5 Month Mark

Hey guys this week was awesome and I had some super cool miracles! You may want to be seated before you pass out from the excitement!

So the biggest miracle this week was when we talk to Amanda and asked her if she has prayed about a date. She told us she had and that she doesn't know when because she is having back surgery in the beginning of February but she wants to do it before one of us leaves. So we told her that we think that she will be ready by February 4th! She agreed with us and we also mentioned how we think Rourke should be baptized on the same day, so we set a date with both of them!  Blaine only agreed if we can try to have a Rourke baptized in a river. He thinks that if we do something like that to make it more memorable for him that it will help him stay active and want to go to church. Amanda has been super awesome this week and we were able to give her a blessing to help her stop smoking. At the beginning she was smoking two packs then overnight she cut it down to one pack then she smoked five the next day and is still working on cutting in half. To help Amanda we told her we are going off sweets until she gets baptized so a lot of our candy is going to have to sit in our drawer this transfer.

One night when we went over to Amanda and Blaine's we ended up teaching them a lot and technically taught three lessons.  Elder Huntley was talking with Amanda about family history and they actually got her started and she went back 12 generations. While he was doing that I was talking to Aiden about some questions he had about the Scriptures and was able to teach him some things and help him understand what they were talking about. I also taught him about the storyline of the middle of the Book of Mormon. I started with King Benjamin and told him he had a son named Mosiah who became king and was super righteous. I also told him about King Noah and who was a wicked king. I taught him how a prophet named Abinidi came and started preaching to the king and his wicked priests. One of those priests was Alma the Elder who believed his words and when king Noah told them to kill Abinadi, Alma the Elder stood up for him and told them not to kill him, but then King Noah sent them after Alma.   So Alma runs off and hides and then repents and baptizes many in the Waters of Mormon and started the church. Abinidi ends up getting burned at the stake and promises King Noah that he will end up the same and later King Noah does get burned at the stake. Then Alma has a son named Alma, who is referred as Alma the Younger. King Mosiah has 4 sons, Ammon, Aaron, Omner and Himni, and are referred to as the sons of Mosiah. Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah are wicked and go around trying to destroy the church. Alma the Elder prays for them that they will repent and an angel appears to them and tells them to repent and Alma the Younger falls to the earth and can't move and the sons on Mosiah carry him back to his father.  When he awakes he tells everyone that he has repented and him and the sons of Mosiah end up being amazing missionaries.  Alma the Younger becomes the prophet and in the end is taken up without tasting death. That is why he is my favorite in the Book of Mormon. Then after that I started talking to Blaine about a whole different thing and about the Plan of Salvation, mainly the three kingdoms.

The whole family came to church for all three hours for the first time. They all really liked it and Rourke, who is 11 and in the primary, told us he really liked it and he loved the third hour. For second hour Alexander, who is 4, went to the gospel principles with us and Amanda and Blaine.  He was bored the whole time so we asked Blaine if he would be comfortable letting Alexander go to primary and he said sure. Blaine wanted him to stay because he didn't trust the people here yet, but he ended up letting him go. We heard from some of the members that they were participating and Rourke even said the closing prayer. One of the sisters asked him if he was ready to say a prayer and he said yes and said a good prayer. They were both answering questions from things we taught them which was super cool.  They said that they thought it was awesome how Rourke was helping Alexander and things like that. We went over to their house after Church and when we got there Blaine asked us if we would play him in chess, but for every piece of his we took that would be one chew he had to give up for that day. So if on average he had three chews and then we took one of his pieces then he would only have to have two chews. So Elder Huntley played him and ended up taking 16 of his pieces so that is 16 days that he has to go with one less chew. I feel like that is a sign that he can quit and that he is working on trying to quit. Hopefully we can be able to be at his baptism someday.

We went out to go tracting with Aidan because he wanted to go. He was super awesome and after the first door he asked if he could take the next one. He ended up doing most of the talking and the lady we met even said we could come back sometime. He literally has no fear of talking to people and is going to be a great missionary someday! He also talk to this other lady and at first she wasn't interested. We asked her if she was religious and she told us she used to be, but her parents forced her to go to church and that kind of push her away. Then Aidan just blurts out that we are having a competition to see who can pass out the most copies of the Book of Mormon. Elder Huntley and I were both like, "What are you doing!" And we looked at each other. We actually didn't say that but I could tell that's what he was thinking. This lady we met told us that she thinks she can be pretty open minded and told us that she would take one and call us after she reads it. I'm not sure if she really will, but it was still a super cool experience. It pays off to have a 12-year-old with you while tracting. Aidan was always saying how he got baptized a few months ago and that he is just learning how to be a missionary. It was kind of funny to us, but it seemed like it softened peoples hearts. He ended up coming out with us for about three hours. Also I put a picture of this car we saw while tracting.. it is the same car I drove at home!

So James is set to be baptized this Saturday, January 7. James has told us multiple times that he has been obeying the word of wisdom, but the Fickles, who live with them, say there have been a few times this past week that they saw he was high. James has a problem with alcohol and marijuana so that is what we are concerned about. We have to take James word unless we can get real proof so he is set for the baptism. Elder Huntley agrees with James and believes him. I feel like that the Fickles wouldn't tell us this if they didn't know for sure. But there's nothing I can do but trust the zone leaders to have the spirit with them in the interview to see if he is living it or not. I will try to assume the best and just love him. He is definitely ready to be baptized and does have a testimony, But I still have that concern that he is lying to us. Our ward mission leader had a talk with him and James said to him that he was sober as well. James does call us  occasionally to ask us questions about the Book of Mormon or the studies he has been having.

So this past P day we went tie shopping at a thrift store and they were super cheap so we decided to get as many as we could that looked good. We each ended up getting six and when we went to pay for them we were told that there was a sale so they would be even less. All I had was 20s in my wallet so I pull one out ready to pay and they tell me that will be $.75! We got 12 ties total for $1.50! When we got home we hung up all our ties and then proceeded to count them all. We each had about 30, not quite sure exactly, so deciding which tie to wear gets a little difficult. We took a picture of all our ties so you can see for yourself! 

Anyways it has been a super good week and we saw a lot of miracles this week! I look forward to talking to y'all next week!

Elder Bullock

Got ties?

Almost like the car I have at home

Elder Huntley playing chess