This past week I had a 24 hour exchange with Elder Vogt and Hill and in my district. I went with Elder Hill in his area, the cannon stake. It was fun getting to know him more, and to hear what he has to say, especially since he's only been out a few weeks now on his mission. I tried to imagine myself in his shoes a year ago. We talked to a woman named Laura while she was outside weeding her front yard. She and her daughters are not members of the church, but her husband is. She grew up out of Utah, and knows some things about the church. She was very nice and friendly, but at first she didn't seem very interested. Until we go to know her some more and found out that she has had priesthood blessings before, and she said that she fully believed in them. Elder Hill being the stud that he and the rest of us Washingtonians are, invited her to be baptized. She declined and told us that she had her Catholic background, although she didn't agree with all of it. She had a stillborn child, and felt that there was no way her son could be lost because he wasn't baptized. I opened up the Book of Mormon to Moroni chapter 8, the great letter of Mormon to his son Moroni, about the abomination and curse of infant baptism, and how children are saved through the Atonement of Christ. Big mood swing. She started choking up, and wanted to learn more. We set up a time to see her this past Monday. Elder Vogt and Hill saw her and her daughter that night, and both of them accepted the invitation to be baptized in a few weeks.
Yesterday I had exchanges with the Spanish elders in my district, Elder Torres and Thomas. Elder Thomas came with me to my area, and we had a great time. If you're willing, you can learn so much from someone, in such a short time. I took many things away from the exchange that Elder Thomas did well, and I will try to incorporate into my teaching.
I am glad I got to be a part of that. I hope they continue to grow in their faith and come to know these things are true. Today is our P-day, because we are going on a tour of the city cemetery, where many of the church prophets are buried. We have a man who is a church historian taking us on a two-hour tour, where he will be telling us many cool facts and insights that many people don't know about the early church leaders. I'm way excited! I've always wanted to go there, but never made time to go.
The Tongan companion is still wonderful, we have lots of fun living with the zone leaders. We have a new ward mission leader in one of the wards, a young married guy going to Utah for medical school to be an ear nose throat doctor (Otolaryngology, oh yeah, I remember my vocab from working at a doctor's office!) He is excited to work and I know work will commence in his area. The weather is beautiful today, and will be this week. Here as I'm emailing at the city library the Utah art festival is getting set up all around the facilities. That would be fun to see, next year after the mission I'll get a friend and come up to see it.
Hope everyone is still well. I still feel like I have the same drive I did when I came out a year ago. Yes, there are days that are tough, and I don't want to get out of bed or go knock doors, but for the most part, I love every aspect of it. Working hard makes the days much more meaningful. Take care and I love you all!
Elder Scotty Warczak
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