Sweet Home Alabama: Hello Family!!!!

AH ANOTHER FAST WEEK HAS GONE BY. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I CAN'T SAY THAT ENOUGH!!!!

I hope all is well :) I love y'all so much and pray for y'all every day!!!

Ah. Well, last week, I went out on my first exchanges with a cute sister named Sister Bush. I served in Millbrook for a day which was so fun!! It's funny how different the people are there from Clanton and Millbrook is only 30 mins away. Anyway, it was so fun, but I definitely missed being in Clanton!!!!

We met with this cute lady named Annie last Wednesday and shared different Bible verses with her that we loved and she did the same. We then introduced the Book of Mormon to her and showed her some of our favorite scriptures from there as well. She LOVED the verses that we shared with her and she kept saying, "I'm gonna read this book and I will mark it ALL UP and then ask you questions about it later. When shall we meet next?" PEOPLE ARE BEING SO PREPARED HERE IT IS CRAZY!!!

We met with this man named Jeff Dalrymple who was neighbors with one of our investigators. He just talked and talked and talked. Really nice guy. I had a really spiritual experience with him because I felt as though I could easily relate. He had just found out that his wife has Melanoma and I just started to cry because it hit home for me and I just looked him in the eyes and told him that everything would be alright and that everything that is going on is in God's hands. I KNOW that he was sent to me so that I could talk with him and comfort him and relate. Heavenly Father knows what we need to go through so that we can help others along the journey as well. He agreed to let us come talk to him again and give him a lesson this week. He excitingly told us that he has a pear tree and wants us to have some of his pears!!! So excited to teach him!

We are working now with this member named Brother Lutz. He is a smoker and is just recently starting to come back to church. His wife was baptized last month. We are working with him to stop smoking and also his step-daughter, Sarah. We had both of them give us all of their cigarettes and THEY DID. We went through this 15 step program that a missionary gave to us to use. It seems like it's working because both of them have not smoked for 3 days!!! Brother Lutz called us this morning and confessed that he got a cigarette from his friend and started to smoke, but felt sick after two puffs of the cigarette!! MIRACLE. He has been smoking for nearly 35 years!! We had them both write a pledge to stop smoking and read it aloud. Brother Lutz's pledge was so precious. It basically read saying: "I, Michael Lutz, will stop smoking so that I can be healthy and go to the temple one day. I will stop because I want to be with my family in the spirit world." Too grand.

We went over to Brother and Sister Mitchem's home. Sister Mitchem is not a member and is very lonely. We shared a Mormon message with her which went well! She loved it!!! Brother Mitchem started to talk to us about how he thinks that eating meat and treats is completely against the Word of Wisdom. He has a good heart though.

We met with Shirley again and soon realized that she is not quite ready for baptism yet :( which is fine. Patience is a virtue. She told us that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true though so that's good!!! She just said that she wants to decide on her own when she wants to be baptized. We asked her if she thinks she has done her part in knowing if what we are teaching her is true. She said "no" and told us that she could definitely do more praying about it. She is such a sweet lady and LOVES going to church.

We met with Betty again yesterday! I love her!!! Her husband came out and said, "What are these girls doing here again???" Betty just boldly told him, "They are my friends and God has sent them to me!!!" She is just so precious. We taught her the restoration and OH MY the spirit was SO strong in that room! SHE READ FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON. (this is the lady who thinks it's a sin to read from it). We have another appointment with her this week so we shall see how it goes! She is so full of questions.

Miss Daisy was able to go through the temple this Saturday and it was a very amazing experience. She WAS SO HAPPY. She just glowed!!! Her daughter was able to be there for her and she was sealed to her. Her daughter kept saying, "you'll be my mama forever." That was the first time I have ever cried in the temple and it was just a very spiritual experience. It made me think of my family and the blessing that we have to live with each other for ETERNITY. I can't wait :)

I love my savior, Jesus Christ so much. Everyone needs this gospel!! People here are so grand, but NEED the FULLNESS of this gospel. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much while being here. One thing that Sister Casperson and I do is write down miracles at the end of every day that happen. I invite y'all to do that as well! You will recognize a lot more blessings if you do that!!!

I love my family so much. I love how close we all are. It is such a blessing to me. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have of families and how they can be together forever. So many people here just think that they won't know their families after this life and that we are all just going to live with God. One guy asked us if he would know his wife who passed away and be able to recognize her. We gladly told him that he would!!!!!!

Did anyone watch the relief society broadcast? It was so grand!!! Monson spoke at the end and ah, it was amazing!!!!!

Let us all have an increased faith to get answers to our prayers. "Be still and know that I am God."

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.

p.s. I love letters a lot

p.s.s. Everyone here has dogs. EVERYONE.