June 23, 2014 - !!!

Washington DC South Mission: Braven Your Stride  Here's a link to a video made by the mission.  Braden is in the upper left at about 1:05 into the video.

I am emailing this from a laundromat because our washing machine still doesn't work. We got the AC and plumbing fixed, but now the shower upstairs is leaking and it's dripping through the ceiling into our dining room. Just another thing to fix! President Riggs said they will try and get us out of the townhome. It was his birthday this week and he invited over us and the sisters from our ward to have cake with them after church yesterday. They invited some non-members but they never showed up, but it was fun to talk with the Riggs family a little bit. They are pretty awesome.

We had a great week in our area!  When I got here last transfer there was nothing going on. They had one investigator who has been really flakey anyways. Elder Mathews and I worked super hard last transfer and we didn't start seeing too much from it until the last week before he left. Now we have a solid teaching pool and people coming to church. We haven't had very much time because we have been busy teaching and we had three people at church yesterday. It all started happening when we started the #talkto20. It took a lot of miracles to make that big turnaround happen.

Service project (and workout!)

The most recent miracle came when we had a dinner with a less active family on Saturday night. When we talked with him on the phone the night before he said there was someone that rented out there upstairs that they gave a Book of Mormon to and she wanted to know more. She (Marina) wasn't there when we ate dinner, but she got home from work right before we left. We all sat down and had a great discussion about the restoration and how she can know the truth for herself. We invited her to church and she brought her son and husband. Plus the less active members came with them!

The same less active member also referred the

Baptist family (Peter and Monica) that we are still planning on church swapping with. The mom has been nice when we have gone over but for the most part she has just sat back. She is very religious and not looking to change. She told us she read the Book of Mormon once and didn't learn anything. This past week she left us a voicemail saying she read from the Book of Mormon and wants us to come back! It sounds promising and we are going over on Wednesday. Hopefully she isn’t setting us up with her pastor or something (haha).

Joel, the older man that we have been teaching, came to church yesterday! He is really sincere and wants to really seek out if what we are teaching is true. We had a great lesson this week with him after we helped him dig a drain in his backyard. He also made us wooden signs that say "JESUS" that are really cool. He says he really looks into something before he buys, but for now he is doing well.

Wood carving by Joel

We started teaching a family that lives in President Riggs' neighborhood this week. We found them several weeks ago but we just sat down for the first time a few days ago. They have 9 kids and five are adopted from China. Elder Gledhill can relate to them a lot which is nice. One son knows several kids in the ward including President Riggs' daughter. President and another lady in our ward said he told all the kids in our ward about us and said he is excited to talk to us again!

We have been having so much fun. It is definitely more fun to teach people then to be knocking on doors all day.

It's hard to believe that my year mark is this week. The time has gone quick. I have learned so much about myself and the gospel. I am glad that I have another year and I wouldn't trade his past year for anything.

Love you!
Elder Miles