September 10th, 2012

Hey Family, I wanna start off by talking about 30 by 31! That is the catchy phrase that is sung all around the church building in the amazing town of New Albany Indiana. What that phrase means is 30 baptisms by Dec. 31, 2012. I don’t know how crazy or realistic that goal sounds to you, but for this area it was pretty out there. We have had 2 baptisms in this ward so far this year. Bishop Faulstick got up in Ward Conference and announced all of this over the pulpit and our Stake President followed up very nicely. From what I was able to see the ward accepted the idea and is will to work towards it. This idea came from Elder Dye who was inspired by the attitude of Elder Souza (my comp He is from California. He is a convert of 1 year and 4 months. He is 19 and is a boss! I love him!). We had a meeting with the Bishop, and he thought that I was crazy, but he called us into his office a few nights later and told us that the God has confirmed to him that it is his will. So the ward I am serving in has turned into Zion. If I don't make it home in a few months just now that I got translated by the skin of my teeth with the rest of the New Albany Ward (I didn't mean that as prideful as it sounds) We will be having a baptism on Sept 21. His name is Corey and he is a Stud! He is 18 years old and just graduated last year. He is an athlete. Played starting QB for a 5A high school, was on the b-ball team, and is in the top 25 golfers in the state of Indiana. I would compare him to Tanner Higham. We also found a family and they all have baptismal dates for Oct. 6 it is a family of 5. We found them while street contacting. We got into a conversation with her about the Book of Mormon and we read 2 Nephi 33:10-11 with her, and then the member that we had with us asked her if we could teach her right now. She said "yes" so we walked 2 blocks back to her house and taught her the Restoration. The Spirit was super strong in our lesson and it really hit hard when Elder Souza read the first vision to her. She told us that she believed it was true, and that should would pray and read so she could know it was true. I loved her answer! Hopefully we will have more peeps to talk about next week that are looking to fully partake of the Atonement by joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We didn’t get to go to the temple last week. Our ride bailed on us. We were just working on Tuesday and had no time to email. I am sorry though momma it won’t happen again. Can you send out another mail request? Like on face book or something? Tell them to make sure to give me their return address if they want a letter back. I have sucked at writing people back but I will keep up this time. I really like mail. I don't have any funny stories that I can think of... I have hurt my knee a few times playing basketball, but it is doing fine. I definitely have to take it easy with it. Things have been awesome though. I love this area, the time, my companion, the weather-- everything. I have an appointment at 12. We don’t even stop teaching on p-day.! But I love you guys and I love God. I ask that you will follow the greatest commandment which is love God, and the second is love your neighbor. A way that you can love your neighbor and your God is through... Missionary Work! Just Do It! I love and will talk to you next week Love, Elder Dye