Dear President,

We had a good week this week! There was an Open Door event at the church this Saturday and a few members brought their friends. We also contacted a few people on the streets who came as well...they actually ended up knowing a lot of our members! We are going to try and meet with them this week and pick them up as investigators. 

I am sure you are aware that my companion has been feeling sick this week. It actually started last week with some pain above her stomach and below her lungs. She said it was very sharp and at first it hurt to breathe. She's been a trooper and coming to lessons, but I can tell that it's still not comfortable for her and she hasn't been participating in lessons as much because of the pain. We stayed inside for a few hours this week and called former investigators because it was hard for her to be outside. She will probably tell you that she is fine, but I know she's been dealing with it for a week now and it may be good for her to see a doctor if it doesn't stop by the end of this week. She will also probably not like me telling you this but I think you should know!

                                                          Skinned knee from playing basketball.


Our investigators have been doing well. We learned this week that the girls in Alaverdi that we have been teaching have moved to Yerevan. We gave their contact information to the Arabkir Sisters, so hopefully they will be in contact with them soon.

With regards to our other investigators, it has been hard to get them to focus on progressing and not just settling where they are at. 

We met with the single mother this week, and scheduled her baptismal interview for next Saturday. She still needs to keep coming to church though. It has been hard for her because she is taking care of her sick grandfather, but we have told her that it's an act of faith to come to church and that the Lord will bless her with strength to continue taking care of him. She has been continuing to read and pray.

We also have finished teaching the taxi driver's wife everything, we are also just trying to help her show her faith and obedience and go and get a marriage license so that she can be baptized. 

That is also our main concern with the young mother in Alaverdi who we visited with you.

I've been studying for them a lot this week and it came down to a few scriptures on being truly converted. In Alma 5:14-15, it says:  "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty cchange in your hearts? Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?" I think we need to focus on making sure our investigators are truly converted. I have no doubt that all of them have felt the Spirit, I just know that they can not progress or show that they are truly committed without acting and keeping commandments, no matter how hard it may be. But how do we get them to do that? I think the answer is that our investigators need to EXPERIENCE who the Savior is and who Heavenly Father is. As they come to understand their characters, they will naturally grow to love them and therefore keep their commandments. I was reading in John 14 this week and in that chapter Christ teaches us "If ye love me, keep my commandments...He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." My focus this week will be on helping our investigators experience theire Father in Heaven, because He is so personal. I know that in my life the times when I have come to grow and understand who my Savior is who my Father is were when I relied fully on them and put my trust in them. Hopefully, we will be able to extend some better committments to help our investigators experience that more and teach them that they can have a very personal relationship with our Father. This will help them to really love Him and want to keep His commandments. 



To answer your question from your email this week, I think that bringing more people to the Savior starts with our personal committment to serve Him. It's hard to say for everyone because differernt people have different strengths and are at different points in their mission. But I think it comes down to commitment. In the Introduction to the White Handbook, it talks about living the higher law and striving to do so. For myself, I've tried to focus on becoming more Christlike by studying Christlike attributes. Not only has it helped me grow closer to the Savior, but it's helped me change by desire to serve. I am more happy in serving and I want to serve others because it's just apart of me now. I'm sorry if that sounds really corny, but I couldn't think of a better way to say it! Finding more people and teaching them better will come as a natural result this way. 

Thanks so much for your love and concern for me and my family! This is this weeks update: "The MRI results came back and the MRI was stable again which means no progression of any possible cancer (good news); we'll see what Duke recommends on Tuesday."

Thank you so much for you prayers for me and my family as well. I love you and Sister Carlson so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Morreall