Staying in Whitehorse

So it was another interesting week as always is the case in Whitehorse. Last P-day we spent some time playing and recording music at Bro. McDonald's again. It's always fun. We are going over there again today to play more. It's going to be hard when I have to leave this place and won't get to play anymore.

So Holly and Christopher are both getting baptized on April 10th! I can't remember if I mentioned that last week or not. I'm really looking forward to seeing both of them enter the waters of baptism and be confirmed members of the church. This will be the first time on my mission that I will get to see someone I started teaching get baptized. They are a great family. On Wednesday we helped Holly's husband Chris put in a drop ceiling in their basement. We didn't finish so we are going again this week to help him finish. He's a good guy, and we always have fun at their house. We also taught Robert again this week, and he had finished reading the entire Book of Mormon! It was awesome to see that he accomplished that, and had hand written like 30 pages of notes, but it was a little sad to see him still skeptical about all of it. We taught him the importance of prayer and faith, and had a great lesson. It's amazing to see how even when someone has been given (and read) such an awesome witness of the Savior like the Book of Mormon they still can't feel that it's true unless they pray and ask our Father in Heaven if it really is true. I know that once Robert feels the Spirit he will know for sure that it is the word of God.

Well, it's the beginning of a new transfer, and probably my last in Whitehorse. It's going to be really hard to leave, but I know if I work my hardest it will feel right to move on to another area to serve. I've been greatly blessed to serve in Whitehorse, and have the experiences I've been able to have here. Well have a great week!

Love Mat

Another Great Week

So it's been an incredibly fast week in Whitehorse. A lot has happened this past week. We jammed again with Bro. Mcdonald on Monday, and we've decided we're going to try and make a CD of the songs we've been playing. We'll be working on that today. They're all church songs so don't worry. It's been fun working on them.

We've been having some great experiences with our investigators here. On Thursday we taught a guy named Robert. We told him he needed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, so he got an audio book of the Book of Mormon on line and put it on his ipod. He listened to over half of the book while following along with the book in his hands. He had written out four pages of notes and questions, and we had a great lesson. He's noticed that he's "hard hearted" (he's already getting down the book of Mormon lingo haha), and I think he's realizing the importance of our message. Nicole's brother and mom are doing awesome, and they will both be baptized next month. We're looking forward to that! This will be the first time on my mission that I will have been able to see the entire process of the investigator starting to take the lessons to being baptized. We also started teaching a hindu couple, and it's great because the second counselor in the branch presidency is a converted hindu so he will help us teach and translate.

Great things are happening here, and I'm loving every day. Well, sorry for the short one today, but I will have more to report on next week!

Being a Missionary is Awesome!

Hey Mom,

How's Utah? Are you back in Vegas yet? It's good that you get all these mini vacations, if you want to call them that, and get to see Ty and everyone. Sounds like fun. Well, hopefully I get to stay here for one more transfer. I really love it in this area. There's a chance that I could leave at the end of this month, on I think the 28th, but I think I will stay one more.

Each week here I have some amazing experiences. The work was slower than usual this week, but we still had some amazing success. First of all, Holly, Nicole's mom, committed to be baptized!!! We're so excited! We're not quite sure when it will be, but Nicole's brother Christopher will be getting baptized on April 2. I'm so happy that their whole family is welcoming in the gospel into their lives. I can't wait to see them baptized! We're teaching a lot of people right now, more than double that I've ever taught at once on my mission. I can't believe how much the Lord has been blessing us.

On Thursday Elder Stephens and I were giving service at the Salvation Army serving the food at lunch, and he noticed a guy that was kind of eyeing us weird. I didn't notice it because I couldn't see him from where I was standing. Later that day we were walking into the hospital to give someone a blessing, and the same guy was approaching us from the hospital. He came and started talking to us right away, and said that he was too nervous to say something at the Salvation Army, but he was a less-active member and wanted to turn his life around and come back into the gospel. He had just moved in so he wasn't on the church records or anything. We went and saw him yesterday where he's living, and he's a really cool kid who sincerely wants to come back and participate in the gospel again. It was awesome to be able to help him out. This is the second time something like this has happened to me, if you remember my experience I had in Wasilla. The Lord definitely guides us to be in the right place at the right time to accomplish His purposes. I'm so grateful to be having these experiences. They are definitely changing the way I look at life and how I can be a help to others. Being a missionary is awesome!

Love Mat