The Lord Has Need of Willing Men

Dear Family,

Could I just be the first one to say that your letters were exceptional this week. Thank you for telling me about your families and what you've been up to. You all look so happy. The family love that I can see motivates me in a way that nothing else seems to. You show the model for what I am trying to make happen in the lives of those whom we are working with. So keep up the great work. The Family is of God. Our Heavenly Father has a family therefore it just makes sense for us to have a family. God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be. Salvation is a family affair and you all are headed in the right direction.

This past week was one of the most successful weeks I've ever had on my mission. It has come down to using time wisely. If we have goals and plans then we will naturally just get what the Lord wants us to do done. I had a large revelation this past week or maybe it was confirming revelation. I can't remember what I have told people from time to time. Anyways, I realized something significant this week. People are usually home between the hours of 3 and 9. This means that I have to be out on the streets at least by 3 to do traditional contacting and proselyting. Now comes the question in my mind, what do I do from the hours of 10 to 3? I have to be making phone calls and gathering information about specific less-actives and former investigators that I want to teach this week. This past week was the first time I tried out this method that came to me as I was studying from chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel. We had an amazing week.

One thing that I've been developing is something I've termed a 'contact run.' It really helps me figure out the city and I'm able to kill two birds with one stone. We pick a point A to start with. Maybe a member we have a dinner appointment with or a less-active lesson. Then we select a point B that's in the same area but far enough away that we can hit other former investigators and less-actives on the way there. This has proved very beneficial. We are street contacting in between stop-by visits and the results are astounding. We taught seven less-active members this way where in the past I would only see two less-actives and only if I had an appointment with them.

The streets of Lunenburg. Gorgeous place

In terms of our less-active work, we have got some great members that are making some progress. I won't tell you their names because they are dealing with some addictions but it's amazing to watch the atonement work in their lives. I'll tell you about Jerry though that isn't his real name. Jerry has severe depression and has a hard time dealing with drugs and pornography. He is really turning his life around though. He's been reading and praying every day and hasn't views porn in more than a month. Incredible. Coming to church is still a challenge for him because he doesn't have a ride, but in our lesson talking about faith and Ether 12 the Spirit was just so strong. He gave us a few referrals even though they didn't work out. Jerry is coming back slowly but steadily. It's amazing to watch it all happen.

Another less-active that we are working with whom we'll call Susan really opened up with us this past week. She brought up every concern under the sun about the church. From tattoos to gay marriage to the temple to Christ actually existing. In the past it was just an awkward lesson where we would follow-up about her reading or praying and trying to find out why she wasn't doing that. She has about 6 main concerns and we are taking on one concern per week. The Lord has commanded that we seek learning by study and by faith. I've printed off a lot of material frommormonsandgays.org and we're going back this Thursday for dinner. Less-active work is missionary work. Things are taking a turn for the better.

LaHave River

We've also been visiting lot of members either through dinner appointments or stopping by on a contact run. The way the members reacted in Cole Harbour to referral asking made me stop asking because my relationship with some of the members would have been hindered. Can't believe asking for someone to try would offend someone but apparently it just does. For the most part the members we asked really took it seriously and gave us great people to contact. We got eight names to contact and out of all of them one man told us to come back. His name is Horst and he is from Germany. Straight up German. We could hardly understand each other but we are going back to teach him on Tuesday. I found a copy of Das Buch Mormon in the library that we're going to give to him. 

Another large success this past week was reserving names to take to the temple. We only did about three hours of Family History work but I found eleven people in need of ordinances. Seriously you all could go on familysearch.org right now and probably find some. After an hour of doing record hints I found five. It was a great week for family history work. You would be proud of me Lindsay. I love taking the time to find the information. Take the cover off your hatchets!!

All in all it was a very good week for the work of salvation. Our investigator on date to be baptized has fallen off the face of the earth but other than that I had a great week. Thank you all for your prayers. I am learning so much from being on a mission. I still need to work on my patience but I am coming along. The atonement is real. The truth is on the earth once more.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

The people were mean but the cat was nice. Always can count on the cats

Love,

 Elder McGuire