Week 71- June 17

     This week has been a pretty good week. We have been staying busy as usual trying to get everything done. Last week we had to do AMPS (assessment of missionary progress). That is always tons of fun. We meet with the district leaders and talk with them about the missionaries in their district and how they're doing, their skills, and the things they need to work on. After we meet with them we basically write an essay for the mission president to read to get to better know the missionaries. It takes a lot of time but it isn't that bad. There is only 14 missionaries in our zone that we have to do it for. It is really cool to get to see the growth in the missionaries. There are 5 new missionaries in the zone and it has been cool to see them grow and learn missionary skills. Along with meeting with the district leaders we also call and talk to all of them, (which means we are always on the phone). We are either talking with missionaries or investigators or stake and ward leaders. I have come to not be afraid of the phone.
   We had a baptism in the zone on Friday night. It was a really cool baptism. It wasn't like you normally have at a church building. This one was at someones home in their pool. It was a really cool baptism. While we were standing around the pool the birds were chirping and there was a slight breeze. I thought that that was probably how it was when Joseph Smith was baptized. Quiet peaceful and open. We were worried that we weren't going to feel the spirit as strong as we would have in the church building but we were definitely wrong. The spirit was very strong. I also thought of the first vision and what an incredible experience that was and also how much love Heavenly Father has for all of us.
    From Friday to Saturday I was on exchanges with one of the Assistants in my area. It is always great to work with them because you learn so much. We saw so many miracles. Friday night we were driving home and we had 5 min left before we had to be in so we decided that we were going to park the car and see if we could talk to anyone. We started walking and there was a guy talking to a lady down the way, so we went up and stood there awkwardly waiting. When they finished their conversation we started talking with the man and come to find out he has terminal cancer, he was recently married and his 2 bosses are Mormon. We talked with him for about 10 min and he introduced us to his wife. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet and we are going to be going back this week to talk with him. Also all day Saturday we talked with a lot of people who might be interested it was really cool.
   Thursday night we met with one of our investigators and we taught her the gospel. While we were talking about baptism I was prompted to invite her to be baptized. I was a little hesitant, because she has a lot of crazy ideas and concerns and what not. But I decided that that is what I had to do so I did. When I invited her the spirit in the room was so strong and she said yes and we set a date for July 13. Hopefully she will make it, she still has a lot to understand and it takes her a little bit of time. It was a really cool experience.
   Saturday we sent a text to our investigator that we haven't been able to meet with in a month, (the one who said her heart exploded when we shared the first vision). When she texted us back she said that she didn't want to meet with us and that she was going to stick with her church. This is what we were worried was going to happen. We think she got anti'd. It was very disappointing because we know she felt the spirit testify to her that what we were sharing is true.
Love, Elder RINDLISBACHER