There is Sunshine in My Soul...

Hello All!  

How is life?  I hope all is well!  It has been cold and rainy all week up here, but our spirits are still bright.  There is sunshine in My soul.  And that's what counts.

It was an interesting week.  It started out great, but the roller-coaster of missionary work came around again and the end of the week was a little disheartening.  We had on Friday almost all of our investigators committed to come to church, but when we called them on Saturday, they all flaked off.  It was a little bit frustrating.  We are trying to figure out what to do here.  We really want to get the ward involved, but everybody seems busy and we don't want to overstep our stewardship.  We tried to schedule appointments and we were getting responses that we usually get from investigators.  "We are really busy right now.  Try next month."  Even now as I type this I am being reminded by the Spirit that we can use the same techniques with members as we do with investigators.  So hopefully things will go better. 

We were speaking with Elder Messick (our district leader) last night and we decided that although the immediate fruit comes more when we take care of things on our own, we need to work inseparably with the membership in order to produce the best fruit.  I heard a talk from President Eyring called the "Law of Increasing Returns."  That's kind of the principle I am trying to follow right now.  The fruit may not be this week, but it will lay a foundation for the future harvest that will be much greater than the short term.  Not to say that we are not hoping, praying, and working for the immediate fruit.  We have faith that the Lord will bless us with that as well.   

We will be having a Saturday Morning Pancake breakfast/meeting with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader in the coming weeks and that should be a catalyst.  Bishop Coulbeck is one who gets things done.  Brother Hofer is eager to help as well.  There are lots of good members also that will jump on board as we do our best and trust the Lord.  So that is our direction.  We have a vision to have the Ward so involved in missionary work that we will be able to talk to each member about how their friend So-and so is doing.  We have been teaching the Elder Robbins Referral Lesson and it has been interesting.  I have yet to see it work according to how Elder Robbins taught it, but I think that means that I just need to review my notes and practice.  

Almost all of our investigators have fallen off.  Dawn and Nancy are pretty much done for a while.  They are both kind of avoiding us.  We were able to find three new investigators, though.  One of them, Kevin, was a miracle find.  We were wondering what to do at 8:00 on Wednesday night.  It was cold, raining, and our plans fell through.  The Vernets (A family that just moved in) kept coming to my mind, so we decided to go visit them.  We walked to their apartment building, and the buzzer list was in alphabetical order, but the Vernets were not on the list.  We saw a tenant whose buzzer said "occupied" and alphabetically it would have been the Vernets, so we decided to give it a shot.  So we dialed the number.  

"Hello?"
"Hello!  Is this the Vernets?"
"Yes. Who is this?"
"It's the Missionaries."
"Who?"
"The missionaries."
"Oh."
"We were just wondering if you had a few minutes that we could come visit with you."
"I'll buzz you in."
"What's the apartment number, by the way?"
"506"
"Thanks.  We'll be right up."
So we went up to the fifth floor and as we get off the elevator, a man is standing in the doorway of apartment 506. It is not Brother Vernet. 
"What's up?  Why did you buzz me?"
"You are actually not who we were trying to reach."
"Who are you guys?"
"We are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
"I already believe in Jesus Christ.  But come on in.  What type of message?  Go Ahead - Spill your Guts."

So we went in and taught him the restoration.  He really liked the book of Mormon.  It was great!  Truly a miracle.  The Lord will direct his work.  Anyone who says otherwise has not tried to do it.  I love it.  So we are starting over this week.  It will be good, though.  I love this work and I love the Lord whose work this is.  I love you all as well!  Have a great day!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft