Hey everyone!
Wow! This week has been pretty crazy, and all (and by all I mean mostly) with good things!
First of all, my new companion arrived from the MTC! His name is Elder Peck! (Picture attached.) He's from Highland, UT. He's ready and rarin' to go. He's here for all the right reasons and is so excited to be here. He is very missionary-minded. In fact, I'm trying to teach myself to get used to his constant singing of scripture mastery songs. He wants to baptize everyone. There have been a few times where I've had to hold him back a little so he doesn't hurt himself. It's pretty entertaining. He's DYING to go tracting, and I'm still trying to convince him (a week later) that tracting is the LEAST effective thing we could do, besides doing nothing. We biked the couple miles to the hospital and back to give a blessing in the pouring rain, and he loved it. It's like he wouldn't calm down. After wringing out my slacks and changing, we had to do some weekly planning insided and he just wanted to get back out there and talk to people. He's just so enthusiastic and energetic that it's hilarious. He's got that "new-missionary-fire" in him. I know it's definitely not sugar, because he doesn't eat it, which is good. He's getting me to think about going off of sugar myself.
The training has been going well. There are some times when I feel like HE is training ME. The leadership responsibility has really helped me to grow, though. I feel much more confident as a teacher and my skills have improved drastically. Thank you for your prayers. I know they have helped. I can also feel a difference in my joint pain. Again, thanks for your prayers.
We have an awesome new investigator named Andrea! Elder Westley (my previous companion) and Elder Kyle Simmons (friend from high school) found her while we were on a companion exchange (that basically means that Elder Simmons and I switched areas for a day). They found her while she was babysitting at someone else's house. She mentioned that it scared her that there are so many churches and versions of the Bible, and when they told her that they could teach her why that was so and how she could find out which church was true, she agreed to meet with us and learn more. On Saturday, Elder Peck, our good friend Bro. Warren, and I met her at the church to teach her. She was asking all the right questions and giving all the right answers. Before we knew it, we had taught her the first lesson (God is our Loving Heavenly Father, the Gospel Blesses Families, God Reveals His Gospel in Every Dispensation, Christ's Earthly Ministry, the Great Apostasy, the Restoration of Christ's Church through Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Pray to Know Truths) and the third lesson (Only through Christ can we have a Remission of our Sins, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End), and she committed to read the Book of Mormon, pray to know if it is true and to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, come to church on Sunday, and BE BAPTIZED on December 3rd, if she comes to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's true church. I think she's gonna go all the way!!! We are so excited for her. She loved church yesterday and we'll be teaching her the Plan of Salvation on Saturday.
Another interesting thing that happened this week is I got a letter from a family in my home ward in Utah, informing me that they have relatives in North Carolina who are members of the Church but are inactive. The family in my ward was hoping I would be able to serve near their relatives while on my mission. Turns out, they are in my ward boundary! Elder Peck had a similar experience... his sister told him that if he ever served near ECU campus while on his mission, that he could go visit her friend, who attends ECU. Guess what? ECU is in our proselyting area! It just goes to show you that the Lord really does inspire our leaders to bring us to areas we need to be in.
I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves ALL of us! I know the Book of Mormon is true, and, that if we live according to the principles taught in it and in the Bible, we will be happy and worthy of eventual eternal life.
I hope to hear from you soon! Let me know how you are doing! I love you all! :)
With love,
Elder Schank
