From Andrew:

 This has been a very interesting week for us. sorry my
email was so short and not interesting last week i was in a rush and i
didnt get to finish it cause i was being rushed out the door and i was
out of time on my computer. but this week went really well at the
begining and then slowly started to go the opposite direction. but on
our pday last week we drove to Ukiah which is a hour and a half drive
from Fort Bragg and we played lazer tag with the elders that were not
getting transfered and it was so much fun. a member in one of the
wards up there has these lazer tag sets that are really nice and he
brought them to the gym in ukiah and we set up tables and all sorts of
stuff for obsticales and then we turned all the lights off and then
the game began. we were runnning all over the place and played a bunch
of different types of games with them, by the time we were done all of
us were exhaughsted and sore. the next few days were very painful of
how sore we were and it took me a long time to have my legs not be
sore. i am not sure how worth it it was but it sure was a lot of fun
and it was really good exercise.
              anyway onto this week about the people that we taught.
at the beginning of the week things were going well we taught one of
our investigators named Raul and he is a really interesting guy he is
very sarcastic and arogent in a way so it is a challenge to teach him
at times but he is doing better at controlling his off topic comments.
but we think that he already knows that the Book of Mormon is true
with just a few of the comments he has made and how he acts, but he
doesnt want to say anything that would show he knows it is true. we
have a lot of people that are like him that we are teaching, that
believe the Book of Mormon is true but wont do anything that we ask
them to do, it is Frustrating!! but people have their agency i guess
and i will respect that. if you remember from one of my past emails
about a month ago i told a story of a lady named Carolyn we were
teaching that was really drunk and yelled at us so we dropped her,
wwwwweeeeeelllll.... she called us this past week. so we went by
intending to tell her why we come and teach people and we brought a
member that she knows that lives really close to her, and the lesson
went really well. Carolyn was a completly different person this time
when we had the member there, and we think she remembers the things
she yelled at us and so she acted wwwaaayyy different and it was nice.
we are teaching her again but depending on what she says when we talk
to her about baptism we might drop her again, we shall see this week.
we had a really good lesson with Candy at the beginning of the week,
she has a baptismal date, we taught her about the savior and tied the
plan of Salvation into it a little, cause we taught that to her the
week before and we wanted to retouch on it. i dont think i have met an
investigators as excited about the Plan of Salvation as her she was so
excited to hear that she had the potential to live with God again in
the Celestial kingdom, she told us that she found what she was living
for and has a new look on life and wants to make it to the Celestial
kingdom, i love this lady she makes us smile everytime we teach her
and she is so ready. but then evrything went a little south with her,
we went by for our appointment and we got there and she was in tears
cause she just found out that her aunt died and some other things that
are personal have just hit her all at once and she was just over
whelmed with everything that has been happening to her. we brought a
member with us and he is the perfect fellowshipper for her and he just
jumped literally between my companion and i and gave her a hug and let
her cry on his shoulder. it was an amazing thing to see him do that
and he talked to her and shared how his life is just as hard as hers
and that she is stronger than all the things that are happening and
that she will make it through them. so we stood there for about 20
minutes trying to calm her down and comfort her and then we left, and
now we are praying that all will get better with her. our family that
we are teaching, Jessica is the mom and her kids, have had a lot of
crazy things happen to them and now Jessica is working 7 days a week
and we have not been able to teach them in a while and so we are
worried that we are goign to have to drop her casue she wants to get
baptized and so do her kids but she hasnt come to church or reading.
it has been a really interesting week to deal with and i am hoping
that everything goes better this week.
          on a happier note i got to speek in church yesterday and i
spoke on why we should listen to the prophet and apostles. i was
worried i was going to have to speak the whole time cause i was never
told who was going to be speaking with me so i prepared a long talk
and then i called our 1st councilor and he told me i was speaking with
two other people. when sunday came around i wasnt nervous or anything
until i got to the building and found out that the stake presidnet was
going to be there, then i got really nervous. i was the middle speaker
and the fist speaker was a youth who gave a great 2 minute talk so
that left me and the other sister i was speaking with about 40 minutes
to talk and she wanted me to take as much time as i needed so i spoke
for about 25 minutes out of the 40 left and i wasnt nervous i relaxed
and just followed what i wrote down and it went well, my legs didnt
even shake. i got alot of good comments after i gave it so i must have
said something right. we did have one of our investigators show up to,
Raul the really stubborn guy who hasnt been to church since i have
been here. so it was a good-ish week. well i got to go i hope
everything is going great with all of you and thanks for all the
birthday stuff again it ment a lto to me. i love you all.
love from,
Elder Pelton