Monday, June 11th 2018

A couple of weeks ago me and my companion were walking down a neighborhood and we saw two ladies sitting on the front porch, so we approched them and introduced ourselves. One of the ladies said she was already Mormon, but she has not been to church for over 7 years. We talked to them for awhile and we found out that the inactive ladies son is in our ward, but they dont talk very much anymore. Both of them agreed to meet with us again. The next time we visited, we invited them to church, turns out that the lady is also a huge Elvis Presley fan, and we found ourselves in a deal. If she would come to church, each of us would have to sing her an Elvis song of her choice. She came to church and the next time we visited, my companion sang "Teddy Bear", and I sang "Suspicious Minds". Members printed out the lyrics for us and helped us practice. We really put on a show. I would not of been able to do it if it were not for my Mom teaching me her karaoke skills. The other lady has also agreed to be baptized. The inactive Ladies son has been taking her to church and sitting with her for the past few weeks now, and they are talking to each other more now. Thank you Elvis! 

Have you guys ever heard of Ramadan? its an Islamic Holy Month, where Muslims fast from sun up to sun down for 30 days. There is a couple more days of Ramadan left. Half way through Ramadan, we knocked into a muslim man, and for some reason, my companion agreed to participate in the fast till the end of Ramadan. He has kept it up, and has a lot of explaining to do whenever we eat at members houses. The Muslim man also invited us to the breaking of the fast of the last saturday of Ramadan. So of course we went. It was at their Mosque and entirely authentic. The food was wonderful, but hot. The dessert according to them was super sweet, but my American tongue found it no more sweet then a saltine. Everyone came up to talk to us and we learned so much from each other. We also got to witness one of the 5 prayers they do daily. It was so fascinating. I could write about it all day, but you can look it up and learn all about it. 

Wow, there is plenty of Poison Ivy down here. One of the Elders got it very bad, and they don't have a car at the moment so we had to drive him to the clinic. It looks terrible, so you have to watch out for it. There are so, so many home remedies the locals tell us about, I'm beginning to think if you put anything on it, it will help it. 

There is a family we are working with, that has a mom, dad, and daughter. The mom has parents who are members and she was never baptized, and her husband is not a member either, but the daughter was baptized when she was 8 and she is 15 now but has not been to church since they moved here from Arizona a couple of years ago. The dad is in the air force and is on a 2 year deployment in Turkey. The mom and the daughter have been coming to church and going over to members houses for lessons and dinner, and have been getting to know a lot of people in the ward and have been having a great time. The daughter is going to girls camp and youth conference this year. Finding that family was such a blessing and I have loved working with them. We are excited to see the mom progress in the gospel and follow her daughters and Jesus Christs example and be baptized. 

Lets gather Israel my friends!

Elder Dallin Spurgeon