Happy Paint Satrick’s Day

Well... This week was one of those weeks that has seven days.

We spent almost all week preparing for and inviting people to our branch activity: Movie Night!!! We were feeling really good about it! We ran into snag after snag that resisted the whole thing. We were able to invite tons of people in person with flyer's/invitations, and we got at least 20 commits and everyone seemed really excited about it all. Well the day of, Friday, we pretty much spent from after District Meeting until 7 preparing. We had problem after problem in setting up. Broken projectors and dvd players and no sound coming forth etc... Well we finally got it all strait. It looked great! The whole place was all set up nicely and The Testaments title screen was being projected largely on the wall of the Assembly room. Well... Not counting the missionaries 7 people showed up. :(

Don't you hate that.....

Well, It wasn't a total waste because the senior couple Elder and Sister Lee had never seen it, and it gave Bro Hatch something to do and allowed us to get to know him better (plus he sympathized with us and now seems to be a supporter in our work) and Sister Catron and her Daughter came. Sister Catron hasn't been to church in a long time because of work scheduling issues and from our knowledge her daughter is unbaptized. Well, we were able to get an appointment with her for tomorrow and the Mansuettos (my favorite members) were able to fellowship her because they are old friends. Elder woodland knows her from an exchange and was able to say, "Hey!!! Sister Catron! How are you?!?" that seemed to be nice for her because I think she feels like no one knows who she is any more. Besides that Axel and Jeff came (19 and 23 year olds in the branch that currently don't have a lot to do). So that was great cause you know what they say, "an idle mind is the devils work shop".

We felt bad though because we worked so hard and the Lees got us refreshments for it and a projector and dinner (cause we missed dinner cause we were busy trying to get everything working) and the Mansuettos brought a bunch of Soda. We popped a bunch of pop-corn... but at least all that got eaten.

No one came to church really not even Tito, we aren't sure why. We feel bad cause we taught him about baptisms for the dead and he got confused and worried, so we wanted him to come so we could talk more about that at church. Well, we did have investigators go to the YSA branch however. Ben went and brought his friend Matt. We will be seeing them tonight. Ben still likes to preach to us, but is starting to understand what we are all about and what we really have. He is going to church and reading the things we tell him to, so he is progressing. :)

So we have had a new elder in the pad this week. His name is Elder Sanford. You can tell he's right out of the MTC. Ha-ha. That's not bad, it’s just funny how everyone comes into the mission field the same way; the same attitude and expectations. It really is a boot camp. Anyway, Elder Sanford is from Las Vegas and had a semester at BYU before he came out on his mission (living the Mormon dream). He is a nice guy, and I can tell he is starting to get used to being here now. He has a girl friend back at home and when he found out that I used to he asked how long into the mission I was when it ended. When I told him he said, "Oh, ok, so I've still got some time." Ha-ha. It was pretty funny. He has pretty good timing. He doesn't really say things that are supper witty, just simple, but he says them at the right time. He's a nice guy. Anyway, I'm sure he'll be a great missionary. Hopefully elder woodland can help him with his Spanish though. Ha-ha. Jk, his is better than mine (at least vocab). :)

I hope I didn't scare him to much with my craziness I hope it just helps him feel like he can have fun and work hard. Ha-ha. He didn't laugh at anything I did or said for like the first 4 or 5 days! Ha-ha.

OK I must now depart from this writing for I lack any more to say. Yet, I will not leave you without my own testimony of the truth. The lord has his holy an eternal purpose and we are the whole point of that purpose. He work and his glory is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life. His joy is our progression and our success. He weeps when we weep. His heart drops when we fail. He is our loving Father. Understanding our relationship to him will deepen our relationship with him. We will become more sincere prayers and we will understand his will. We will no longer question him when bad things happen to us or the ones we love, we will not blame him for our sorrow but praise him for all that is good in our lives. We will praise him and love him even more for his perfect parenting skills. He loves me and you more than anything we could fathom. I can't say that I know really anything perfectly because I am human and I am week and I don't understand all things, but I can testify to you that he does not abandon you and that he does not cause anything negative in your life. God is perfect and therefore he does not do anything that would cause him to be a liar. What is good comes from the father; if God lead us into temptation he would cease to be God. He Promises that as we discover and apply his will that we will not have room enough to receive his blessings. Our trials are a part of mortality and come from either natural events that come from the physical body or world around us or from the decisions of others or from Satan and his followers. We can be thankful for the hard things because without resistance we would lose our strength.

That’s about it. Love,

-Elder Samuel Austin Morris