Jan 14 2013

Not much time since the last email, so not much to report on either, haha. Just one event from the week stands out for the most part:

 First, on Saturday, Elder Lee and I went on the splits for the first time, and had a great experience doing so. I went with a Vietnamese fellow who was baptized about 4 or 5 months ago in our ward. We went tracting while Elder Lee and a Chinese member went to appointments. The day went extremely well -- in total, we taught 5 lessons that day, and found 6 potential investigators. The two experiences from that day which stand out most in my mind are both times when people invited us into their house.

Elder Lee and I were tracting while we waited for the appointed time where we were to meet with the members and start going on splits. We came to one house which we guessed might be a share house and knocked on the door. Two men answered the door and almost immediately invited us in. As we sat talking with one while the other got some water, Elder Lee looked over to the TV, and saw a book face-down right next to it... which looked oddly like a Book of Mormon. I picked it up, and it was! With a book mark in it! The two men had been reading from it, and were in 2nd Nephi. Talking to them, we learned that they had received it from a female (we think it might have been sister missionaries) somewhere between here and Gold Coast about two months ago. We taught them the 1st lesson, giving them background. It's amazing how the Lord prepares his children to receive His Gospel-- while I wouldn't say the two men are fully prepared yet, it was amazing to see what had happened before we even arrived on the street.

Later, as I tracted with the member, after trying to follow up with several potentials and being disappointed by all of them, we decided to return to tracting and walked back to continue. We immediately got a potential at one door and at the other door we were invited in--we had run into an investigator who was taught be missionaries about a month ago but since then hadn't been in contact! After teaching him more about Heavenly Father and prayer, we set up a return appointment so the other missionaries can reinitiate teaching him. He's a good man.

This week Elder Lee and I area looking forward to success in turning our potentials investigators into investigators. This past week we smashed. We did well in finding and teaching, all that remains this coming week is to harvest the results of our labors in the form of new investigators and maybe some baptismal dates as well.

Elder J. Colton Ladd