25 May 10

It's starting to get warm here. We hit 100 last week and school is out in Arizona. We had a pretty good week. Our entire district has 3 transfers or less left except the District Leader and me who came out at the same time. So last week, by Friday our TTI's were the worst they've been in my entire mission, so we called Elder Geilmen and he had about 12 for the week. SO we made a little wager. Whoever got the most TTI's on Saturday gets to buy the other companionship a 75 cent fountain drink at the QT. So we ended up with 71 TTI's and they had 57. That is the most I've ever gotten in one day. It's not the proper motivation to TTI, but we have gotten a lot of potential Investigators because of it. So our final talley for the week was 83 TTI's which is still not so good. But we taught a ton of Investigator lessons. 21 total! And we've started off great this week with 29 TTI’s, 3 lessons and 1 new Investigator for Monday. 

We also had a great experience. One of our Investigators, Kenny, is having a hard time letting his pastor know that he is meeting with us and is considering joining the Mormon church, but he doesn't know if it's worth losing his friendship because he doesn't know if the church is true yet. He has been reading and is understanding everything. So we read 2 Nephi 33 with him, and after that he closed the book looked at it for 2 min and said "It's true. I have to do it." We literally watched a man gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was been the single most spiritual moment of my mission. We're planning on setting a date with him next time.

Short on time again.

Love you all,

Elder Jacob

18 May 10

Good morning family and friends. It's looking to be a hot week here in the AZ. Last night was a long night as Elder Geilmen and Alcontara came and spent the night. Elder Geilmen and Elder Forkner have been friends their entire missions and since Elder Geilmen is going home in 3 weeks and Elder Forkner is going home in 9, they seem to want to spend every waking moment together. Geilmen and Alcontara cover the Spanish work in our area and are on bikes so we see them all the time. 

So we had a great week last week. All our numbers were great except TTI's. We found 8 new investigators and taught 14 investigator lessons. Combined with our less active and member lessons we got a total of 20 lessons last week which is exactly what Elder Parry has set for weekly goals. But we only talked to 64 people so our TTI's have been a little short, but the whole point of TTI'ing is to find new investigators. The mission standard for New Investigators is 4 a week. And we doubled that, but that dosen't mean we don't have to TTI. It's not the most effective way to find but it is effective. One of our new investigatores last week came from a member who talked to her friend at school and we're pretty sure she asked her if she wanted to get baptised, and here she is learning more about modern day revelation and the restored church. 

It dosen't take much just a little prayer and faith so we can help those who don't know they're looking for it. We know were the gate is. Lets help those them find it, so they too can be happy along with us. It's the best feeling ever to see someone progress in life. It's an even better feeling to see someone progress in the gospel.

TTI

Love

Elder Morgan

11 May 10

We had a great 79 minute conversation with him Sunday night. He's doing as well as he sounds in his emails. He mentioned that he'd been studying Cleon Skousen and some deeper church doctrine and so when I wrote him today I cautioned him to be careful and not stray too far from the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, Faith, Repentance, Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost... (Mike)

"Thanks for the concern. You know what they say "If the church wasn't true the missionaries would have figured it out a long time ago. Actually these studies (which haven't been part of my morning studies) have helped me find answers to peoples questions and prepare answers to frequently asked questions that have helped others draw closer to Christ. But you are correct there have been Bishops, Stake Presidents and General Authorities that have lost there testimonies because of something they weren't prepared to hear or couldn't fully understand or just wasn't true. 

There was a guy in my last area who, on his mission, was called to look up all the anti material and find out how to defend using scriptures and talks by Apostles. He's a great guy, Bro Lowry was. I learned alot from him when we had an investigator who just wouldn't except the Book of Mormon and the investigator left us a little depressed and angry after many hours of arguing and trying to prove one thing against the other, but Bro. Lowry helped put us back in good spirits again. I know this Church is the absolute manifestation of the church Christ set up and no paper, salamander or stockmarket statistic can persuade me otherwise. Because all I need is Christ. 

Well, after you asked me if I had any bad times on my mission and I said I can't really think of any (I have a hard time coming up with memories on the spot, good or bad.) I've been really dehydrated the past few weeks but that is easily fixable. It's something I talked to President about and he told me to keep up the good spirits. I have had a few sick days on my mission. Those were probably the 3 worst days of my mission (next to exchanges with Elder Jenkins). 

But I tell you there is no better feeling as a missionary then to know you're working hard. Its hard to work hard. But hey, salvation is never easy, especially if you're working on other people's salvation too. 

Love you all, Happy 19th and 15th Birthday middle kids! 

TTI 

Jacob