1/6/2010

Hola familia!I'm glad to hear that the holidays went well! This week has been a really good week. I'm so happy to be serving with Elder Galloway. It's been really challenging, but the Lord is strengthening us. I think that the ward had about 17-20 baptisms all last year and we should have 6 or 7 this month between the 3 companionships in the ward. We have seen all types of mirales in the ward. My companion and I had been teaching an Atheist all last transfer. He came to church every Sunday, but told us it really was for social reasons. He was reading the book of mormon as well, but always was looking for historical reasons why the book was full of lies. Although he was pretty resistant to what we taught, we just tried to promise him blessings and help him feel the spirit. We sensed that a change was slowly taking place in his heart. It was really frustrating at times. About two weeks ago, he told us that he wasn't going to pray because he didn't even want to know if God existed and he didn't see himself ever being baptized. We didn't schedule another apointment although we saw him at church the last two sundays. This past sunday, the gospel principles lesson was about our Heavenly Father. At the end of the lesson, the missionaries sang two hymns while the people in the class were asked to contemplate the words. After the hymn, the class was invited to share what they had thought about. Our atheist was the first to raise his hand and told the class that he had been a lifetime atheist, but things had happened in his life the past week that he couldn't deny the existence of god and that he wanted to be baptized. I almost jumped out of my seat it shocked me so much. I know that this was a miracle and answer to all of your prayers for me and the investigators that we're teaching.Other investigators in the ward have had similar changes of hearts this past week as well. President has been telling us for a while that he felt the work would take off in the ward soon, and it really has. We're so grateful that the Lord is blessing those we meet with spiritual experiences.The weather has been cold, but it's really not too bad. We're pretty used to the temperature by now.Not much else has changed here too much. The spanish is really progressing well, especially now that elder galloway and i are companions. we both speak about the same and have to help each other our understanding and teaching. with a more experienced companion, it was easier to rely on them to do all the talking. we've really felt blessed because even if we don't understand absolutely everything, we're given responses to questions and logical responses in the moment.thanks for the love and support! i hope all is well!loveelder dunlap