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Hello All!

Things are finally starting to warm up here.  The past few days have been wonderful and the sunshine has been invigorating!  The snow is melting and it is almost spring!

Transfer calls came on Monday, and...... I am staying In Orillia with Elder Day!  I am excited and ready for another 6 weeks.  the time passes very quickly out here.  Kind of crazy.  but anyway....

We had a pretty good week.  We did a lot of finding (More than usual, anyway) due to the finding blitz that we had over the weekend.  We got a few contacts (not quite as many as I would have hoped, though) and the Lord blessed us with a new investigator.  His Name is Mike Witwell and he is a very nice, very energetic man.  He was one that we tracted into about 3 weeks ago and when we dropped by on Sunday Night, he was excited to invite us in and have a "faith-based conversation" as he put it.  He willingly accepted a copy of the Book Of Mormon and the invitation to try it for himself.  We will be meeting with him in the next little while to follow up and teach him more.

We had 2 investigators at stake conference!  Jessica Haime drove herself down all the way from Orillia to be there.  She was at the meeting for investigators and new members.  She really enjoyed the  conference.  She said that one of the talks (given by Sister Zeugg) hit her really hard.  She said that everything Sister Zeugg talked about (The Word of Wisdom and marrying a non-member especially) applied directly to her situation.  We were able to talk to her about it yesterday, and she still isn't sure what she will do about Andrew.  She says that quitting smoking will be easy, but the fact that Andrew has no place to go makes it hard for her to kick him out.

The Other investigator that was at stake conference was Allan.  He and his girlfriend, Jessica Mallet (She is a member) drove down with the Witlox's and said as they were leaving, that they really enjoyed  it.  We haven't had a chance to meet with them yet this week, but we are planning to drop by tonight and either teach then or set up an appointment.

We met again with Len, and he is progressing well.  He is running out of excuses and questions and pretty soon he will be ready to get baptized. Kerra is also trying to quit smoking today.  She called us last night right before 9:00 and asked us to come over for a minute, so we talked with her and she told us about how she had tried all day to get some drugs, but that nobody would sell them to her.  She told us that every time she got turned down, she would say, "It's those dang Mormons.  They're praying for me, I
know it."  Her language was a bit more colorful, but for the purposes of this correspondence, I think this will do just fine.  She also called us at 7:00 this morning and asked us to pray for her because she is quitting smoking today.   That, and her ex-boyfriend (Bad influence) is now back in Australia.  So things are working for her to clean up.   It is exciting to see how the gospel can change people's lives.  I hope that all is going well.  Stake Conference was great.  Any conference is great.  So yeah.  I love you and miss you all, and hope that you have a great week!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

P.S. - Not that this is a hint or anything, but I would love to hear from all of you!  Have Fun!!!