July 14

Hello family!

I am shorter on time today so I will try to keep this email small, but
it was a wonderful week and we are prepping for Sheen and Pradha's
baptism this week! I know it will be wonderful, yet I know Satan is
going to make the week before and after real rough because they are
about to take a huge step in the right direction for their lives. I
know I am going to need to keep my faith, hope, humility, and love up
on the defense.
Well, we had a couple of neat things happen this week. We were able to
show Sheen and Pradha the baptismal font right after church with
Brother Kelly who will perform the baptisms and there is Spirit that
can be felt even just looking at the font beforehand. And Sheen bore
his new testimony to us how they weren't really looking for more but
once we came and taught them things they felt they were getting
something they didn't know was missing. It is sweet to hear the
sincere, simple while humble testimonies of investigators and recent
converts.

We also were able to find a less-active member who was not on the ward
council's radar and we invited her to church and her boyfriend. Sadly
we didn't see them there, so we'll find out when we follow up but I
hope we can begin working with them frequently. She mentioned that in
the past some missionaries had taught her boyfriend but then the
missionary was pretty disobedient and that of course kept the Holy
Ghost out of the picture and was a turn-off for the boyfriend at least
to some degree I'm sure. I hope we can go in and just love them and
help them bring the Spirit there.

On Wednesday, we had our Book of Mormon class and it ended up being
just all 6 missionaries and one investigator, Hossein. Elder Cook and
Carson found and teach Hossein and he is just a pleasant guy, and boy
he is smart with a PhD and everything. But it was neat to see him ask
these simple questions with a sincere desire to know, in fact he even
said that he was like a first grader when it came to the principles
and doctrine in the Book of Mormon so he had many good questions. But
it takes humility for someone with a PhD and very intellectual to be
ok with being on the first grader level again in something and that
was admirable. He was able to come to Sacrament as well (looking very
dapper) and hopefully next week the Sunday school classes as well. We
have had success with Sheen and Pradha coming to church the last month
and it was nice that the elders had some come too because it is hard
for a missionary to not have investigators show up to church when we
try so hard to bring them. So I am happy for the elder's successes. :)

Last thing, we had another lesson with Brooke and Bryson ( their mom
is a member but the rest of family isn't) on Alma's faith chapter with
the seed. We had a good time reading it with them and asking them what
it means for us. To end the lesson we gave them some sunflower seeds
of their own to grow. We told them that way they could take care of it
and it would be a daily reminder to grow their faith as well just like
we talked about. They were so cute and made us cupcakes afterward.

I hope you all have a good week. Enjoy trek or the family reunion,
whichever you go to. I look forward to hearing about both next week! I
sure love you all and be safe. Thank you for the prayers, I know
Ernest and I are blessed as we are out here. And I pray for all of you
too. :)

Love,
Sister Amelia Rust