Great Week!

My week was pretty good! It was kind of a weird week. We were down in Redmond and Bend a couple of times, so we spent a lot of time in the car this week. So on Tuesday night we were in a lesson with our ward mission leader, Brother Robinson and we got out of the lesson at about 8:57. We looked at our phone and we had a missed call from President Tateoka!! We were super confused because transfers aren't until the 29th or 30th of this month! So we listened to his voicemail and he wanted to go on an exchange with us here in Madras on Wednesday! We were shocked!! We had a zone conference in Bend on Thursday so he was going to be on this side of the mountains anyways and wanted to come all the way up to Madras to go out with us for a couple of hours. It was such a cool experience! We were able to teach a couple of lessons with him, even though we didn't have any set lessons, and it was just really cool to spend time with him and that he wanted to come up here to be with us. Definitely an experience I won't ever forget!

And then zone conference on Thursday was good! We learned about the Book of Mormon and responding to objections through the Book of Mormon. It was a good zone conference. We also talked about how the Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul. It is something that I have thought about a lot since then. I know that regardless of the questions in anyone's life that they may have, the Book of Mormon can help them find answers. We have a ton of people here in Madras who have fallen away and are struggling. Sometimes it is hard to broach the subject with friends and family without offending them, but at the same time we know how important the message of the Restoration is and how the gospel can truly change the lives of those who live it. Sometimes you have to be "Sweetly Bold" as Elder Maynes told us when he spoke to us at the MTC. I have been able to see the impact that scripture reading has on the friends that we are teaching when they actually do read and when they aren't keeping that commitment. I know that we will be blessed as we continue to read every day and read with that purpose of trying to learn something each time we read. There is so much in the Book of Mormon for each one of us. I love reading it!

At the Ward Trunk or Treat