Lost in time

I forgot to write an email last week and didn't even notice.... my bad

This week was the last week of the transfer and Elder Hill is going down to Freedom branch. I'm getting another new companion so this will be the third time I've trained in a row. I'm looking forward to it.

The Niagara falls north elders had a baptism after church this Sunday which made for a fantastic Sabbath day.

Flashbacks to Lancaster

Elder Beardall (one of my first companions) is an assistant to the president and he is going home this transfer. There are three assistants this transfer because he is training them both on the calling. All three of them are going on exchanges around the mission and Elder Beardall got to come to Niagara falls first. He is a very spiritually powerful teacher so we had a great time. We weren't able to accomplish our goals for the exchange but we put in the work for it.

This week Abigail Snyder was baptized. She is one of the coolest. Her sister Stephanie just needs her heart softened now...

Elder Hill and I gave talks in church this Sunday. Elder Hill had never given a talk longer then 8 mins and so when we were the only speakers he was a little stressed out. He prepared a talk on enduring in faith and I don't think there is a better topic for him to speak on. He has had some very hard, very recent experiences. The Spirit was present for sure and he ended up talking for about 30 mins. So I ended up having to refine my talk down but that is okay.

We have been striving to find even one person who will stick around for us to teach for the past three weeks. We talk to a lot of people because we are here in the city but still nothing. 

Yesterday evening we were out teaching everyone in sight when we felt like we should change places. We walked south and talked to everyone along the way. About a half mile south we talked to a family on a porch. It was a mother and about 7-8 kids of all ages. They said they knew us and that Abby was just baptized this saturday. So we got talking obviously. Now I know that Abby gave up almost all of her old friends because her choice to be baptized. I think this family was one of them seeing as most of the kids were smoking cigarettes and cigars. They were open to listening so we shared the restoration with Dana, the mother, while the kids filtered off one by one. The Spirit was very strong and Dana wanted to read the book of Mormon so I gave her my teaching one because we didn't have another one on us. We are excited to see where that family goes.

It was incredible to see the change that has come in Abbys life so fast since she used to be in the same place as that family.

Also Maddy Zmuda from my first area has gotten her mission call to Orem Utah.

Abigail!

Cool abandoned armory building

This picture is from way back when Maddy told us she was going to go on a mission a little over a year ago.

Filled with charity

This week was wicked spiritual. We had interviews and we also had exchanges with the Lockport Elders. Elder Smith came to Niagara falls with me and we had some really cool miracles.

I will share one simple one. When we were out in the evening, all the roads I had planned had no houses on them so it was looking like we might finish our plans early. I accidentally parked in the wrong spot and we knocked on a whole street that I had already done before. I have a pretty decent memory and I could probably go back to my first area and remember most of the streets we did. Anyways the Spirit took my memory away, and not only that not a single person we talked to looked familiar and they didn't say anything about us just being there. We got to the end of the street and right as I started a conversation with this Catholic man it all came back to me and realized that I had been here about a week earlier and I had talked to this guys wife. As we spoke his heart softened and he not only took a book of Mormon he invited us to stop by again and said he as looking forward to reading it. It was so interesting to have been lead there for him.

We also met this man who had one of the most powerful conversion stories I have heard and he was so filled with love for everyone and everything.

Abbie had her interview and she will be baptized this week ^-^ she is stellar and wants to go on a mission really bad. 

Elder Beardall is coming to our area for a day with us so we are pumped. Sorry I was driving so I could send this til now.