December 1-8, 2008

Well, this has been a really rough, slow week. Everything seemed to fall through every day. It was kind of lame. This keyboard stinks, you have to push the keys pretty hard, especially for the T´s. So if I miss one, just fill it in. Anyways, we had some funny stuff happen, we were explaining what a prophet was, and the guy was just like, "yeah, he has to be like way good, almost perfect...like Flanders...have you guys seen the Simpsons, do you know who Flanders is?" We were laughing so hard. I thought you might get a kick out of that. Yeah, we have some people we are working with, but retention is terrible here. We have more inactive members, than less active and active members combined. And we don´t wan to baptize people to have them go inactive. Its so hard to see these people fall away. So, with Elder Judd and I, we were feeling like we haven´t been able to accomplish a whole lot, because we haven´t been able to help people make that last step. We have had like 10 people now right there, but they just can´t commit to the whole deal. But, we saw some definate other progress too. When Elder Judd and I started working together, the average assistance to the church was about 48 every week. But, well, the last 3 weeks there have been more than 80. Still a pretty small number for a ward, but it is growing, and the inactive members are starting to go more. We still are short a lot, and we are still pounding out some work with our investigators. Martin, the Kumbi star, is really loving what we have been able to help him with. He told us, that for about the past year he has been seeing different doctors to try to help him with his depression, and his addictions. He has seen pastors of different religions and what not, and he has not been able to improve anything. He had decided to jus give up on looking for help. Then we came, and he decided to give us a chance, though he was really doubting...Now he said that there is jus something very different about us, and he feels that hope, and his desire to drink and do drugs is practically non existent. I don´t really know what will happen with Martin, but he has said that the light we brought to his life, is something that he will never be able to forget.
Chase Andersen