A week...

Hey there family!

How is it going? We had a good week here fulls of ups and downs. We felt the spirit a lot and we learned a lot together. Though it is a rather insignificant event in many ways, the highlight of the week was weekly planning. At first things went kind of rough, but as we prayed, we were blessed wit unity and I know that our planning was guided by the Spirit. This coming week (beginning today) will be great. We will see lots of miracles and we are going to make a larger push to see more members involved in missionary work.

We had Zone Conference on Thursday and it was just what I needed. I had the opportunity on multiple occasions to speak with President Ellsworth about our area. Our branch is struggling in it's own unique way and President Ellsworth gave us some very inspried advice on how we can strengthen the branch. That is most assuredly what these people need right now. President said that he wants us to "grow the branch". So, that is what Elder Howard and I focused on for the remainder of the week. As we did that we felt the spirit and we are pretty sure that the members did. We are trying our best to do this and we saw some fruits. I am glad to know that President is aware of our situation and understands the strugles that we and our branch have. I have really come to love President Ellsworth. He is a very humble man who is obviously guided by the Spirit.

With one recent convert, Jose, he is battling economically. He works at the bakery owned by our branch president. He is in debt due to past life choices and he is now trying to pay that off by working two jobs. He is now washing dishes at a restaurant. For the last few weeks, this was really keeping him from going to church. Luckily, we taught him some great spiritual lessons. We saw his testimony strengthen and he asked his manager off. The miracle of it all was that he was given sundays off! So, he was at church and was able to fulfill his calling. It was great!

Other than that, the week was fairly uneventful. We worked hard and we got to see some grea things. A new investigator of ours says that she has not read much. We got kind of bummed. Well, it turns out she has read most of first Nephi. She is a reader, so that is why she considered it so little. She understood and said she feels that it is true. Now, we just need to set up firm appointments so that we can prepare a lesson for her. Her ex-husband is a member, whom she said clearly did not live the standards. She was orignally pretty closed off, but the Lord softened her heart as she has read!

I hope you all love Utah and enjoy it! Tell grandma and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins that I love them! I love you all too!

Elder Pearson