D&C 97:22

Dearest family and loved ones,

I hope this email finds you all in good spirits! It was so good to Skype you yesterday!!! Taylor and Keira continue to change in amounts that I didn't think possible. I expected them to change while I was gone, but not that much that fast! At this rate, Taylor will be a grown man when I come home hahah it will be crazy!

Last Monday, we had Family Home Evening with Christina, her mom, Jewel, her uncle, Joey, and her brother-in-law, Jerry Don. It was so good! We had planned to teach them the song of "I am a Child of God." When we started, Joey had to take a phone call and so he missed out when we taught them the lyrics, sang it through once, and then had them join us. But, he came back in the room when we had finished it so Christina said that we should just sing it again. So we taught him the lyrics and sang it again. I really think him and Jewel liked it a lot! I am pretty sure that Jewel started tearing up...I could see her eyes watering. I love that song and I know that it touches hearts. Then we did the "cup display" with them. The cup display shows how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is exactly like the church that Jesus Christ set up when he was on the earth. I think they really liked it. It is a lot to take in and it will take time to learn all of it, but I think they are ready for it!!

Bro. Russell is leaving us in 4 weeks :( we are pretty sad about that. We met with him this week and talked about missionary work. We challenged him to hand out a mormon.org card and he said he would do it by this next Sunday. So we are excited to see him have some missionary opportunities!

I don't remember if I talked about this last week, but we met with a guy named David a while ago and he told us to call him on May 5th and he will have the Book of Mormon read by then. Well, we called him and he wanted to set up an appointment, so we did. When the time came for the appointment, we went to his house but he wasn't home!!!! We were pretty bummed but we contacted him and set up a new appoitment. We met him at the library and we really just don't know how to help this man! We are going to be doing a lot of praying to know how we can help him!

He is looking for truth, but he wants a lightning bolt for an answer. He is almost done with the Book of Mormon and he doesn't think it is falst, but he doesn't know if it's true. He also has an issue with modern day revelation. He believes that that stopped with Jesus Christ because he fulfilled all the revelation and so there is no need for any more. So, I let him borrow my conference Ensign :S and we marked the First Presidency's talks so he could read them. We have another appointment with him this week so we'll see what he thought about them.

We got some great news this week - we get 50 more miles a month to drive our car. That might not seem like much, but it is greatly appreciated! So we drove ourselves up to Wagoner this week. We were hoping to see more less actives, but all the ones that we went to weren't home! But we did get to meet with one. Her name is Sister Hall and she's had a hard life. Her testimony is hardly there so we are going to work with her and help her get it back! We have a new building that we are going to be meeting in for the Wagoner meetings and it is an actual church building that hasn't been used for a while. It's not one of our church's buildings, but it belonged to another church, so we are going to do a "blitz" this weekend to "advertise" for it on Sunday. That is when we will first meet in the building. We are even going to have a BBQ! :) It will be fun. Our ward mission leader wants to see if we can get like 75 people out to the meeting. That will be more than has even come to the cottage meetings! It will be awesome! :)

On Saturday night, we went and bought a rose each for Sister Parkes, Grandma, Christina, and Jewel for Mother's Day. We immediately went to Christina's to give them their flowers. When we gave it to them, Christina started crying! I felt so bad! I didn't know if she was crying because she was happy, sad, mad, I had no idea! But it turns out that she was very happy and touched that we would do that for them. We love them so much and neither me or Sister Hatch want to ever leave Muskogee but we know all good things must come to an end.

When we went to Christina's on Saturday, Uncle Joey came and told us that he just really wanted to go to church the next day. So, we got him a ride and he came to church! :) He loved it! He said that he was planning on coming back next week. Christina was planning on coming but she wasn't feeling good that moring so she decided to stay home. But we were so excited when we saw Joey! The Parkes' went and picked him up. It's always exciting when an investigator comes to church for the first time! It means that they are keeping commitments and by doing so, they are making changes in their lives and repenting. I love missionary work! :)

On Sunday night, we went to Christina's again (we go over there a few times a week :) we are making up for the 3 weeks she was in the hospital....) and Joey was a bit confused about what the Book of Mormon was. He thought it was the books that were lost from the Bible. So we went through the introduction with him and now he understands it. He really is like a sponge! He asked how the prophet is chosen once the current prophet dies, so we explained how that works and he just accepted what we told him! It is amazing to see the gospel bless people's lives. I can already see a difference in him since we first met him! Ah! It's great! :)

Well, I love you all! I hope you're doing grrrrrrrrrreat!

See you soon then!!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl