Letter from Colin:

Well there went another week they seem to go by so quickly it's practically Christmas already!

This week much like last week was full of service, and let me tell you I am still sore from much of it. Since I have surprisingly not had to chop wood with an ax in the last year I had forgotten how tiring it is to chop wood by hand until Tuesday when we went a chopped half a cord of Oak and Pecan in 86 degree weather  (and it's "Pee-Can" just for y'alls information) but the thing is that the wood was from recently down trees and it rained a lot during the storm and so they were not dried up in the slightest, and if you have ever chopped wood that is still soaked you understand why I was sore from that.

   On Saturday we helped again with the stakes crisis clean up work and when one lady that we were helping cut down trees in her back yard found out we were all Mormons she made it a point to let us know that she is a free will baptist born and raised and will be to the day she dies! and that she doesn't want to change, we told her that we were here because we just want to help her out in her time of need, when asked she said no one had come to help her except for us 

see 1 Nephi 22:23 to learn why I have talked to so many people that have become opposed to organized religion. Because we have been doing so much service for people we haven't been able to teach as many lessons, however as we learn in Mosiah when we serve each other we are serving God, and in king Benjamin's same speech he teaches us "how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served" thus we see that if we want to come to know God and to be able to become closer to Him we must serve everyone around us, because when we serve others, we serve God, and when we Serve God we will be able to know him.

    Vincent who is our investigator who is preparing to be baptized on November 19th is doing well, besides the fact that he didn't come to church yesterday! but I guess he didn't get home from work until 7 am and church starts at 9 so I suppose I can see why he didn't make it, besides that we taught him the Word of Wisdom with a less active member who is oddly active in the church despite the fact that he doesn't come to church on Sundays, and it went as well as it could have gone, smoking cigarettes will probably be the biggest hurdle for him to get over.

    Yesterday was very interesting to say the least, we went to go see some of our investigators but none of them were home! so as we were walking back to our car I felt we should knock on the door of these people's home who we have talked to before. As we walked towards the house (trailer) I had the strangest feeling from the Holy Ghost it was a prompting that felt almost like it was saying "go ahead and talk to these people but be warned, and watch out, but go and talk with them" the Lady answered the door and we asked her if she needed any help today, she said "I don't but maybe you can help this man, come in" so we did. When we sat down we discovered that this man had just been kicked out of the place he was staying by his room mate, he smelled strongly of alcohol, and when he open his mouth to speak we knew instantly that he is also a meth addict based on the condition of his teeth. His life had fall apart completely and I have never seen some one so messed up, after a absurd amount of him cussing at us, telling us that we are wasting our lives being missionaries, and that what we are doing isn't making a difference in anyone's life, we discovered that he was going to commit suicide that night because his life was so bad , and he said he wouldn't believe what we were saying unless we showed him a miracle (why do people always ask that) after an hour of listening to all of what he had to say, and an extreme amount of bearing testimony and promising blessing he some how turned completely around and told us that he admired us and that he knew what we were doing was changing peoples lives, and he told me that my testimony, what I had just told him had changed his mind he said that he wasn't going to commit suicide, He even said he would come to church with us.  I have never told one person so many times in one sitting that they do matter and that God does Love him, and that sad thing is that all of the problems he currently have all come from not keeping God's commandments. all in all it was a good week as always although the last experience I shared was tremendously stressful, but he Didn't kill him self so it worked out well, until next week i hope y'all have a blessed week! 

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-Elder White