Reggie is baptized

I have looked so forward to the letter this week and when I opened it and read my heart rejoiced. It is so interesting to me when the Spirit directs Elder Winters and I to the same study material. It happens from time to time and makes me feel good to know that we are being taught together.

It is exciting that Reggie is baptized and that the family is headed to the temple to be sealed together. Elder Winters has not witnessed a sealing as yet and I know that this experience will truly touch his heart and solidify goals in his own life. When you are there to see a family sealed together the spirit clearly speaks to your soul and you know that this is what you want in your life. I remember a time when he was not so sure but now I know that he will not leave this experience the same.

Hey!

So this was one crazy week! Pretty dang awesome! I'll start out with the good stuff! Reggie got baptized! It was the best baptism I have been to in a while! It was really simple but the spirit was just so strong! This kid is so perfect and shy and innocent and I just felt the strongest love for him when he entered the water, and I couldnt even imagine that if I, being imperfect felt that love for reggie, how much love/joy our father in heaven felt watching him enter the water that day! It was just so great to witness that and I really can not wait to go to the temple with their family.

Along with that we also had some pretty awesome lessons this week! We had some great lessons with Edith about Hope and patience and Humility, and she decided that she was going to get baptized on Sept 25th no matter what. We also had an awesome lesson watching the testaments with her on Saturday night, the spirit was very strong, but it always is in our lessons with her.

We also got to go to the temple this week. The timpanogas temple is so beautiful and really it was probably the best temple experience that I have had ever! I just had a lot of things on my mind about struggling investigators and what not, and I just felt the spirit so strong and I just had this overwhelming feeling of Hope for not only our investigators, but for everyone all over the world who struggles with worldly things. I have been studying Hope a lot this week, so it was funny to get your letter, mom, and find out that you had been studying it too. For three days in a row the topic of Hope just kept on coming up in meetings and in lessons and by the time I got to the temple I knew that heavenly father wanted me to understand something about hope, and sure enough as I was sitting there in the temple I was able to understand exactly why He had been placing that topic in front of me.

Another cool story is that we have been able to start teaching this group of 10-21 year olds who just all have the most messed up lives right now. They just all love to Party and sleep with each other and do drugs and drink and things are just horrible in their lives... There are only 2 non members out of the group of kids one of them is named Ryan and his dad is Anti and fills his sons head with so much garbage about the church. And the other is a girl named lindsey who has been trying to audition for playboy with the overwhelming support of her parents for the last year. But anyways, we had a great lesson with them this last week, and my Hopes for them are higher than anyone has probably ever given them in their lives! I know lindsey is going to get baptized and I know that Ryan is going to be an awesome missionary some day! Our lesson was so powerful with them the other day and I could tell in their faces that they were both really pondering the message that we taught about prophets and the Book of Mormon. They knew that we knew the truth. But I'll keep you updated with that as they progress.

For this next story my mind goes to Peter Pan and the scene where Wendy tells the lost boys that they need a mother. They ask, "What is a mother?" She explains all that a mother does and I am sure on that list somewhere is keeping the boys safe. It is hard for me to think that an Eagle Scout would leave a fire burning unattended but I guess if you are told to do so by someone so much your senior what choice do you have? Still, I would have liked to see them douse the fire before they left. Hopefully a lesson was learned and thankfully no tragedy was created.

Last crazy story... We did a lot of service this week for an old man who owns 26 acres of land in Lehi. So we cut a lot of his tree's and pulled a lot of weeds. Elder Brannock tilled one of his fields with his tractor. And instead of taking all the shrubbery to the dump we lit it all on fire with this flame thrower propane torch thing that he had. That was pretty fun except that fire got sooo hot. Anyways we just left it burning because I guess thats what he always does and the next day on our way home from lunch we saw this huge cloud of smoke... We went to go see what it was and as we got closer we relized that it was coming from the old mans property... It was just the back end of one of his acres no where close to his house but this was a pretty huge fire! ...And we may or may not have started it... =/ because when we walked past the fire we were burning the day before we noticed that it was still burning really hot... So cause is still undetermined because any embers would have had to float quite a ways into the next field to start anything but everyones safe and the fire was put out so thats all that matters.

I have been overwhelmed by the service that Elder Winters is participating in. The gospel is roling forward and it is exciting to be a part of it. I am very grateful for the blessings that our family is enjoying because of his service.
Elder Winters