Elder Colton Craig

Hello again! It's always very nice to share my week with you all. I
hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.

Monday: Nothing much happened besides we got to spend all of p day
with Sister Wiebe. We helped her clean and whatnot. We also got two
new investigators names Matthew and Imajean (yes I'm shocked that's a
name too) by sharing the new Easter video with them.

Tuesday: So apparently there was like a shooting and the police
blocked off the area near McDonalds. So it was just a joy to go around
because it took us an extra 10 minutes to go a quarter mile. The
reason I mention the shooting is because everyone we came into contact
to was talking about it and it was just so bizarre. Everyone is okay
except for the shooter. Anyway we got to see Imajean and we shared her
the restoration and apparently she believes in everything, except "the
Mormon parts." She said she wanted to come to church this Sunday and
we were super excited!

(This is exactly one mile from Colton's apartment!)

Wednesday: We had so many lessons that day, but the highlights were a
referral, Matthew, and Brother Stockton. We contacted a referral from
the Sisters in Clarksville. We went to his house and we talked to him
a little bit about our church. He was pretty open minded to it so we
set and appointment. We saw Matthew and shared the restoration with
him. We had him read a couple verses out of the Book of Mormon and he
said "from what I am reading this seems to be true." That was very
exciting for us. We also saw Brother Stockton, who hasn't been to
church in at least a year. He just got out of the hospital and we
helped him with some service. He said he wanted to come to church.
Very good day.

Thursday: BUT THURSDAY WAS AN EVEN BETTER DAY! For St. Patrick's Day,
we saw Humpy and told him we would help him with service the next day.
Afterwards, we picked up Brother Bailey to go see the Lyons and they
had a friend over to listen to our message as well. Mary started
reading the Book of Mormon on her own and she felt that it was true.
We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and asked them if they would
like to be baptized. Not just Mary, but all three of them including
the neighbor said they would like to!!! We are very excited for them!
We went to Sister Wiebe's for dinner that night and had corn beef and
potatoes and it was very delicious.

Friday: We tried tracting into people and just as we were about to
leave and try a less active, this guy, who is Pentecostal, stops us
and talks about our religion and whatnot. He loves us but thinks we
are wrong. He kept trying to tell us no one can see God face to face
and I wanted to explain transfiguration to him, but I knew he wouldn't
believe me because I don't think it talks about it in the bible, so
all I did was bear my testimony. He asked if our church does the "holy
kiss." And we were both really confused. And he explained to us that
it's where the preacher greets anybody that comes into the chapel with
a kiss on the mouth. We both just thought, "why in the heck would we
want President Coots or even my bishop back home to kiss us on the
mouth?!" I looked it up and sure enough it talks about the holy kiss
in the bible, but it means salutation........people take everything
way too literally nowadays. We got a youth named Jake to come out with
us and help put together a car port for Humpy. We had a lot of fun
putting it up and it took us about maybe an hour. We committed him to
read the Book of Mormon before we left. Then the Covingtons fed us
dinner. We shared the Easter video with them and then went to Miss
Lynda's. We shared a lesson out of gospel principles and she said she
wants to come to church this Sunday, but we had to call her on
Saturday.

Saturday: We got up early to go to a mission conference. Elder David
A. Bednar came and spoke to our mission! There was so many things that
we talked about its hard to list all of it, but I did learn a lot
about faith and agency and how to teach better with the spirit. Elder
Bednar is just a spiritual giant. When he walked into the room I could
just feel the spirit immediately. I've never in my life felt the
spirit that strong before. Elder Bednar is a really funny guy and told
lots of great stories to us. One of the biggest things that I remember
is that he told us to not take notes because you don't get as much out
of it with the spirit. Another thing he told us was to never play the
"guess what's in my head games" with our investigators because a lot
of people don't know the answer and it just leaves them feeling
foolish. I also figured out what "line upon line, precept upon
precept" meant. It always confused me when people would say that but
Elder Bednar explained it very well talking about how God gives us
small answers at a time. It helps us to slowly grow. The only other
thing that happened was we called Miss Lynda about church and she
didn't want to go because it's too different. She told us that she
didn't have a testimony and basically I'm not sure what we can do, but
I know the spirit will guide us.

Sunday: The only person that showed up to church, out of the 7ish
people that said they would, was Brother Stockton. He felt obligated
to come because he promised us. We got a new member named Brother
Cook. We got a bunch of people to our church though. Sixty one people!
We are aiming for 80 so that it can be a ward and also get an add on
to the church. The Lyons didn't come because Marilyn was sick and they
needed to take care of her. I taught the youth in Sunday School about
how to compare the Atonement so that it's easier to teach and more
relatable to people. We got to see a less active and he fed us dinner
and he wouldn't stop talking about his dishwasher and how it's great
because it sterilizes your dishes and doesn't just wash them. Then we
went to the Pentecostal church again because Elder Ross wanted to hear
this one preacher he heard was coming back to speak. And when we got
there, a bunch of people were gathered around a pew yelling at the
floor. We were so confused with what was going on. An older lady came
up to us and explained that "she is using the gift of tongues to ask
for the Holy Ghost." And after she said that, the lady was off the
floor and she just kept saying, and I kid you not, "la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la la la la" with every breath she took. And I
just thought, "oh that's the gift of tongues? Are you saying one word
or multiple words?" Like she could've been yelling "pancakes" over and
over again. My favorite part was when she was done, the preacher asked
if she got the Holy Ghost. She said she didn't know. I wouldn't know
after an hour and a half of doing that. That was also the entire
service. We were so disappointed. The Pentecostals do always surprise
me though.

Anyway that was the week. One of the most important things I've
learned this week, is how the love of Christ is with us always, but
not everyone feels it. Sometimes we feel lonely or just even not felt
loved, but I know if you pray for it, you will feel Christ's love.
Moroni 7:48. Remember that you are always loved even if you don't feel
it. Remember that I love you all too! I'll talk to you all next week!
Love you!

Elder Craig