make sense? I hope to be able to do a lot of things like she does. Especially navigate. We ride public transportation all the time (great for contacting!) and I just still have no idea how she figures out how to get where we're going. Normal people use an app for these things but missionaries must be old-fashioned and use a map. iPads, please come soon. (Hmm, I wonder if her mission is one that will be getting iPads anytime soon….the church is rolling them out, but not all at once).

I forgot to give you a quote of the week last week! 

So here it is:

"Haben sie mich gegrüßt?" (FYI – This translates to “Did you greet me?”) So it's not really normal in big cities even in America to say hi to people you don't know. And it's definitely not normal in Wien. But I just say hi to everyone and if they're friendly I try to talk to them. Talking to everyone is harder than I thought it would be. It’s hard just because it really is scary in another language and in another culture. I'm working on getting over myself. I just know that once they start really talking I probably won't understand what they're saying. And my companion isn't always right there. And it's actually some of the friendlier people who ask you after you say hi if they know you. They all of the sudden feel like they should know who you are if you're saying hi to them. So sometimes if I ever say "grüetzi" people say "Haben sie mich gegrüßt?" And I think it's so funny. Gegrüßed is the funniest word. And I say yes and then they say "Kennen wir uns?" or "Do we know each other?" Ah it's the best. I'm still working on my answer to that but I want to get in the habit of saying that I'm just friendly because I'm a representative of Jesus Christ.

This week's quote is the "schmale und gerade Pfad," or the strait and narrow path. That was one of my favorite tall phrases (FYI - a "tall" phrase apparently has something to do with a computer program they use in the MTC to learn the language) and I was just thinking about the phrase yesterday during personal study. So I randomly started studying scriptures with the word "path." There's a lot of good ones. And I came upon D&C 112:7 "Therefore, gird up thy loins for the work.  Let thy feet be shod also, for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and among many nations."   Does that sound like my mission or what?!! The D&C has soooo many good missionary scriptures and I just felt like that one was just for me.   

(FYI – The D&C stands for “The Doctrine and Covenants”. It is a book of  modern day “scripture” that contains the “revelations given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet in the 1700s, with some additions by his successors in the Presidency of the Church”)

More about my trainer. She picked me up at the train station in Wien and we rode more public transportation home and when we got to the apartment it was so nice that my bed was made with clean sheets, and that there was a really nice note from her that she had made and a lot of mini Ritter Sports on my desk to welcome me. And she even decorated my planner! I've come to learn that decorating planners is a big deal around here, and it was so fun to have one waiting for me.

Also, that address is where I live. Google Earth it or something. I live in Wien's 17th district. I feel like the part of Wien I live in looks a little like San Francisco.

This is for Daddy. Sister Judd and her dad do this thing where they study the same chapter of Jesus the Christ every week and write each other about it. Do you want to do something like that? I was thinking we could maybe do it with either Jesus the Christ or Our Search for Happiness. And we don't have to talk a lot about it. It would just be cool to know that we're reading the same thing. And it shouldn't take too much time because I have a lot to study during personal study but I would like to do that. What do you think?

Also for Daddy: The other day in companionship study I told Sister Judd how I really feel like other people's prayers have been bouying me up (uh is that how you spell that? I miss spell check. Pathetic, I know.) and I told her that I just know that especially my daddy is praying hard for me. I know you all are, this isn't supposed to make anyone feel bad, but after I said that Sister Judd said "Have you told him that?" And I realized that I hadn't. So I'm telling you.

I forgot to tell you that I cashed in on my free haircut in the MTC. It turned out fine. I think.

Wanna know something cool? The 3 Nephi 5:13 scripture as it turns out is my mission theme scripture. I'm inspired ha ha. (FYI - In our chapel building each missionary out from that ward (congregation) has a plaque like the one below displayed during the time that they are serving.  It includes a scripture of the missionary's choosing.  Katie chose 3 Nephi 5:13 from the Book of Mormon which reads "Behod, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare his work among his people that they might have everlasting life".)

So a typical day.  We're supposed to get in 4 hours of study every day, except P-Day and Friday because it's weekly planning. But that's one hour of personal study, one hour of companionship study, one hour of language study, and one hour of training. We have hardly ever had time for training, which is probably bad because I need training. But I'm not really sure what takes us so long. We spend a lot of time on public transportation because we're going all around Vienna. But we have this goal in our ward that we're eventually going to teach all the members of the ward the first three lessons. And just develop really good relationships with the ward that way. And even have them pretend to be investigators so that we can practice. We've had a lot of older people who are lonely invite us over and they just talk our ears off. But it's good for them.

Okay this is cool. When James gets his letter from last week he will call you and tell you about it. I talked about Alex (who, by the way, update, responded to this text we sent him with a scripture reference by saying "You need to overcome the Mormon church." And he hasn't been responding to the elders. The adversary has gotten to him.). And when we met with Alex I got to talk a tiny bit about my experience studying abroad in Jerusalem. That was one of the first times. It has come up so many times! We meet quite a few Muslims. And I feel like it gives me some credibility with a lot of people when I mention that I studied religion in Jerusalem for four months in the fall. A lot of the people who are nice enough to talk to us are foreigners. Not that Austrians aren't nice, but they're generally less up for talking to strangers (everyone remember, referals are the better way). We met someone the other day who said he was Muslim and we got his information and met him again and gave him an Arabic Book of Mormon. He's from Egypt. But he's in the process of moving to Wien. It turned out he was really Muslim and was fasting for Ramadan and everything, but he still took the book and we had a good conversation about the similarties between our religions. He had even done some studying on Mormonism before our appointment.  

The following is from the letter Katie referred to that James received :

My most memorable lesson so far is with a man who is basically anti-Mormon but he still wants to meet with the missionaries.  For this lesson there were sisters and elders, because that is what he asked for.  We spoke a lot in English because his English is perfect and he wanted me and the newer Elders to understand.  So I taught a lot.  He’s studied a lot of religion and it’s something that really fascinates him and I think I helped him because I  talked about the religious study I had done on study abroad in Jerusalem.  I told him that I agreed that many religions have truth and that there are a lot of holy books.  But  Itold him if I could read a book  with some truth or a book that was all true, I would spend more of my time on the book that was all true. A.K.A. the Book of Mormon.  He refuses to read it which is strange because if you are into studying religion why wouldn’t you just read it?  I honestly think he’s afraid of what he might feel.  I know he feels the spirit in the lessons.  I saw it in his face and the spirit was so strong.  (FYI – it is not really uncommon for people to want to meet with the missionaries to “talk them out of their faith”. But  missionaries know that the spirit departs when there is contention, so teaching someone is one thing, but debating is typically not helpful).

My mission president is wonderful. Everything I have heard about him and observed is just really positive. I think he does a really good job. And Sister Miles too.

Also, Mommy will you get a hold of Ashley Bunker's Honduras address for me? She should still be in Peru but by the time I send her a letter I think I should send it to Honduras.

Also, the week I left the MTC 982 other missionaries also did. Crazy, huh? Family I love you so much. Thank you for your prayers. Alles gute! Jesus is coming again!