Hey Family and Friends

Hey family and friends!

It is great to get to write you guys again! I guess i really dont know where to start. This last week has been a tough one but one full of miracles and help from the lord. I guess i want to start out and state to all who read this that the heavens are not sealed and that God still works miracles. We have seen plenty here. I guess my thoughts are going back to Wednesday. we were working hard, trying to contact a bunch of people and get to our appointments but all our appointments were falling through and our back up plans werent working either and overall it was really frustrating. We have been working with this family and they have been doing fine accepting everything but there problem has been not coming to church. we have been trying and trying to catch them and they for some reason this last week and a half have been avoiding us and leaving on purpose so that we cant talk with them and on Wednesday we finally found them. we tried to teach a lesson and the dad straight up told us that he didnt want to see us anymore and that he didnt want to be baptized and he told us to basically stay away from his family. Man, that was a hard one to swallow. i have a deep love for this family and his words really hurt. i will admitt, i almost cried right there because it felt as if i was losing my brothers and sisters. we tried to share scriptures and save the relationship that we have had over these last few weeks but... no good. as we walked away down the street my comp and i didnt say anything to each other we were just thinking of what we did wrong and the whole circumstance really. i thought about how our heavenly father must feel with all his children who reject his great plan of mercy and happiness and dont take those crucial steps of baptism and recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enter into the temple. i thought about how he must feel and the scripture in doctrinas and convenios 18:10 that the worth of every soul is great and precious in the eyes of god. anyways not even 5 minutes later a man comes up to us and says that he has been looking for missionaries for a long time, that he wants to be baptized and when can you two come visit me? This man, marco antonio, i guess has been in contact with the church for a while, working with the missionaries but when changes and transfers occured, he sort of got lost as time went by. after talking with him, i was as the story of alma the younger goes, my joy was as great or if not more as was my pain. We walked away from marco and rounded a corner and i asked my companion to stop and i poured out my thanks to Heavenly Father. As we walked to our next appointment the thoughts of the miracle i had just been apart of and i was filled with the most joyious feeling and i thought in my head about my testimony and that i know this church is true, i know that christ lives and i know that i am here to save souls and bring them to our heavenly father becasue they are his. we are his. he knows us better than we know ourselves and if only we will turn to him in every aspect of our lives we will be blessed. how blessed we are to have this knoweldge of the gospel, this joy in our lives and all of these blessings! later that night we recevied a call from one our investigators who cant be bapitzed until she and her husband get married and they have been debating whether or not to. and she called and told us that they want to get married and that they have been reading the book of mormon and feel something special every time they read it! i cant tell you how happy i was. and thats not it....we went to visit another investigator who has been having fears about bapitsm and we got to bear testimony to her that she was doing the right thing and the spirit was just so strong! we asked if she would like a blessing of comfort and strength to fight off the tempations and fears that satan is putting in her life and she agreed. as my companion was explaining a little bit about what a blessing was, something in my heart just overcame me and i had the desire to offer this blessing. i never do the blessings. one because i have a little fear to mess up a blessing from our heavenly father in a different language....but i got to give my first blessing in spanish to this wonderful lady. it was the most amazing experience. alll in all...wednesday was my day of miracles. i know they exisit and happen. anyways this week like i said has been a little tough in some aspects. some of our investigators are not progressing and others dont want to talk with us anymore and other cosas. i guess i didnt realize how difficult emotionally a mission can be. i truely love these people. i see them differently and i want the best for them. and it really hurts when they dont want us anymore. but gods will be done, not mine. What else has happened this week. got to play some soccer on monday with the zones again and found 3 new families. one family i need to tell you about really quick. so they are adventistas, a religion really promonite around here and it is a miracle that we got to even enter into there house for a lesson. that was the miracle. we first came in contact with this family when elder pulido and i found them working hauling bricks to and fro for their house. we stopped and helped them and then we left not thinking much of importance about this family but we had a return appt. anyways upon returning for our lesson they told us that 2-3 years earlier 2 young men in white shirts and ties with black plaques had stopped to help them haul bricks and do the same work we did. they recieved those missionaries only one time and then lost contact with the missionaries. they didnt think the church was important and were not interested in us anymore. until one day 2 other missionaries (me and my comp.) performed the same service that those two elders had done in the past. they decided that it was time to accept the missionaries again. we are working with them and i hope all goes well. just a neat little story for you guys.

Oh i have been able to play my violin a lot here. yesterday in sacrament meeting i played all the songs because one, i got tired of singing with no piano, and two, i wanted to play. i am now the desnginated musician for church now. i get to play every week! haha and later that evening (yesterday) we got to play a special muscial number for a stake relief socitey meeting. that went well and everyone enjoyed it. and after the meeting went to see an inactive member, sort of our grandma here and got to play for her. she was sick so we got to cheer her up. i testify of the power of music and the influence it can have in ones life. it is absoultely amazing. well anyways i got to run. Know that i love you all. i really do. i miss you and pray for your success. continue to study the scriptures and the gospel. i feel a protecttion every time i do. this is gods work. this is his church. and i am on his errand. i love it.

till next week. god bless you all. i love you.

Elder Weston Birtcher

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