Hey there DANC N' DANA! Heard you danced a lot. Sounds like lots of people showed up for the wedding. Whoo. I cant believe KT is married hahaha. I honestly cant believe that She is now Katie Garcia. That is plain wild. And.... of course the wedding was awesome. We're the Heywoods. Come on.
This last week was pretty good. Lots of things happened. The other night Elder Jensen and I went to go contact a referral that our Ward mission leader had given to us. She was from Polson so Bro Alsbury (who is from Polson) and I were really excited to get in contact with her. Elder Jensen and I arrive at the destined address and presume to get out of the car. We both look at the destination and say, "wow this is a big house." We are about to knock on the door when all we can see on the inside is STATE OF MONTANA certificates. It dawned on me that it wasn’t the kind of house that we were thinking about. We then knock and a nurse like looking lady answers the door.. We then walk into the facility and realize that it is a mental/handicap facility just like Randolph.. I cant tell the whole story or I would be here for days but it was the funniest visit I have ever had. We talked and Mary Jane was completely obsessed with lighthouses and about anything nautical. We sang Brightly beams our Fathers Mercy to her and read some scriptures about light. We then proceeded to talk about the Whale Oil that she said she lived on. Hilarious. After that we began to make different fog horn noises and I showed her the "tractor beam" from dumb and dumber. Mary Jane then asked me if we could watch dumb and dumber sometime. After that we raced: me on foot, Mary Jane in her wheel chair. It was great.
You guys need to look on pg. 96 of the Ensign and tell me if the guy in the middle of that page played volleyball for Westwood.
Now for the big question. WHENS THE BABY DUE? I NEED TO KNOW. I WILL SEE IF I CAN SEND SOME BABY CLOTHES. some little baby cowboy boots and a little carhardt jacket.
We get a monthly "mission" newsletter that shows a missionary directory and has some presidents messages and stories and stuff, one of which, that I would like to share with you. President Gardner wrote about this experience about 3 weeks ago at a Billings Stake Conference: "In the Billings Stake conference this last weekend, there was a special meeting, for new converts and investigators. A man by the name of John came with his member wife, Karen, who was called on last minute to lead the singing. He has been investigating the church off and on for the last 7 years. Elder Condie (who was the GA seventy that came through the mission) asked Sister Lingmann who was going home that week, to come up and in 2 minutes teach John what he needed to know, testify to him, and challenge him to be baptized. We were all surprised at the boldness of Elder Condie. Sister Lingmann did as she was invited to do and then invited John to be baptized. There was an awkward pause, Finally John said, “we'll see.” Then Pres. Getz, the stake president, stood up and said, “we have known each other a longtime John. As your friend, I testify as a second witness that what Sister Lingmann has said is true. I challenge you to be baptized before sister Lingmann goes home on Thursday.” Elder Condie then stood and said, “NO pressure here john.” There was a tension breaking chuckle from the group, but then he added that he was leaving in the morning and challenged John to be baptized before the day was out. During Conference, Elder Condie once again bore testimony from the pulpit, by saying that he was a last minute substitute for the conference. He wasn’t supposed to be in Billings, but he was here and one of the reasons he was here was to see that John was baptized. Sisters Lingmann, Denning, and Reyes called about 2:30 indicating that they had been asked to review the lessons with John and wondered if they could teach him here at the mission home. Of course we said yes, and so we did from 3:00 pm until 6:30pm John had some misconceptions that needed to be clarified, but he knew enough to be baptized. He knew that Jesus is the Christ and that the Book of Mormon is true. He believed in Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Gospel. In the end, he wanted to be baptized, not because of pressure, but because of choice. He know this is what he needed to do. The font was filled and a baptism was held at 8:00 that night. President Getz baptized him and was confirmed a member by Elder Spencer J. Condie. It took a lot of effort from a lot of people but finally John was able to feel the spirit and knew that it was time to be baptized. Thanks to Elders Tryon, Coker and Journey, Sisters Reyes Denning, and Lingmann, Sister Gardner and Sister Carter, President Getz, and Elder Condie, and I’m sure many others. It always takes lots of touches for someone to feel enough of the workings of the spirit to precipitate action. John told me that, “I learned that you just cant do it on your own.” Thanks to all who helped along the way. -Pres Gardner.
Ya. I thought that was a pretty cool story. Maybe you guys can learn from Elder Condie and be bold enough to straight up invite a family to learn the Gospel. Im still waiting for you guys to do that.
I read over and over Ann M. Dibb's talk. it was great. "it was pretty scary I tell you" "get a grip" those lines will never be forgotten.
That’s about it for the last week. We hope to have a big week this week. We have zone conference tomorrow and zone leader team ups today and tomorrow
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