I love the gospel!

Hey mom and dad,

This week has been very interesting. I love this work, but the problem has been getting to it, unfortunately.

This week has been a week of about 153643 excuses not to go out and work. it has been a challenging week. In some ways i feel like i'm going through the refiners fire. In the Bible dictionary it says refiner means " A man who separates the precious metals from the dross" with which in nature they are usually found mixed. Part of the process consists in the application of great heat, in order to bring the mass into a fluid state, hence the term “refiner’s fire.” Christ is the great "Refiner" I feel like Jesus is trying to put me through a bit of test to see if my faith holds up and i stay obedient to the commandments and covenants i have made. So far im doing alright and i hope to win the battle!

Our only investigator was an eastern indian man and he was sooo promising! He
had a baptismal date for Feb fourth that we set like the second day i was here. But for some reason he called us and said he wasn't interested and didn't want to read out of the Book of Mormon anymore, but just the bible. It is interesting how many different ways the heart can be broken. But we need to remember and me most of all that the Atonement was performed by our Savior not to heal the whole hearts but the broken. I love the Psalm 147:3 "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds". It just really is quite powerful to me. Jesus the Christ is so powerful. He can do all things and through him we can do all things too if we are faithful and obedient.

In our apartment its just me and my companion. So its okay to send stuff straight to our apt. Interviews with president went great. I love that guy. He is so sharp and he knows what's going on. We set a mission goal of 600 baptisms this year and i think we can get it. We got 484 last year. So pray for that goal for us in CRM, will ya?
And P-day's here are just straight basketball. I love it! Its so nice. But i'm so tired after! But thats okay its so worth it!

I love helping and learning from my district. We have some of the best elders in the mission. The interesting thing about being in some form of leadership is you have to be perfect. Especially in this young district. Their eyes are always on you so you have to be doing everything right, which has overall been a blessing to me because it makes me better. The lord truly does bless us in interesting ways!

Thats wonderful that you got a letter from Bill and Joann. They mean so much to me. I hope you one day get to meet them. They were so funny!

Anyway! I better go. If there is anything i can do for anyone let me know. Oh also! I'm in Shawn Goff's cousin's ward. I didn't get a chance to ask him his name but its such a small world! But it was neat to talk to him. He went to Alta in 92 so that was sweet.

Its so weird that i will hit eight months on Wednesday. I feel like i have been out for a week. I still have so much to do in such a little amount of time!
Tell Grandma i love her and i will just start praying harder for her. She is often in my prayers. I love her so much. And that is so cool about Dad and Ron going and using their priesthood. What a blessing it is to have that restored priesthood. I love the gospel!
Love Elder Simons!