Dear Family and Friends,
Well, it's the end of the first week in the transfer! Our zone has made a goal to have 50 member present lessons with investigators every week of the transfer. This means that we have to stretch ourselves, but I know that we can do it with the Lord's help. We got to 42 last night, so we are very close to achieving our goal as a zone. Out here in Oklahoma you can see the work of salvation hastening as we push forward. It is an exciting time to be a missionary.
On Tuesday we were able to have a Zone Conference here in Lawton. President Walkenhorst gave a great training on working with members and accelerating the work. We talked a lot about working with Ward Council and our responsibilities to help our Bishops out with updating the ward with what is going on with the less active members of the church.
Saturday was probably our busiest day of the week. We had four great lessons with some new investigators, all with a member with us. That rarely can happen for us because of the schedule of our investigators and the member's busy lives, but it all worked out.
Update on the investigators we are teaching:
John Stenman is the father of a recent convert that was baptized around December. He is originally from North Carolina. He moved down to Lawton to stay with his daughter because of the medical programs in Oklahoma. He is a devout christian who has a testimony of Jesus Christ. When we began to teach him at first, he was hesitant because he had heard a lot of negative things about the church. We addressed all of his concerns and questions, and he is a lot more interested in the church and its history. We are working towards getting a baptismal date with him, we are going to try to get one this week.
Takisha is a investigator that we have had for a long time but I have never taught before. We dropped her once before, but we picked her back up after we were able to stop by her house and set up a solid appointment. We were able to set up a baptismal date for July 19th, so we are excited for her.
Hannah was an investigator that was taught previously by some missionaries out of the state. She contacted us initially because she wanted to return a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets to us. She didn't feel like it would be right to throw them away. Funny enough, we began to teach her again and she is progressing. She is making an effort to change for her children.
I believe I have already talked a bit about Tommy, but for this update's sake I'll just go over him again anyways. Tommy is an Army vet who went to Iraq for a deployment or two, saw some things, and came back. He is currently married, but he feels like his marriage isn't working out for him. He struggles a lot with his PTSD. He likes us coming over because it makes him feel better about his life. He has just begun to read the Book of Mormon and is praying often. He is making large steps in the right direction. We are planning on setting a baptismal date with him this week.
Jay and Patricia Vickers are very slowly progressing. Jay knows that what we have taught him is the truth, but he is afraid to act on his faith because his wife doesn't want to convert to another church. It's a bit frustrating because we had made so much progress so quickly with him, but we don't want to upset his family and his marriage. In a sense, he's in the Lord's hands now.
Beau and Monica have had their baptismal date dropped. They are still planning on being baptized, but they haven't gotten married yet and Beau still has some overcoming to do with his smoking addiction. They have made progress, it's just slow. I am sure that they will come around eventually.
We haven't been able to meet with Pam this week. She has been out of town.
Nick has also been out of town, but he will be coming back on the 26th. We are going to get with him this week to catch up on how he's doing and see if we can't get a lesson or two in with him.
I'm excited for this next week, we're going to see some awesome miracles in our area and our zone. The work is hastening, the pedal is to the metal and it's going to be kept there. I am grateful to be a missionary in today's age and that I have been given the opportunity to work hard and shoulder to shoulder with the many great missionaries of the Oklahoma, Oklahoma City mission. I know that this church, this gospel of Jesus Christ, is true. I know that the scriptures are true and that they give us our daily bread. Most importantly, I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he is my savior and redeemer from my sins.
Thank you all for your support,
Elder Holbrook
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