Hello!
How are things in Utah? I hope all is well. Things have
been going just swimmingly here. Khaibu, Deih Deih, and Ngenu came to
church. They are 3 of the kids in the Burmese Family we are
teaching. They enjoyed it and it was really good to see them there.
They are doing well. We finally met the other sister, Hau Nu (pronounced
"how new"), and got her involved as well. It is a little bit
interesting teaching them, because the mom and the oldest sister don't speak English.
So we will teach, the kids will respond in English and if they have a question
they will ask each other in Burmese and then get to us after they have talked
it over. It's fun. We are slowly helping them to see the commitment
they will make when they are baptized. It will be good to help them
understand that.
Foday and his brother, Vamba did not come to church yesterday, but we
are going to get in there with them and help them see the importance of
attending sacrament Meeting.
The Hyder Family - the Muslims - are not doing too well. We went
over there again and they were asking all sorts of questions through their
son. They all speak English, but they used Shazaib as the
spokesperson. We are thinking that the parents are just curious and are
telling the kid to ask the questions. Basically, we were not seeing any
real intent. We left a copy of the Book of Mormon in Urdu for them, and
we will check back in a while on their progress there.
It was a good Week. The Lord's hand truly is in this work.
I can see it more and more every day. One experience I would like to
share to illustrate this.... Earlier this week, on Wednesday, The
waterloo Elders called and said that they had been teaching a man named James
Rutherford. He agreed to be baptized, and they found out that he really
lives in our area, so they were going to hand him over to us. They said
they would set up an appointment with him and let us know, but they never
called us back. So Saturday night, we had just gotten out of an
appointment, and Elder Weber needed a washroom. Everything was
closing down, so we figured "the Plowman's live just around the corner,
maybe we will stop in there" So we pull up, and Brandon, one of our
potential investigators who lives just across the street, was on his porch, so
he invited us into his little patio thing for a minute, and he said that he had
a few minutes to meet with us. We started to talk to him about the plan
of salvation, but then we decided to set up a better time when we could
actually sit down and talk with him. So we head out the door, and see a
man walking down the street. Naturally, we go to talk to him, and the
conversation goes something like this...
"Hey, how are you?"
"Good. You?"
"Good. My name is Elder Weber, and this is my
friend Elder Ashcraft. What's your name?"
"James."
"You look familiar, James. Have we talked to you
before?"
"No."
"Is your last name Rutherford?"
"Yeah. How did you know that?"
We then proceeded to explain the situation, got his information, and we
are going to visit him tonight. It was great. The timing was
perfect. I love it when stuff like that happens. This is the
"True Faith" spoken of by Moroni. I know that. Have a
Great Day! I love you!
Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft
