Dear Family,

It's good to hear from you again, as always. :) I'm sad that I missed the party, but next year I will be there. :) And I will be prepared to get wet and make others even wetter. :)

It's been a really good week for us. Well, one of our investigators who had a baptismal date until very recently, convinced herself that it doesn't matter what church you go to as long as you're learning about God and Jesus. Which all of us, including her, know is false. So that's going to take some correcting. Interjection: I have always detested Guilt Trips as a parenting method. Hated it. (note from parents : Not so sure that we used guilt trips) Swore I would never do it. But I've learned that it is super effective. I've become quite good at delivering guilt trips. I kind of enjoy it. Anyways. Back to the news. The other investigator with a baptismal date, I think I mentioned last week, moved back in with his girlfriend. He did come to church this week, though, so that's awesome. Our Eternigator, Ralph, is doing VERY well. We will probably be setting a date with him very soon. It's awesome to see him progress.

Last week we helped a non-member move. A man in the ward, Br. Bishop, has been working on this guy for sometime. Trying very hard to share the Gospel with him. But the guy is moving to Michigan. So we helped him for probably 8 hours or so this week. It really softened his heart. He was extremely grateful. And all of the other neighbors and friends who helped(though few in number) were very impressed by us as well. So that made me happy.

Yesterday we had an awesome miracle. We had arranged to go with a member couple(the William's) to go see the Taylor's(our newlywed part-member family) last night. They weren't home. So we went further down the road to another part-member family, the Charon's. The husband, Erik, is a less-active member. Been that way for several years. He recently married a non-member named Stormie. Nice young girl, right out of High School. Very cool. So we talked with them for like an hour and a half. She took to the William's very well. We invited them to the Ward Pioneer Day Party. We set up a day for them to go to the William's and participate in a Family Home Evening with them. And we set up a day for us to go out there and teach them. So, that's going really well. :)

As far as those changes go, Mom, I think it's a good thing. Well, for the interviews especially. If we're truly worthy to serve a mission, we shouldn't have to meet with the Mission President every 6 weeks to declare that we're still temple worthy. My only concern is the dissemination of information. The trickle-down. The Zone Leaders will now meet with the President Monthly. So all important information will come down from there, I think. So the Leader's need to do a much better job of getting that information to us promptly and accurately.

I hate to admit it, but I saw a piece of a movie the other day at an Investigator's house. It was awesome. It was the Little Shop of Horrors. It was a scene of Steve Martin as a Sadistic Dentist. Soooooo funny! I have to see that movie when I get home.

Neither of us is getting transferred, in case you're curious.

Well, I must get going now. I'll talk to you later!

Love,
Elder Bracken