March 9, 2015

Hey everyone!

This week has been great. The weather is warming up and it's beautiful here. It should be in the 80's by the end of the week. It sounds great now, but since it was such a warm winter it's going to be brutally hot in the summer. 

I got a new companion this week! Elder Kilgour from Australia finished his mission and I now have Elder Gould. Elder Gould started his mission 3 weeks after serving in the Army for 4 and a half years. He was station in Louisiana, but spent a year in Afghanistan as infantry. He's an awesome guy. Hard worker! Surprising, huh? We really get along well. In fact, he was in my district in North Las Vegas this time last year. He's a goofball and we've had a lot of fun and seen a lot of miracles. He still jumps at sudden noises and I almost got punched in the face when I accidentally scared him. If I send home pictures of black eyes, you'll know why ;). He's the real deal. In fact, the Green Berets were trying to recruit him before his mission. So yes, I'm serving with Jason Bourne. It's pretty cool. And his birthday is one day after mine!

This week we definitely saw miracles. I have a strong testimony of prayer. On Tuesday night we had planned to see an investigator family when, as is quite common, they had to cancel. We had a member of the ward with us and so we really wanted to make this time a good experience. We had planned as a back up to go see a less active sister. So we prayed together that we might be able to share the love of God to this sister and have the Spirit with us to teach. As we walked to her apartment, we street contacted a man smoking at his car. We introduced ourselves and he immediately told us that he was looking for a church. He is LDS, but hasn't been active at all for a while. He and his wife had just moved here last week. We went into his home and met his wife. Dustin and Tasha are awesome. I feel a friendship with them already, even though I just met them. They're taking the missionary lessons now. 

Cool, right? Well, it gets cooler!

Right after we left Dustin and Tasha, we got a text from our Elders Quorum President asking if we knew where apartment 2216 was in the apartment complex across from the one we were in. I remember thinking "hmm... that's a funny coincidence. We just left Dustin and  Tasha in apartment 2216 in this complex." But I didn't think too much of it. We met with Bishop the next night to introduce Elder Gould and report on this family we found. When we said their names, he lit up and said "That's them!!" Tasha's grandfather had called Bishop to request that someone from the ward go find them. He had assigned our Elders Quorum President to find them that night (Tuesday). But he had given them the wrong address, so they were looking for them in the wrong complex. 

SO! My point is that the Lord wanted these people found. We found them out of circumstance right at the exact time when our ward leaders were searching for them. Even though they had a wrong address, the Lord used us as tools to make sure that these people were found. I love prayer! I love being a servant of God to find the lost sheep and experience miracles like this one. I love you all! Remember that prayer works!
Love,

Elder Norton