Greetings from the Great OCM!!!
Sadie was
at the OCM temple! Wow I will be going there this Thursday for a temple
trip! And I had to go to Columbus last week a couple times for firesides
and things so we were very close . . . crazy.
Spring Break sounded like . . .fun . . . cleaning
out Grandpa's house, and Dad getting a little crazy behind the wheel.
That would have been a nasty phone call for me to get, but luckily we
have angels protecting our family. Those car wrecks are not something
fun to experience.
So when you were mentioning how Henry Clay went ahead and planned
Spring Break out, everything you said just sounded like what a perfect
missionary would do. Just some food for thought here but Henry Clay
would be a Sister Missionary that could Rock the World with the message
of the restoration. I am serious, and who wouldn't want The Henry Clay
as their companion. I believe Kristi would make a fine missionary, and
not only Kristi, but every member of our family.
It was a crazy week here in Danville. I got sick
again making it my second cold in the last 2 weeks, and on my mission.
This one was worse than the last though. We went on a lot of exchanges
with other missionaries this week. How we do exchanges as Zone Leaders
is typically we bring another set of Elders into our area and they spend
the day with us working, spend the night, and then leave in the morning
after we do some training. This last week we went on 2 of these
exchanges and they can be stressful at times, because you have to double
plan for everything because there will be 2 sets of missionaries
working in your area, and you want the set of Elders coming in to have a
great experience. This week we have 3 of these exchanges planned (we
are asked to go on an exchange with all the Elders in the Zone every
transfer).
Overall I have never seen so much success before as
we have seen in the last few weeks in our area. We are finding, we are
teaching, we are getting members to our lessons, we are getting a couple
people to church every week, and hopefully this week we will have
someone on date. This last Sunday was crazy because we had all of our
investigators coming to the Mt. Vernon ward (when normally we attend the
Amish group) so we went on splits where Elder Dubose stuck with a
Brother in the ward in Mt. Vernon, and I attended the Amish group with
one of the Amish members. It felt very . . off . . . to be away from my
real companion, or at least another missionary, for half the day.
I must apologize for my lack of pictures, which is
sad because of how amazing this area is and how unique it is. I need to
do a better job at taking pictures. This area is just totally different,
full of horses, buggies, farms, you name it. We get eggs and homemade
bread every week from the Amish families, and I absolutely love those
families! Their lifestyle is amazing with their clothing and farms.
Right now they are tapping the Maple Trees which I have always wanted to
see and it is amazing how they do it. They tap into the tree and have a
bladder attached which collects all of the sap. It honestly feels like I
am serving in a foreign country, but I have never felt more at home
before on my mission then in this area. I know that this is where the
Lord wants me to be but I have yet to find out why.
So we have an awesome investigator who will
hopefully be on date this week. He has read close to half the Book of
Mormon now and is a perfect example of the process that Alma describes
in Alma 32. Where the investigator feels the "swelling motions" and has a
desire to believe, then that desire works in them until they do
believe. This Investigator is a champion and in the picture I put in
drop box he is the man with the blue collar shirt. He took us to stake
conference which was an hour drive and has kept every commitment with
exactness.
I love you all so much! I can't wait to go to the temple this week! I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Love Elder Beutler
