The Foundation is Growing!

Familia y Amigos,

Happy President's Day a todos! Does that mean everyone is off work? I don't even know. But whether you are or not, I hope it is a good day.

As I mentioned in last week's e-mail, this past week was transfers and more than 1/2 of the Elders in the zone are now trainers/greenies so it has been fun to see new missionaries. There were a lot of changes in the zone but we feel that it will be another great transfer. I'm grateful to be serving here with Elder Morgan still. On transfer day, after picking up one of the new Elders, we went with him and his trainer out to lunch. But before we did that, we had him drop off his stuff at his apartment. Right as we were about to leave to go get lunch, a member from his ward drove up with a van full of cupcakes. She came at the perfect moment to welcome this new Elder into the ward. So that was really cool, and we even got a cupcake as well, and it was probably the best cupcake I've ever had. It was a brownie cupcake with Reeses Peanut Butter frosting and Reeses Peanut Butter cups on top! haha

One big highlight of this past week was that a recent convert received the Aaronic Priesthood in church yesterday. It was really cool to see that every guy in the Priesthood quorum stood in the circle to ordain him to the Aaronic Priesthood. There are several solid guys now in the Elder's Quorum which we are really excited about... the Foundation for the branch is growing! And really I don't think it has much to do with what the missionaries are doing, these men just have great faith and are finding their inner strength from the Lord. They are all a great example to me. I'm grateful for the privilege to serve with and around them.

On Saturday, we had a Valentine's party for the branch and we were excited to see several non-members there. We were able to talk with them for a little while and then two of them came to church the next day!

As for M, we were able to talk to her for a little bit last night, and her kids told us that they want to be baptized on the same day as her mom. So we are looking forward to that. They are scheduled to be baptized on March 17.

We had several other pretty cool experiences this week too with some new investigator families so we hope that we can continue to meet with them this week.

This morning I was reading in 1 Nefi 18 about Nefi and his family traveling to the promised land. I really like that chapter because it talks a lot about how the Lord blesses us as we keep His commandments. I know that this is true. It mentions how the Liahona led them to the promised land as they obeyed what it said. I know that the Book of Mormon is like that Liahona for us today. I hope that each of us can study it often to gain Heavenly Father's guidance for us in our personal lives so that we can know how to receive Eternal Life.

I love you all and hope you have another great week.

Love,
Elder Vawdrey