# 66

Dear President,

We had a good week this week! We were able to visit a lot of our investigators with our members and had some good lessons.

One day this week we had planned  to meet with a less active and then go to a member family right afterwards. When we got to the less active's home, she and her parents weren't home, so we took a bus to the member family's house, but got a call saying they couldn't meet. We then headed to our backup, but accidently took the wrong bus. When we got off, we ran into a lady on the street and helped her carry her groceries to her house. We sat down and started talking to her about the church and why we were here as missionaries.  Her son (who is about 28) came home from work and sat down and listened too. He is so prepared to hear the gospel! He has a good 8-5 job working for the National Statistics service here in Armenia and has weekends off to come to church. He also is learning English and already knows it pretty well. He's really smart and graduated with honors and has written a few books. He also reads the Bible every year and offered to pray at the end of our meeting with him. Both him and his mom were pretty interested to hear about the church, so we are planning to contact them again this week to set up a time to meet with them.

Another girl actually came up to us on the street this week and said that she had always seen the elders around who always said "hello" to her and she was curious about what we were doing here in Armenia. We had a good conversation with her about the church and are planning to meet with her too.

The Addiction Recovery Program man called this week and actually is interested in learning from the missionaries now! We are going to set up an appointment with him in the park and either pass him to the elders or find out which area missionaries he should meet with. He is really enthusiastic about helping out.

Our 13 year old investigator met with us this week and we were able to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We're still waiting to be able to meet with her mother so we can invite her to be baptized. But she has been reading from the Children's Book of Mormon and reacheed pretty far in only a few days. We're going to give here a Book of Mormon when she finishes this one. She also came to the assistants' baptism this week with one of our members! She really liked it and I think she's a lot less nervous about the thought of baptism. We also heard that she went to the Arabkir ward this week for church with her member friend.

Our investigator (whose daughters came back from Georgia) was supposed to get baptized this week. She ended up working Friday-Saturday and was unable to make her date. We are sure that she wants to still be baptized, but think that she is a little nervous with the commitment. So we are planning to stob by today and talk about the Holy Ghost and the feelings we get from the Holy Ghost. It never leads us astray and will guide and help us in all decisions in our life. We're not going to stress that she gets baptized this week (although we would like her too), but we're going to let her decide when her knew date will be.

We also have been meeting with our other investigator who is close to baptism. It has always been hard for her to come to chruch, since her family comes to town on Sundays, but she's come the last few weeks. We offered to go with her to church this week, but she called and said that she wasn't feeling well. We may need to move her date back one week for her to be baptized, but other than that I think she is all set for baptism. She already invited her husband and family to come when she gets baptized! She's very enthusiastic about it.

I learned a lot from President Bennett's meeting this week. About the type of missionary (and person) that I am and how I want to be better. Sister Stauffer told me a quote she heard once: "Be extraordinary at the ordinary." I feel like right now I'm just ordinary at the ordinary in regards to missionary work. I know I do some things better than other things, but I've forgotten some things or have been lacking in areas. I've made some personal goals to step it up a notch. As I thought about what I could do to improve, I had a good self-examination and good talk with the Lord. I apologize for not stepping it up sooner and tightening up the screws, but I'm going to make that a goal this week. 

I had a good study during some meal time this week about desire. It stemmed from 1 Ne 11 when Nephi desires to see the vision that his father saw. I learned that desire is not enough. The first thing Nephi did and other prophets (such as Moses, Noah, Enos and Alma) was pray. Once that had a sincere desire for good, they took it to Heavenly Father. They knew they couldn't do it alone and they relied on his strength and help, but they also acted according to the deisres that they had as well so that they quailified for the Lord's help. I think it's interesting though that in order to fulfill and act on desires, we need to have a personal relationship with the Lord. I think most of the missionaries or people in general who don't understand their purpose or don't understand how they can bring it about, just don't have a solid relationship with Heavenly Father and the Lord. Because of the lack in relatiosnhip or trust, they aren't motivated to do anything (because there's no belief that anything will come out of it), and there is no action taken. 

I'm just so grateful for the relationship that I have with my Father in Heaven and with my Savior. I strive to strengthen and improve it everyday. 

I'm grateful for you and Sister C and for the opportunity to discuss the sisters and transfers yesterday. It is a humbling experience. Thank you for letting me be a part of that. I love you both so much!

Love,

Sister Morreall