Another Great Week Out in America's Dairyland

    Another great week out in America's Dairyland. You could say I feel like a cow in tall grass... Utterly tickled to be here. The K family is doing really well and are preparing to be baptized on the 12th this month which is really exciting. Sorry still don't have pictures of them but I will send some of them next week.

    Miracle for this week is defintely going to be a man named M. Elder Hardy and I were tracting an apartment building and we were talking about wanting some more diversity in the ward and we talked about how it would be fun to have some more african american members. Lo and behold right after we said that we knocked on the door of a 6 foot 2 220 pound extremely intimidating african american man. He said, "looks like God just sent me two of His angels." So we go in and the first thing he says to us is I know that you guys like to talk but just sit down and listen because I'm about to do some preaching of my own. He turns on this rap song by DMX that talks about God and we told him we don't listen to that stuff but he said don't worry about it I won't tell anybody plus this stuff brings the Spirit. So we listen to the song and he starts crying and then he tells us his past. He told us about how he was in a gang and was in prison for 24 years. He shows us his stab wounds, bullet wounds, and all of these burn marks and then he looks at us and says, "I'm just tired of it all and I want to find a church." He is one of the coolest guys that I have ever met and I don't know if I have ever met someone with a harder life then this man. He was planning to get married awhile back but his fiance died when the twin towers went down in New York. It was amazing to see that someone with so much hardship and so many sins could still come back and want to find God. Unfortunately he can't be baptized for awhile because he is currently on probation but we are still working with him to help him repent and it has been such a testimony builder that no matter who you are or what you've done the Atonement can bring you hope.

      This Sunday was really neat because Elder Hardy and I got to speak in church. We had known for about 4 days and Elder Hardy just kept telling me the whole time that he is absolutely terrified of speaking in front of people. He spoke before me and gave an awesome talk on the Atonement. I went after and also spoke on the Atonement and I felt the Spirit so strong throughout the meeting. Afterwards a bunch of members got our number so that their friends could start learning and also the Bishop is allowing us to use the gym every Tuesday for volleyball with the Hmong Community. Then our dinner calendar got completely filled up for the month which is pretty sweet because as much as I love oatmeal and mac and cheese, it was getting old. Anyways moral of the story is blessings come from facing your fears.

      One last thing that I was thinking about was how important it is to soften our hearts and listen to the Spirit. One of the investigators are working with had a baptismal date for two fridays ago but she failed the interview because she likes going to a hmong church and wants to be a member in both churches. Her name is P. She is also really sick and is confused at why God isn't healing her because she lives His commandments. This last time that we went to visit her we went over the story of King Lamoni's father and how he is willing to give up everything to receive forgiveness of his sins. We asked her after if she would be willing to give up the hmong church and the Spirit was so strong. She looked us right in the eyes and said no. We asked her if she felt the Spirit and she said no. My companion and I walked out of the appartment and I don't know if I have ever felt that sad about another person's words in my life. We both just stood there in the street and looked at each other just not knowing what to do. We felt like we did everything we could but she didn't want to follow truth. We decided to say a prayer that she would one day come to know that it was true and I felt so much comfort from that. It was a really hard experience but I will never forget it. I learned that it was super important to listen to the Spirit even if you don't know why and that is something I am striving to do. (The guy behind me in the library just farted so loud and he is this ginormous redneck man with like a one foot beard. I love Wisconsin) Anyways that's my advice this week. Strive to follow the Spirit and never deny it. Even if it is the smallest prompting.

     Love you all and keep up the good work. Dad I think that is super cool that you are studying the Atonement. Our mission president is having us study one talk on the Atonement per day for 30 days leading up (he just farted again) to Easter and I have grown so much appreciation for it. Mom tell Grammy I hope she is ok. Libby it sounds like you are a soccor ninja so keep up the good work.