THE LORD LOVES EFFORT

Hey Everyone,

We have moved up Pat's Baptism to one month from now. She's scheduled to be baptized on June 16th. Pat is reading, learning and growing in the gospel. She is motivated and elect. We are seeing her change and she's moving in the right direction. We will continue teaching her and answering all of her questions. Please pray for PAT as she continues to gain knowledge and enjoy the process of Church attendance.

There are several others who we continue to reach out to and teach, but they are making their own decisions. We will always invite and teach when they are ready.

We found a gal on FB and set up an appointment to meet her at a local park. She was 30 minutes late but we were able to talk to her for about an hour. Mariqus has had a pretty rough past 10 years. She is ready for peace in her life. 

We placed a Book of Mormon with a gal named Lisa who was outside an apartment complex and she asked that we come back to teach her. We tried calling her later and didn't have the right number so we went back to the apartment complex and knocked on almost every door looking for her or anyone who knew of her. We found one lady who knew Lisa but refused to give us any information. We asked this woman to let Lisa know we were looking for her and she basically said she "might" let her know. The woman was quite rude and disrespectful towards us and it was hard to stand and listen to the things that came out of her mouth to us. Once we left and went home I was still having a hard time understanding why it's so hard to find people to share the gospel with. Why was this lady being so rude and not even willing to pass along a message to Lisa who was interested in learning more. As I knelt and prayed I felt a confirmation of peace. I know that Heavenly Father knows that Elder Chavez and I knocked on almost every door of the apartment complex and worked to find Lisa. The peaceful feeling I felt was you've done what you can do. As hard as it is, we know that we've planted a seed and we can have faith that either our paths will cross again or another set of missionaries will be ready when she is. 

The weather has been hot and humid. We've had a couple good thunderstorms this week and received some rain. The humidity is a beast. 

This morning our zone held a 5k race. I took third place and hope my legs will recover. Not bad for someone who hasn't ran that long of distance for a year. 

Last night President Nelson and Sister Nelson gave a world wide broadcast to all young single adults. It was pretty lit...if you haven't heard it, regardless of your age, please listen to it. 

The Lord loves our effort. I knew when I knelt down to pray after trying to find Lisa that we are asked to give our best, do our best, and keep moving forward. 

Elder Mortensen

Pictures this week: 

Temple, District Council, Elder Chavez, vintage car