LAST week's letter from Colin:

This week was phenomenal, 8 of our 12 set appointments fell through, but it was still a great week! Three days ago we were riding our bikes out of our apartment complex and Elder Morris was riding with no hands.... and then... the bolt that holds his seat to the seat post sheared in half and his seat fell off the bike while his was sitting on it.... you can just imagine what pain then ensued! For about 10 minutes he was genuinely worried if he would ever have children. After throwing his bike seat at a tree in a rage of pain, we walked back to the apartment where he laid down for an hour while Elder Norwood and I made phone calls, but don't worry, he is safe and no longer in pain.

         The only other bad thing that happened this week was as we had an appointment last night with two of our investigators. When we rode up to their house, out on the skreet, right in front of their home, there was a group of 15-20 hoodlums (I mean that 100% seriously, they were ‘hoodlums,’ to say the least). As we parked our bikes and knocked on the door they stood there in the street cussing and taunting at us. When the people we were there to teach looked out the window all they saw was the huge group of people on the street yelling and shouting, so they didn't answer the door. We rode away as they continued to yell and shout all manner of obscenities at us. We weren't really mad because that kind of stuff happens all the time, but we laughed. Anyone who has read 1st Nephi chapter 8 knows why we laughed. Here, I won't make you look it up, this is the verse:
         "And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of         the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it   were in the air, high above the earth.  And it was filled with people,   both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress       was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and     pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were     partaking of the fruit."

The truth is, though, that it doesn't matter what anyone thinks or says about what we believe. My belief in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is independent of anyone's opinion or point of view.  I have read the Book of Mormon and I have Prayed to know of it's truth, and the truth of this church, and my prayer was answered. I know from God through the power of the Holy Ghost that this is true. So it honestly, does not matter to me what anyone else might think about it, because why would it when I know from God, The All Knowing Supreme Governor of the Universe, that it is the truth. That knowledge can only come from God. He is the source of all truth.

         I have never been happier to be a missionary for God's true church. I have found so much Peace, Joy, and Happiness, and I believe that those feelings come when we pray for, and have, Faith, Hope, and Charity.

         One of the investigators we found last week was the stepsister of a different lady that we teach. She's 14 years-old and when she went home after the lesson we taught she read and prayed about the Restoration and asked her dad 5 times if she could be baptized. Her family told us that she had been suffering some fairly severe clinical depression and that this is the happiest they've seen her in months! Unfortunately, she lives in a different ward's boundaries so we probably won't be the Elders who teach her. 

         It is always a good week when you are preaching the Gospel. I hope y'all have a blessed week!  

  

--Elder White