Hey Yall! Things are sure kickin down here. This week has been very busy! Elder Haderlie and I are really enjoying the work. We had some really neat, but sad experiences this week. We got one more baptismal date, our investigator Catherine Wheeler has still been without coffee and cigarettes! She was interviewed Saturday by mission president and she is worthy and ready! She came out so excited! We got a new stake presidency yesterday. Elder Christiansen and Elder Booth (I beleive is what it was) they are general authorities and they were down here for stake conference, and that was awesome, but turns out our Bishop, is now the 2nd counselor in the Stake presidency as well as the Bishop (until next week) so we will be getting a new bishop! how cool! I really hope and pray the new bishop understands and is into missionary work. They all gave great talks and the old presidency and the new presidency shared their testimonies and when Bishop Tindall(our bishop) stood up he simply said, "I know Jesus Christ lives....He lives....He lives....He lives..." it was so powerful, pure truth in that statement, He truly does live and we celebrate and remember His ressurection not just yesterday, but everyday. I am reading through Alma right now and we learn from Amulek and Alma teaching the people in Ammonihah that through Christ we will be ressurected and brought to stand before the bar of God to be judged. It is so true, my faith, my testimony, my hope and desires are centered within my Savior Jesus Christ, He truly has suffered for our sins, He has borne our griefs, ,"the chastisment of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed" Mosiah 14 has become one of my favorite chapters, so short, but so much within those 12 verses. I know God loves us and we are His children. We are of divine worth. Jesus Christ lives, I know He lives. Those experiences I spoke of that I want to relay happened Saturday evening and yesterday afternoon, Saturday evening we were going through Part Member family names and we went to visit the Collier family, we got there knocked and rang the doorbell, and no one answered, it took about 2 minutes for someone to come, and she was surprised we hadn't left yet. Well she was the member, and we were just talking and getting to know her, and then I shared with her I fell away from the church, so had she, and related with me, and then she opened up, and shared with us that her husbands family was Catholic and her familiy still all LDS they butted heads, but her husbands family asked them to take a class to just simply learn about the Catholic church, turns out though, its like missionary lessons, at the end you're supposed to get baptized, well she found that out and we found out that she was planning on being baptized that night into the catholic church. She was uncomfortable we could see and didn't want to she expressed, she shared that she didn't know if it was right, and she began to tear. We testified of God's love for her, and blessing of answering prayers, we told her we are unable to tell you not to join, but to pray and ask what God wants for you. We left feeling like we should have done more, as to what we could or should have done I don't know, but we drove away and i was touched with guilt that I didn't do as much as I could have, I felt rebuked that I didn't follow the Spirit and "do something" what a horrible feeling I had, but I knew as well I had testified I had acknowledged. We exchanged numbers with her and told her we would contact her later to see what happened, at about 10 or 10 30 she said she was still at the church and had gone through with it. I was sad because I felt that I didn't share enough of my testimony of the restored gospel, I testified of Christ but that is all. Not of the church or anything. I hope I learned my lesson to follow the Spirit, but the next day, yesterday, we went to visit a potential investigator after stake conference and we parked and saw a young man walking down the street, he was about to pass and I told Elder Haderlie to talk to him, he jumped out said HEY and by then I had gotten out as well and we shared slight conversation with him, he didn't seem interested so I was about to say have a good day, but I kept talking and he walked towards us. We tried to set a time to come by and visit him and he said right now would be fine, we stood on the side of the street talking to him, and turns out his name is mike and he is 21 he used to "walk with God" and live a good life, but fell away, he was walking to the store to purchase alchohol when we had stopped  him. He had shame and guilt in his eyes and actions as he told us. I shared with him that when we follow God we feel His light and love, but when we drink and go against what God has asked we feel darkness and unhappiness. I knew again the Spirit wanted me to do something, as to what, I am not sure. I wanted to drive him to a members home and have dinner or something but there was no one to do that with. Our time was over with mike and we told him we would come by again, he was close to tears as were we, I wanted to reach out and hug him and tell him don't go, stay with us. I felt rebuked again, that I didn't do something more. I felt so much love for Mike and Terry Collier in the past two days, I got to see them maybe close to how God's sees them, I was sorrowful as God may be when we use our agency to go against His will. That was a hard experience, but I know still God loves them, you and I. Let us resolve to not let God down. So we don't bring that sadness upon Him. It is like in the Book of Moses where in the vison is seen, God looking down and crying and Satan looking up and laughing. These are just the experiences I have had but to end on a happy note, we met two new investigators that night who seem sincere in their interest to learn more, we are returning wednesday to do some service. :D Great things happen! Love you all, have a great week! Happy late Easter!  

This has been an awesome week! We had one investigator get married to her husband who is a member, Chelsea and Jefferey Brackett, he received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday after Sacrament meeting, next time we see her we are going to extend a baptismal date, we met with an older man this week Jimmy Cellars who is 83, his wife recently passed away in Septemeber and that was really hard on him, he was a member of the Reorganized Church, he commited to baptism for the 21st of May, he was so sincere. We also met with Tylette a lady Elder Dame and I tracted into and we invited her to baptism and she said "eh" kind of, she doesn't quite understand the importance yet. We were gonna have another Baptismal Date yesterday but the girl we were teaching was gonna come to church but her moms boyfriend who is a chump told her she couldn't go, and wont answer the phone or anything. It is so sad, she committed to being baptized but we didn't have a specific date for her. Elder Haderlie and I have been working hard, doing lots of visits to Part Member families and all. This week we had someone feed us some real southern food, it was fried fish, and some cheese grits, no okra! The fish was delicious but the grits..... eh not so delicious. The Spirit has definately been helping us alot. We are spending our time doing alot more good stuff. I was thinking this week about gratitude and in the MTC my teacher told us, when you think its because of you good things are happening and you don't give the thanks to the Lord then they will stop, but if you remember to thank him for what he has done he will continue to bless us. Alma 26. :D love yall have a great week!

Hey yal! Its been a great week here, staying really busy. We had Zone Conference this week and we talked alot about planning so our planning has become much more specific, much more detailed, this is turning into a Preach My Gospel mission, so I am super excited about that! Thats what I wanted when I first came out. Elder Haderlie and I have been non stop busy all week. We have been visiting all the Part Member families in the area with a little success. The baptisms pushed back to May 7th due to nobody attending church. But we are doing well, President Jensen is very proud of us, and happy that we are here. Elder Haderlie has been great, he is definately obedient so we qualify for those blessings we weren't able to get before. Gotta make this one short today, things are well, one of our investigators is getting married Saturday, then she will qualify for baptism after just a few more lessons! Ah love it! Good things are coming, we arent gonna make our goal though for the transfer of one baptism, but have about 3 or 5 for the next one. Well love you all thanks for the support! How many people even read this anyway? haha let me know! :D Have a great week!

 

Love

-Elder West

So much has happened this past week! So my three companions got transferred this last Friday, mid transfer splits happened. Elder Dame went out to Theodore, Alabama to be a Zone Leader, Elder Johnson went to tim buck too Alabama (can't remember where) to white wash, and Elder Vaughn ended up getting his VISA so he left for Brazil today! Elder Haderlie (Hadder-Lee) joined me here in Pensacola he has only been out for two weeks and he was being trained by another of Elder Dames kids. President Jensen really trusts him, as do I. It has been fun with him, great missionary! I loved conference! Saturday was powerful! Sunday was great too but Saturday I got alot more out of. The first few talks about becoming as a child were spectacular, very moving, the talk about LDS women was another of my favorites! Haha LDS women are the best! Lots of comments to the YSA about getting married! Ah I love President Monson, he is such a goof, at Priesthood he was cracking everyone up! That man truly is a prophet today. His counsel will draw us closer to Christ and put us on the right road. I can't remember who it was, maybe Eyring, but they said the gospel only adds to our faith, belief, love and testimony of the Savior. Alot of folks are afraid of learning. I met a guy last night who said he knew the history of the church, and I felt inspired to ask him, "Do you know the doctrine? The doctrine is what will change your life." That was a really neat experience for me. We are going to go see them sometime this week. An excommunicted member we went to see had this guy and his wife over and it worked out perfectly. We also had two people who showed up after the first session of conference yesterday and talk to bishop about welfare, they said they just happened to show up, the bishop is goin to help them but I don't know how interested they really are in the gospel. Our memers did so great at fellowshipping them! They were so loved. We'll be meeting with them again on Thursday, so much is going on here though. I feel a little overwhelmed, I am still just a greenie myself and running an area. I know the Lord's helping me do it. The lady Chuck we met at the flea market, her brother passed away last wednesday and we're going to dinner with her tomorrow night with the missionaries who live in her area. She called today and said that, I hope and pray that softened her heart to the gospel. She is so sweet! So ready to be baptized! haha I will get a picture with her and send it out. I thank each of you for your support, I love you, I am grateful to know you, I miss you, I will see you again. The church is true, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ again on the Earth. Jesus Christ lives and is the very Son of God. Worship Him, Follow Him, heed the words of His chosen prophets. They will not leed you astray. Pray always, study and read the scriptures. They are true. Let us each fill our lives with the light of gospel living, and the very Spirit of God. I pray the Lord will bless you all.

 

With Love,

-Elder Sean Aaron West :D