Spiritual Highs

Happy Valentines Day!

I really enjoyed reading your emails this week! They were all so motivating. It sounds like Dad gave a fantastic talk! I’m excited to use some of his points in my future talks. It sounds like Sam and Andy are pretty popular. I received the letter from the Seminary class this week! It was fun to hear from everyone!

I’m in great health, I’m still at 165lbs.

Thanks for the addresses too! Does Ben have a mailing address for Chile? We have to send letters in envelopes and the pouch won’t accept them that way.

We have two places we can email, at the regular place we can’t print, but at the other we can. It’s a large internet café (it’s very old).

I mentioned I’d let you know which ways the toilets flush. It’s hard to tell. When you flush it unleashes a cascade of water, it looks like a miniature Niagara. By the time the water settles the toilet has flushed, there’s no time to see which way the water is swirling.

Once again this week was packed with things to write about! I really hope that I can get to most of them.

Elder Sicotte was hit by a car yesterday. Don’t be alarmed, he’s alright and biking is normally safe. We were riding to an appointment after church and a driver pulled out of his driveway without looking. Elder Sicotte slammed right into it. He flew of his bike and over the hood. He landed on his feet, but was pretty shaken up. He was seeing stars for the first fem minuets; thankfully he was wearing a helmet. He has several bruises, after resting for a few minutes we were able to continue with our day. The car and bike didn’t fair as well. The bike needs some repairs, and the car had a huge dent. He pounded it pretty hard, we had to push the car a ways before it would start again.

Speaking of cars, when the other Elder came to pick us up Saturday night we thought they were drunk. We just seen several cars of crazy people go by, then we saw a blue car with all the windows down and some crazy guy leaning out the window shouting to us. It was Elder Stodmeister and Elder Hatch It turned out that our car has a leak somewhere causing the interior to reek of sheer gasoline; they were pretty delirious from the fumes. We’re taking the car in today.

The work is going great! We have a baptism for a young adult named Ralph this Sunday. We found several new families that are really excited to hear the Gospel. One family was so excited that the father asked us if we would help him build a church in the open space behind his house where everyone in the area could hear the message of the restoration. We explained to him about the importance of priesthood leaders, but that the Church will continue to grow and one day there may be a church in his neighborhood.

I’ve been amazed by many of the people we are teaching. Just yesterday we were teaching a young adult named Karrabo. He’s preparing to be baptized during the first week of March. Every time we visit he amazes me with his understanding. He understands the Gospel of Jesus Christ so well. Each time we teach him a principal he re-explains it to us better than we taught it and asks if he understands it correctly. He’s often difficult to teach because he talks 70% of the time, but I leave each lesson with a better understanding and perspective of the Gospel. It reminds me of something they taught us in the MTC – When you are listening to an investigator you are listening to the spirit. Elder Sicotte and I have found that it’s true. We don’t have to be speaking the whole time since we know exactly what we need to share when we speak.

Karrabo will be a great strength to Branch. When we first taught him the Word of Wisdom he gave up smoking on the spot. For a while he’s been afraid of baptism – he was afraid that he might turn back to old ways. After teaching about repentance he tied it into the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism and explained how the spirit will guide our continual repentance and refinement preparing us for the Kingdom of heaven.

Once again I’m out of time. The week has been great. I’m thankful for your constant prayers! My testimony is continually increasing and my reliance on with the spirit has grown so much. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Halterman