hey yall!! :D

I made it safely to Dothan. This place is super city! I felt out of place here at first but I have adjusted. :D I love the ward already. We live like a mile away from the church so its really close. Nice to have it all around. Bike area so I am going to sweat again all summer. We have awesome young men here. A few families kinda like mine, one with 5 boys no girls and another with 6 boys no girls. One of the brothers in the 6 boys no girls served his misson in Houston Texas with Mark Cooley and actually knew him. Not super well but he did know him. My new companion is Elder Franchino from Spokanne, Washington. He is a hard worker. We will be tearing it up out here. Lots of good things going to happen.

This week we had some awesome experiences:

1) We live next to a big ole hospital so everyone in the surrounding cities come here. Well as a result we get lots of calls to give blessings, and Thursday we got an emergency call about a baby who was just born and needed to be brought to Birmingham to have some tests done. We rushed to the hospital and saw this beatiful baby and gave him a blessing and as we sealed the annointing the baby just stopped crying and the Spirit was so strong it was so powerful. There was such a love for that baby. Such a precious child. I couldn't yet imagine what it would be like to see my child. That would be crazy!

2) Less spiritual but funny, we went to dinner Thursday night and my companion and I pulled up to this trailer we were supposed to eat at. We knock, and some random guy answers the door (keep in mind I don't know these people so I think this is the member feeding us) he steps outside and says hey, then shuts the door. I thought the member was going to cancel on us cause we were late from giving the baby a blessing. Then he asks if we want to go in and we do and I start cutting up with them, getting to know them and Elder Franchino looks over at me and hands me a card and he wrote on it, "I don't know who these people are..." haha I just stop and try to play it off like we knew what was happening and then all the sudden the COPS BUST IN!!!...................Just kidding no cops, but the member comes in and asks if we got lost, turns out we were one trailer off and knocked on the neighbors door. It was a good first full day experience of Dothan.

3) THE WORST: On transfer day, they used a truck to transport all our bikes and as we were going from one spot to another the Assistants got a call and the guys in the truck said, "We lost one of the bikes." So long story short, turns out my bike flew off the truck and they couldn't find it. haha so bye bye bike! Thank goodness though Elder Brown, from AZ was going home and he was wanting to get rid of his bike so he gave me his. Even though is is an XL size and mine was a youth size! haha I have this huge bike frame now with the seat all lowered as far as it can go. The Lord definately provided a way.

We have tons of awesome young men here, lots of them are going to be serving missions in the future, we are trying to help them have that desire. Do you have any ideas on how to encourage young men to serve missions?

Love yall! Thank you for the support! Hope all is well! Have a great week! Remember who you are and what you stand for! :p

-Elder West

Hey Yall!!

It has been a great week! To start out I found out one thing....I am
getting transferred. :(

I have absolutely loved this area. There are so many wonderful people
here that I will speak to again. I am going to Dothan Alabama on
Wednesday morning. I will miss being with Elder Murdoch, he is a great
cat. Great obedient, hardworking missionary and full of love for
everyone. He always compliments people. Great man! We had some great
experiences this week, after much prayer. We were riding to an area to
tract it and following us locking up our bikes we looked over to see
a man wave at us to come over, we walked over and he let us right into
his home. As we sat and talked he said his wife was a less active
member and his daughter was struggling to overcome some issues. They
invited us over for dinner on Friday. They used to feed the
missionaries all the time a couple years ago. We went friday and had a
great visit, the daughter loves the church and lvoes the feelings the
missionaries bring. She wants to experience that. We will eb going
back tonight to begin the lessons. :D It was a miracle. Someone who
has actually been prepared and we don't have to plant the first seeds.
The Lord was looking out for us. Then we had a great lesson last
night, we taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong with
this family. THey are prepared. They loved the fact that the church is
consistent no matter where you go around the world. A great lesson and
a great couple. The husband prayed at the end and the wife said to me
that she never would have thought he would be willing to say it out
loud. After the lesson I found out I had food in my teeth the whole
time so I felt like a huge goof! haha Great day! The Lord has been
merciful. I read more of the Book of Mormon and have found so many
powerful stories that I can relate too. Our knowledge of the Book of
Mormon makes us better missionaries. Thats fer sure. I love yall, hope
everyone has a great week! I pray for your well being. I am thankful
to God for the gift of His Son and this opportunity to serve him. Love
yall!
-Elder West

> Yall,
>
> I have been lazy! Sorry! I run out of time when I email so I don't get the time
> to send this big one! So:
>
> Attention Everyone:
>
> :D I am great! Thanks for the love and support! Yall are the best!
> Saraland is beautiful and soaked this week! We got about 20 inches at
> least of rain the past weekend. More than I have ever seen. It is
> supposed to somewhat continue until Wednesday or Thursday I heard! We
> have had some awesome experiences. We have this wonderful family who
> are not yet members of the church. They have started reading the Book
> of Mormon, and they let us come over for dinner! Delicious home made
> biscuits! Mmmmm and chicken and dumplings! So yummy! Then...... Berry
> cobler! oh man! super good! They said they would come to church. They
> would be a great family, and as we left their house it seemed like they
> were already members.
>
> Transfers are this next week, I haven't found out yet if I will be leaving, I
> don't know but we will see. I heard today from an awesome guy back in
> Perdido that he and his wife and sons will be going to the Temple to
> be endowed and sealed! The miracle of the Atonement is so powerful. It
> blesses our lives and families and brings such great joy to us. I read
> the History of Joseph Smith this week and I testify that he was a
> prophet of God. More important than the scriptures are modern day
> prophets and apostles. I testify that they as well are called and hold
> authority of God. I love yall! Have a great week! Thank you so much!
> God bless!