A Week of New Beginnings

August 4, 2014

Greetings,

It's been another great week in Pinehurst and I'm liking that changes that are starting. The first big change to report is my new companion.

His name is Elder Johnson and he's from Logandale, Nevada just outside of Las Vegas. He's been out 20 months so I may end up killing him (sending him home). He's a great Elder and we are definitely going to have a lot of success together.  I can relate to him and he's a lot of fun. The good news is we get along really well and we will definitely be making splashes this transfer.

News on A and M. They're so golden. Elder Johnson and I gave them a church tour on Tuesday with the Restoration tied in and during the tour M yelled "This, is my church. Right here." Every time we meet with these two something more amazing happens. So we ended our tour next to the baptismal font. After explaining authority, they both agreed to be baptized on the 23rd of August! I'm so excited to see them go through changes. They asked us the perfect question. "You mentioned that we have to prepare to be baptized. What do we need to do?" So now we have them scheduled on a two lesson a week track to baptism. How great is that? This is what missionary work is all about. Taking in the successes and helping people come into the fold of God.

In other news, the remainder of this week remained ineffective because of the constant rain we received. We were on bikes this week, so we weren't able to go anywhere if it was pouring. But we did manage to teach some good lessons. We taught a lesson to a part member family. The B's. Sister B is a member, but believes she's Baptist because MS made her forget the last twenty years. So now we're just working on her husband. Something I learned this week is the importance of the Book of Mormon. As members of the church, we often take the Book of Mormon for granted. After talking with Brother B, I saw how the Book of Mormon really does answer those questions that everyone has in life. Brother B got caught up on what happens after we die, so we assigned him Alma 40 to read. There is doctrine contained in the Book of Mormon that just isn't clear in the bible. As it says in 2nd Nephi 3:12,

"Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord."

When we put the Bible and the Book of Mormon together, there is no need to question or rely on the doctrine of man. This is why we have the Book of Mormon, to clarify those things that we wonder about.

So that was my week. It was kind of uneventful, but every week has its successes. Every week also has its lessons to be learned.

I love this work and I hope that seeing my success and growth helps you and encourages you to grow your testimony as well.

Love you all,

-Elder Landon Carroll