# 75

Dear President,

I hope you had a good week this week! Our week went very well.

We've been meeting with the four women who are friends and want to be baptized. It's been hard to meet with all of them together, so we've met with just a few off and on and then sometimes just one on one. Right now, it seems like out of the four, at least three will be getting baptized on October 4th. Hopefully, the fourth will make it, (she needs to find time to meet with us) but if not we plan on moving her date to the 11th. The three just need one more lesson and then they can be interviewed for baptism. 

We've also met with an investigator in Ashtarak. We weren't sure if she was serious about baptism, because in the past it was noted that she wanted to come just for the help the church offers. We had a good talk with her this week though. She said she comes to church to be edified. Also, her friend who told her about the church has stopped coming (for reasons we're not sure of yet) but, our investigator has still come on her own. We've also talked to the Ashtarak bransh president about it and she seems pretty committed. She's been reading from the Book of Mromon, praying and coming to church. Right now we're just focusing on her quitting coffee. She's down to about one cup a day and this week is her test week to see if she'll stop drinking it by the end of this week. (We actually called her this morning and she hasn't had coffee at all. She just needs to keep it up!) She has a date for October 11th and we think she'll probably make. We've been going to Ashtarak about once a week to teach her, but we're wondering if we could go maybe 2-3 times a week just before her baptism to get her ready? We know missionaries were pulled out of Ashtarak because of the lack of member help, but the times we've gone it's always been with a member present either at the church or in a member's home. Let us know if it would be alright to go more frequently, just up until her baptism.

The big sister exchanges seemed to go well from what I heard from the sisters. We weren't able to go with Hrazdan this week... but hopefully this upcoming week we'll be able to havea good exchange with them. (And maybe even with a few of their critter friends...but hopefully not :))

This week I've been studying and pondering a lot about charity. I was reminded of President Monson's talk this past General Conference. We have to love and serve everyone that we meet. Even if they're difficult people, and are mean, we still need to love them. Even if we don't even know them, Heavenly Father expects us to still love them. When we love them, we feel the Spirit and can come to truly comprehend God's love. So how do we follow the Spirit and love them? We try our best. We love the ones who love us and the ones who don't. And the ones we don't even know or have never met. All of them. Sometimes I feel like Heavenly Father does, watching His children go through hard times, even when they curse Him and reject His Son. I guess that is expected though, since I am His missionary. But He always loves all of us. I'm trying to work and improve on how I can better show my love for all, missionaries, investigators and people I don't even know on the street. 

But why? This week we played a game with our 8 year old convert. We threw a ball around to each other and whoever had the ball had to say why they love Jesus. We gave answers like "because He helps me when I'm sad," "because He is my friend", and "because He is our brother". But the best answer of all is the one the little 8 year old gave. She said "I love Jesus because He loves me." I will always remember that and it will be the "why" behind all that I do for the rest of my life.

I love you and I hope you and Sister C have a great week.

Love,

Sister Morreall