# 70

Dear President,

Holy miracles! This week was full of them. Sister B and I for the last few weeks have really been focusing on President Bennett's and Elder Bednar's counsel. We've implimented their counsel into the work by setting weekly goals and we've seen huge improvement with the area! We've mostly been focusing on inviting, promising and testifying, finding people in between lessons, asking for refferals, focusing on finding families and calls of love. And our area has seen great growth! It's nothing that we haven't done before, but I feel like teh blessings are comng because we've been trying to show the Lord improvement and made steps to be better in all of these areas.

Our 13 year old investigator and her father came to church together! The father was very nice and seemed to really enjoy church. He couldn't stay the whole time because he had work, but we called them after church and scheduled an appointment to meet with them this week. Ideally, we want to meet with the whole family together and teach them all, so we are working towards that. But hopefully we can at least get a new baptismal date for the daughter. 

We are also working with three women (55 year old, 22 year old and an 8 year old). All three are progressing very well. They came to church. They read together in a little study group everyday from the scriptures. The two oldest are also weining themselves off of coffee which seems to be going well. Their only concern is that their husbands won't let them be baptized...but we were able to get in contact with the husbands and talked to them for a bit about our puspose. I think their hearts were softened a bit. They were very nice towards us and respected our work as missionaries. Our investigators are going to ask again about baptism this week.

We are also working with an older lady whose granddaughter comes with her to the lessons. She has been in contact wit the church for about 10 years and is ready to be baptized. She has no Word of Wisdom problems and we just helped her start back into readign the Book of Mormon. Hopefully she will be baptized at the end of the month. 

We are also working with one of our neighbors (she lives across the hall from us)! She was curious about what we believe, so we went over one day and taught her a little bit about the Restoration. Her mother is sick, so she wasn't able to make it to church, but we are going to schedule a time to meet with her and help her start reading from the Book of Mormon. 

We are also working with a member's mom (and the member's eight year old son) to help them be prepared for baptism together by teh end of the month. The member's mom has no Word of Wisdom problems either, but has trouble reading because of eyesight so we are hopiong to set up a reading group where her grandkids will read to her from the Book of Mormon. 

We also met with a husband and wife that we met on the street. We established expectations and did How To Begin Teachings and then extended baptismal dates to them. There date is in September. I'm excited to start working with them!

As far as ward goals, I think we have around 10 baptisms for the year (out of forty), we (as sisters) hope to have at least 6 more this transfer (if not more).

Thank you for your update on the Charensavan sisters. We actually contacted the zone leaders and district leader this morning to see how the sisters were doing. We are going to go on an exchange with them this Wednesday . We plan on focusing on working with ward members and showing our love to the sisters. If there is anything you would like us to know beforehand, please give us a call! 

Sister B is so amazing. She's really brought new life to Ajapnyak. Because she's always asking questions and wanting to improve, we've been able to do some fun things in our lessons to help teach investigators. (She's really good at using analogies and examples!) We also decided this week that we were going to "hear tattack" our Bishop and the Stake President's family by leaving cut out hearts on their doors and leaving banana bread on their doorstep. They really enjoyed it and it's really strengthened our already good relationship with them...it's even better!

Today I was reading in Mosiah chapter 5 and these verses really caught my eye: (v. 11-12) "And I would that ye should remember also, that this is the name that I said I should give unto you that never should be blotted out, except it be through transgression; therefore, take heed that ye do not transgress, that the name be not blotted out of your hearts. I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you." I was thinking about how this applies to missionary work and just how everything we do in missionary work is centered on Jesus Christ. That as we do what he would do, and do it how he does it, we truly take upon ourselves His name. Yes, it's true we all wear nametags with his name on it, but I want to be the type of person that has His name and His being written on my soul...on my being. I want to be familiar enough with Him so that I can hear Him when he calls and recognize Him when I see Him. Now and after this life. That's what we are helping others to do. To take upon Christ's name and to become like Him through coming to know Him.

I'm grateful to be here in Armenia doing the Lord's work. There is no other place I'd rather be than here right now. Thank you for caring so much about me and the missionaries individually. I always feel like I can always be open with you and Sister C about anything. Thank you for trust, your example and your love!

Love,

Sister Morreall