Hey Folks!!

This week has been extremely exciting! We now have 4 baptismal dates and are hoping to be getting more. Members here have come along well! They have gained a respect for us and are excited to see us working hard. President Jensen said that we will be here for a long time together. So hopefully I will be finishing my mission here, I wouldn't mind if I finished with Elder Franchino, he is a great missionary. Super smart kid. I can learn alot from him. He keeps beating me at tennis though! :p

We had a fun pioneer day activity this week, when we left we left with two watermelons and a bag of hot dogs rapped in foil ready to eat! yum yum!!! It was such a fun week! We played softball there and invited a less active family, they all came and also the family that is going to be baptized. The mom and daughters came. Had lots of fun. On Pday last week with the tennis tournament, I was paired up with Elder Smith from Uefala, an area just north of us. He was pretty good so it worked out nicely. Had tons of fun, we played for about 3 hours, it was hot! I got pretty lobster looking, and was wearing sun glasses so I had some funny tan lines.

The talk yesterday I had to give turned out well, it was a 5th sunday devoted all to missionary work. Britney Kersh a girl about the same age as us, talked first. She did great!!!! She talked more than planned on, but wow! It was perfect, the Spirit was so strong, not a single baby cried the whole service. After she talked I went up and I felt impressed to share some stories about some of the converts I have had, and then talk about how the Atonement was the key element in all of their conversions. Then I read from the beginning of John chapter one verses 45 and 46. Phillip after finding the Messiah goes to his friend Nathaniel and says, "..We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prohpets, did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

Nathanial responds, "Can there an good thing come out of Nazareth?

Phillip simply invites, " Come and see"

It was so cool! Then our ward mission leader, who is the best of the best finished us up and powefully bore testimony of Christ, told members to invite their friends to church, to say, COME AND SEE. Such a spiritual experience. Loved it! I know that its the Atonement that works in peoples lives. When President Cooley set me apart he said that the Atonement is in full force in all the world. It is preparing people and changing and softening hearts. Christ's Atonement is so real. So powerful. The Doctrine of Christ is what unlocks its power. Faith, Repentance, Baptism by immersion, and Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I can't believe my time is running out, another transfer has flown by. I pray that I may become a powerful disciple and prepare to be a valiant husband, father, worker and student. Most importantly, servant of the Lord.

I love yall! have a great week!! Hasta Luego!!

-Elder West

Hey Everybody!!! :D

It has been an extraordinary week! Lots of good things! A few pretty funny journal experiences as well!

To start off, we had a district training meeting on Tuesday with President Jensen, it was awesome!!!! He talked about a "perfect week" which we are doing this week. We are going to give it our complete all and see just what the Lord can do. We have set our goals high, and exercised great faith. We will continue to do so and see more miracles.

Starting out with a funny experience:

-We went with a young man in the ward to an appointment in a neighboring city to see a family we met the day before. As we were there they were VERY nice, kind, open to hearing our message. After we discussed a little bit the older father of the home went into the kitchen and started doing something, we continued our conversation and a few minutes later he came out of the kitchen with a few glasses of ice and some dark liquid I assumed was going to be tea (since were in the south). They brought it to us, Elder Franchino picks it up real fast and starts drinking it, I was hesitant cause I thought it was tea, as I lifted the glass to drink I took a whiff and quickly shouted, "Is there vodka in this!?!?!?!?" hahaha they quickly say "NO!" I was super worried cause it smelt just like rubbing alchohol. Turns out it was Sangria, a mexican drink. They showed me the bottle and everything! haha I was really worried there for a second. Elder Franchino was about halfway done by the time I even asked the question, so he got really worried thinking that there was something in there! haha!

-Friday night we were about 16 miles out of the city visiting less actives who we don't get to see often, we went to see a lady we met at the bank one day when I had to withdraw all my money. She was really interested, so we sat out back on her porch way out in the country and taught her the Restoration. She was super receptive. It was really spiritual. It made it even better since in the background of her was a really powerful lightning storm. She believed in a place like the spirit world and even believed it was here on earth too, so we told her it was and she was like yeah! Thats what I have been waiting to hear! Haha so cool!

-Another couple people we were teaching a family we found, the husband really caught what we were saying and I didn't know if he was getting it. But he put it all together he understood the apostasy and the Restoration. It is so cool to see that click for someone. Haha it was also funny while we were there they had a little baby girl about 1 or 2. She had gotten ahold of someones phone and called the cops actually! They found out she had called the cops and they said they were gonna come just in case. We found out that about two weeks ago the wife was arrested by a member who is a cop out in her area. Haha she was mad o' mad! It is always nice to know that an investigator has been arrested by a member in the past. Good experiences with the church. :p

-Also Friday morning we saw a member's non member friend and got to sit down with them. It was great! They were super receptive, looking for a church. Have had great experiences with the church so far. Our ward mission leader works at Barnes and Noble and tells everyone about the church its great! We invited them to church and they commited to come. They came they were super nervous but I think by the end they really enjoyed it, lots of fellowship. The ward has become more friendly and kind. It is so awesome!

-We have heard from a few different people that alot of the ward members really are trusting us now, its so cool! They see us working hard and bringing about much good. The Lord is so merciful, he has done so much.

Best Highlight: We taught primary again, I loved it! These kids are awesome! No better calling than the primary. We also had a fun game of volleyball with the youth and YSA on Saturday night. Haha I was reminded of how bad I am at playing Volleyball. Fun times though.

All is well! A great week! We heard a talk from Bruce R. Mckonkie last Tuesday. His last talk given, it was powerful, about the Atonement. The single most important event that has happened in all history.

Signing off,

Elder West

Hello Everybody!

:D Its been a great week in Dothan, I love this place. There are some awesome families. We have lots of potential. We have located a few part member familes in the area. We intend to work with them alot! This week our car was taken away and given to another set of missionaries, so now we are in a car trade with the other ward we share our building with. This week we get the bikes so it will be another hot one! Oh and last night I decided to somehow pop my tube as well, so I don't even have a bike until later today. :D Good thing we have awesome members. lots of youth who are close to going on missions. Anyways since we found out we were losing the car we had a couple hundred miles left to use in 3 days, so we traveled to the outskirts of our area that day and found alot of people that haven't been contacted in a long time. We also had some crazy experiences.

-one was we went to see this less active guy and ended up finding his sister, the house was a little run down and the yard had a few little dogs in it, we walked up and she was sweeping inside so she came out said hi, we chatted for a min and we asked if she needed help with anything and she asked us to help her move this really heavy couch. We said sure and went inside to grab it, this thing was a little heavy. But we managed to pick it up and walk it out to the pavement. Due to the large size of the couch our chests and face and arms were pressesd up against it the whole time, and it smelt of years worth of urine and animals. When Elder Franchino flipped it over onto the sidewalk for the garbage guys to pick up we were shocked and terrified to see what was right underneath the couch.......at least 12 brown recluse spiders and nests all over where our hands were. They were crawling around the whole time we were carrying it. The lady very casually said, yeah my husband almost had to get his leg amputated a little while back cause he got bit by one. Then she got up close and looked at them! UNBELIEVEABLE!! haha after that we said well ya know we gotta go. I think the lady was worried she scared us or something. hahaha!!! We were definately protected by divine powers. We didn't get bit at all. It sure shook us up a little bit though.

- I am going to be giving a talk at the end of the month we are having a missionary sacrament meeting. The ward mission leader and I will be speaking along with a youth speaker. I realized something special the other day, that sank deeper in my heart than it has before, that is, that the whole purpose of this earth is to learn, share and live the gospel. It was profound to me. In the big scheme of things nothing else matters. Living the gospel should be the #1 priority in each of our lives. Thats the biggest point. President Jensen recently went over with us the "big picture" and showed us how we each fit into that plan. We are each special and hold different gifts and talents to bless others. If only we really knew who we were before this life, we would be shocked. We were valiant there. We must be valiant here.

Awesome week, lots of great things learned and work done. Thank you for your support! Love you all!

-Elder West