The General Epistle of Samuel (another assignment...)‏

March 18, 2014

Well it is that time of the week again when you all get to hear from me!

I hope that everyone is doing well. I am happy to hear that things haven't been too hectic. Things here have been pretty alright. The past couple days have been interesting and full of new developments. I'm sure the one you are all waiting for is about transfers but I'll save that for the end as usual ;) First I want to share about a great experience we had yesterday. 

So we had been finding all day and weren't having too much success and were getting prettty tired. We had scheduled some time to stop by an investigator that has a baptismal date but that we haven't been able to contact for two weeks. He had seemed to fall off the face of the earth and we couldn't contact him anywhere. We were running behind schedule quite a bit by the time we were able to head his way. We needed to rush because we were meeting with a member family for dinner in an hour and it was at least a 30 minute walk to the guys house, one way. We took off in a hurry and walked at the speed of lightening and made it there in about 20 minutes. We were half expecting him not to be home (lack of faith) and were preparing ourselves to return empty handed. As we got to the house I felt prompted to say a prayer before we knocked on the door. We prayed that he might be home and prepared to receive us. Then we knocked on the door. He took his time to get to the door but once he saw us he was so much more happy to see us than in our previous visits. He said we couldn't meet with him then because they were about to have tea (supper) but then added that he wanted to show us something really quick. We had no idea what he was going to bring back to show us. When he came back to the door he had his Book of Mormon and a notebook and some of the pamphlets we had given him. He was grinning from ear to ear when he showed us the inside of the notebook and it was full of notes and summaries of what he had been reading. Turns our for the past two weeks that he had been sick and we weren't able to contact him he had been studying and watching videos on lds.org. He said he could feel something changing inside him and that he felt so much happier. We were able to set up a time to meet with him again and said a prayer with him. When we asked him where he was in the Book of Mormon he just started telling us about Alma running from wicked King Noah's guards and baptising people in the waters of Mormon. Turns out he has passed Elder Jensen lol :) He looked different and had a new light in his eyes and we are so excited to continue teaching him. 

Afterwards we rushed back to town to have dinner with some members. We were able to make the walk in even less time (down hill the whole way) and made it to the members house only a couple minutes late. Now all day we were waiting for transfer calls from President Jordan and it was due any time by then. As we were having dinner he finally called. Now for what you're waiting for. President only talked with me for about two minutes. Just long enough for him to tell me that I am staying with Elder Jensen and that I am the new district leader here in Ipswich and then tell me what was going on with the rest of the district. I was a bit surprised to get that call but I am excited. It will be a great learning experience. Hopefully I don't mess it up lol. I am super excited for this next transfer. I love all of you guys and I look forward to hearing from you again!

Love,  

Elder Dalton