Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 31: Staying in T-3 and HAPPY!

Hello Family and Friends!

It has been quite some time since the last time that I wrote a letter. It's been pretty crazy these past couple weeks, and I just haven't had a whole lot of time to write lengthy letters. But I'll try to crank out as much as possible this week! To start off, Elder Nielsen and I are staying in T-3 for another Transfer! I'm really excited to keep working here, and this could likely be Elder Nielsen's last transfer here in T-3, so we're gonna get a lot of work done this transfer!

These past couple of weeks, we had a couple of miracles and prayers answered. So we've been praying really diligently for new, Prepared families to teach, and we asked to have them placed in our laps, so to speak, so that we can know that these families are the ones that we should focus on. On one occasion, we had a meeting at the church with the Ward Mission Leader, and Elder Nielsen and I got called out of the meeting for some reason. We were told that there was a man that wanted to speak to us. We walked out of the Chapel and encountered a man named Marcos. He had arrived back in T-3 2 or 3 days previous, and had walked an hour with his four kids from his house to the chapel, just to find out what time church started on Sunday. Apparently he had received the missionaries when he was working in Swaiziland, and had been going to church there for 3 months, returned to his house in T-3, and wanted to continue coming to church and receiving the missionaries. We spoke with him for 5 minutes or so, and returned to our meeting. The next day at church, he was there, brought his 4 sons; Antonio(17), Sergio(16), Cezar(11), and Junior(8). He even stood up and bore his testimony because it was Fast and Testimony meeting! So we've been meeting with them for about a week or two now. The whole family is geniuses! They understand the message, and it makes sense to them. Their Mom left them about two years ago, but the kids still have contact with the Mom.

On another occasion, we were getting ready to knock on the door of one of the recent Convert's houses, when a lady stops us and asks us how she can buy a Book of Mormon! I was very taken aback, especially because she pronouced it correctly- often times people call it the Book of Marmon. But we spoke with her for a few minutes. Apparently we had given her neighbor a booklet about the Restoration, she took it from him, read it, and prayed to have God send the missionaries to her. So when she ran into us on the road, she immediately knew that her prayer was answered. We sat down with them two days later, the whole family stated that they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that our Church is true. The past two weeks, they have had things impede them from coming to church, for example their daughter had an asthma attack and they took her to the hospital. But they accepted baptism for the 20th of February! Augosto and Maria and their 3 kids; Angela(21), Lindoca(15), Yuner(12). They are a super fun family. I know that they Lord has blessed us with these families and will continue to prepare other families as we continue to do our part. I testify that you are answering others' prayers, even when you don't know it.

Unfortunately, that's all I've got for this week...

But I love you all. I know this Gospel is true. I hope you all have a great week!

Com Todo Amor,

Elder Rash