Just so everyone knows you can send me letters again. My new address is:
429 N Wall Street,
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
I'll be staying the Utah Salt Lake City Mission and I'm still with my same companion, Elder Martinez from Tennessee. On Thursday our new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Hansen, will arrive from the Missionary Training Center in Provo. We're ready and excited for him to get here.
Two exciting parts of the past week:
On Saturday, Hermano Martinez was baptized. He is the last member of his family and all they talk about now is being sealed in the Temple as soon as he is ready. Pictures will be coming in the future but I lost my memory card thing so not this week.
Second, (and this is directed mostly towards members of our church).
That broadcast was incredible. It was world changing. How often do we get the chance to hear four Apostles and the Prophet speak in the same gathering? And what they said is so true, and we have a great example of that.
Two weeks ago, Elder Martinez was walking though and apartment complex with another missionary and knocked on a door of a family who we knew were Hispanic. The mom politely told us she wasn't interested so he left.
Later that night I was in the same area and stopped to talk a family who we already knew who are members of our church. The wife mentioned that she has just visited a Hispanic Family (the Vargas Family) downstairs with Sister Garbett, another women from our church. And what do you know?...its the same family Elder Martinez had met. Sister Garbett had met the mom of the family, Sandra, as she was walking home from church. They hit it off and starting talking about religion. Sandra had been part of the Jehovah Witnesses but felt it was missing something so she and some of her kids stopped going.
Sister Garbett invited her over for a lesson with us and you can imagine Elder Martinez surprise when he we realized it was the same woman.
That is the difference between members helping missionaries, and missionaries helping members. We, as missionaries, are bad at finding people to teach because people assume this is our "job" and they don't feel as comfortable inviting total strangers as they would feel with a friend. And that makes sense. Few people will trust two random 20ish year olds as much as they will trust a normal friend, who then in turns invites them to meet with missionaries. So just start inviting. Invite people to church. Invite them to Family Home Evening. Invite them to meet with missionaries. Expect your friends and family to say "no." Most of them will. Make it easy for them to say "no." If you do that, the ones that say "yes" will do so because they have genuine questions or truly want to seek after the truth and feel this is where they will find it.
Love ya'll,
-Elder Colton
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