Hi Mom! So this week has been pretty intense...

So first off, Monday we just played kickball, volleyball, and ping pong all day. Them the next day me and elder warren went with our zone leader for a trade off. We ended up needing to give an 8 month old baby a blessing that stopped breathing on Monday. It was so hard to go into that hospital room and look at this little baby with his eyes wide open gasping for air... It's something when someone is hooked up in the hospital but when it's a baby that is hooked up to a respirator a long with a hundred other cords, it's really hard to see. The three of us elders were praying so hard and we cried so much in that room. I don't know if I've prayed harder in my life. I wanted so badly for this little baby to be healed. Unfortunately after we gave the blessing, I just learned this morning that Jesse Adam Murry jr passed away a few days ago. That was the baby's name. But instead of being angry or upset, I felt comforted when I heard the news. I knew that a lot of that was just hard to watch and deal with. God in a way may have protected the child from something horrible that is coming, or that would happen to him. The elders in there area were able to explain to them that they have a child waiting for them in the celestial kingdom and they are now helping them to reach that glory in heaven

Later in that week we were able to meet elder Dubé who is one of the quorum of the 70. He is super nice and super funny! We had a training with him and we were talking about a section in preach my gospel called how to begin teaching. It has a bunch of bullet points in there for introducing ways to comfort and prepare people for the message that they are about to receive. So when elder Dubé asked who uses that in the teaching I raised my hand and no one else did. I was super confused. He asked me how many points I used and I told him I use about 3-4 on average before I dive into the lesson. Then he called me up to teach him and his wife using whatever materials I had with me, so I brought up my iPad and gave them a lesson just by the spirit. I was so scared to go up and teach a general authority in front of a whole bunch if experienced missionaries, but I went up and trusted that I would be guided. Every time I said something the spirit put words into my mind and heart so I knew what to say next, it was perfect! Then when we were done my mission president started to tell him that I've been in the field for 4 weeks which was okay until elder Dubé blurted in the mic that I've been out for 4 weeks and he kept saying that it was unbelievable haha. It was funny but all I could think was, I'm never raising my hand again.

After that we went to Daquan's house who has a baptismal date for the 26th and invited him to church and he was super excited to come and he was even going to go to work early so he could get out In time for church. We were so excited! News kept getting better, we were able to contact another investigator named Chris and reset a baptismal date for the 10th of October and his girlfriend Chelsea had so many questions that we were able to put to rest and we had a 2 hour lesson that reached every single lesson at some point. So we have a lot more to teach her because she has all of the right questions. We have a possible baptismal date for her for the 16th of October I believe, if she reads and receives an answer it is true! I was super excited. Then that same Saturday evening, Daquan messaged us saying that God told him he already had his spirit with him and that he didn't need to be baptized and that he wouldn't be coming to church. That was a huge downer and I kept getting an impression that these dreams he is having are not from God or his spirit, but are from another source mixing truth with lies that he is caught up in.

We were able to at least get him over to a members house for dinner and we talked a bunch about feeling the spirit and how we know it truly is the spirit and we were able to commit him again to studying the scriptures (which he had not done when he got this answer) and taught him how to prepare sincerely to our Heavenly Father. He agreed to continue to pray and meet with us so we were super happy to be able get ahold of him and help him out.

Thanks for all of the uplifting messages I really appreciate it :) so for my birthday I'll I really want is maybe more ties because they're super fun to wear different ties and everyone loves to trade ties, and there is a book called the power of the everyday missionary. I am borrowing one from another elder right now, it is a book that president Craig had to go to the first presidency of the church to get it approved and for this mission we got it approved. I don't know if I can keep this extra copy but if I can't that would be a great gift :P and maybe some cinnamon rolls or some other treats. We really enjoyed the peanut butter balls and we want the recipe xD also German pancake recipe would be awesome too hahaha! I don't really know of anything else yet, but if I think of anything I'll let you know :P

So after we talked with elder Dubé we were able to meet up with a lot of the missionaries from the MTC that were my roommates and we took some pictures! We also shared some videos that we made and I'll send those in this email as well. I have been watching a lot of Mormon messages recently and one I want to share is called, Bearing our Burdens with hope. You definitely need to watch that one. I love the fact that it talks about how our burdens that we have don't just challenge us but they help us achieve greater heights and do better.

I know that each challenge we receive helps us grow, I remember praying to grow physically and spiritually and it was then that I realize that I was asking for another challenge to be thrown my way so that I could struggle and then overcome it as well. I know that our heavenly father won't throw us something too challenging but it will challenge us and make us stretch so that we can grow.

I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear more from you, hopefully we will be going bowling today so I can email more there, but I love you all and I can't wait to hear from each and every one of you again. I love you mom, dad, Ali, and Sam! Be safe and know that the lord is on our side!