I HELD A PUPPY

Hey Everyone,

Today is our official P-Day this week and we are going to the temple this morning. More on that in next week's letter.

It has been super cold here the past few days, We are constantly in the lower single digits and with the wind chill we do our best to stay a little warm when we are outside. 

Elder Hancock continues to heal and we have altered our daily schedule a little to accommodate for his recovery. He's doing great and we have been out and about teaching and serving and helping ward members this week. 

We recently had an older gentleman move into our ward who loves Family History. We found out that the closest Family History library is in Bethany and so we went there and spent time finding names and learning a little more about how we can help ward members with their own family history. 

We stopped by the Bed and Breakfast that is being renovated by a ward member and his wife who we are teaching. We occasionally help them out and get service hours in. They are doing an amazing job updating this home, it's impressive the work they've done since I've been here the past 9 weeks. 

We taught many member lessons this week and stopped in on several families to see how we could help them. We are also continuing to teach Shauntea (they own the B&B). We have taught her every lesson, reviewed every lesson and stopped by weekly to read from the scriptures together and answer any questions she has. We have fasted on her behalf and she is in our every prayer. We continue to support her as she studies and prays and she is doing very well. We had to drop one of the James'. We continue to teach the other James and he is doing well. We had really hoped that Robert would come to Church on Sunday but because of Super Bowl Sunday he decided to stay home. We are hopeful he will attend this upcoming Sunday. This past week we also had a great lesson with Jeannie--the one with all of the cats and dogs and no place to sit down as we teach the lessons. She continues to progress and we know she feels the spirit as we teach her. 

This week we helped a part member family move some furniture and mattresses and even set up several beds after we moved them into the rooms. This family had the cutest puppy that I was able to hold and enjoy for a few minutes. I wrote a Facebook post about this cute puppy--check it out and ask yourself how Jesus Christ helps you daily in your own lives. 

Sunday we were finishing getting ready for Church and were about to leave to drive to the building when a bishopric counselor called and asked that I speak in Sacrament Meeting. I said YES and then had to quickly figure out what I wanted to speak about. It wasn't until the Sacrament was being passed that I felt prompted to speak about Christlike Attributes and specifically about Charity and the role the pure Love of Christ can have in all of our lives. I built my talk around Moroni 7 verses 36 to 48 and shared personal experiences and quotes that I have been studying. Please take some time this week to read these few short verses, they will change your outlook on loving others. 

Elder Mortensen

Pictures this week: 

One of Jeannie's dogs (the gal we are teaching) 

Me on a brisk cold morning

The sweet little puppy I held 

Our ALL ELDER District at our council meeting this week