How Oft Will I Gather You: Week 16 (2/4/19) First Week New Transfer

Subject lines are really hard to come up with when there isn't one big thing I'm trying to talk about, okay? Maybe I will just start numbering my emails. Week 16, week 17...if I could keep track of which week I'm on, anyways.

But this was a good week! For the first time I am serving two transfers in an area. Unfortunately, we pretty much blacked out (tracted every street) the city of Cleveland during my first transfer. So now we are trying to find country roads where we can knock doors. Only problem is, it is less than ideal knocking country roads at 8 o'clock at night when it is pitch black. So that has been fun, but worth it.

After transfers and p-day on Tuesday, we went to dinner with the S___'s and a family we are teaching, the B___'s (J___ and M___). It was really good fellowship, although I got a little bit on the edge of my seat when Bro S___ started explaining the Word of Wisdom to them two minutes into dinner...but it was really good.

Unfortunately, the next day I was flat out sick. The humidity and changes in temp here are making everyone come down with something or other. We might have changes of 30 degrees or more just over the course of the day. In any case, still getting over the bad cold I got, but it is mostly gone by now. But yeah, rough slogging through for a couple of days this week.

Thursday we were having dinner with the L___'s, who are doing the Keto diet. So we talked to them a lot about that, and are committed to trying it for a week, starting today. Well, doing it as much as is feasible for missionaries, which mostly just means eating big salads for lunch and avoiding carbs. But we will do our best to really try it this week. So we are buying a lot of lettuce today.

Might I just say that I really love the people in this area? The members are fantastic, and there are so many wonderful people here. You find so much faith and trust in the Savior from people of the many Faith's represented in this area. It can be frustrating when they don't want to listen to our message, but these people truly do trust in Him.

I do find that that trust is a little impersonal at times, however. One of the people we met while tracting this week, D___, expressed his faith in Christ. While explaining to him about the Holy Spirit and how we can find the truth for ourselves, I asked him why he believes in the Bible and in Christ, and he gave the answer which I think is true for most people, although they are not brave enough to admit it: "because that is what I was taught."

We don't have to rely on what others have taught us. We can find out the truth for ourselves. That is one of the beautiful things about the message of the restoration is that you don't have to trust the missionaries, and we don't have to convince you. All you have to do is ask God and you can find out for yourself. Isn't that awesome? I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the true church of Christ on the earth. I don't know that because my parents and teachers told me it was, I know that because I have received a personal witness from God. I continue to receive witnesses everyday that I seek for them. It is such a privilege to be a member of this church, and partake in the blessings of the restored gospel.

Last week I was challenged (okay, I challenged myself) to Fear No Man three times. To Fear No Man means to extend a baptismal invitation during the first contact with a person. Well, I didn't do it at all, so at district council Sister Reynolds re-extended the commitment to me. On Friday I did it for the first time, and I followed that up with another one on Sunday. I am gradually learning to be bolder about inviting others to receive the restored gospel, which is, of course, my purpose as a missionary.

I love you all and am praying for you!

Love,

Elder DeFord