We found some new investigators!

Hello Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week this week! I hope that you are all doing well and that life is going good for you all! Last week I wrote to you about hope and the need we all have to remain hopeful and to patiently persevere through our trials and challenges. I am not going to say that all of our challenges and trials automatically disappear at once and that everything becomes perfect if we have hope, but it helps us to continue forward with faith and a surety that something better will come from what we are experiencing in the moment. The last few weeks have been challenging for me and my companion in that we have not had many investigators and not had many teaching opportunities, but this week we got a little glimpse of what can come if we remain hopeful and continue to work diligently and obediently inspite of dificulties and challenges. This past week we found NINE new investigators. Six of them we found last Monday in a Family Home Evening with a Family in the Branch who invited us to give a message to their neighbors. They are two different families and we shared a message about the Articles of Faith to give them an idea about what we believe as "Mormons" or members of the church, we used that to transition to a short message about the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. We left them with a Book of Mormon and a commitment to start reading it. Unfortunately they didn't come to church, but we are going to visit them this week and hopefully we can help them begin to gain a greater understanding of the Gospel and start gaining a testimony. The other three are part of Maria Luisa's family (she is Arturo's Mom) we visited her this week and we realized that many of her children live with her still and two of her sons and her husband are our new investigators. We taught them about the Book of Mormon as well and they showed a great deal of interest in reading and learning more. I was very excited about being able to start teaching them and look forward to helping them to learn and grow in the gospel. Our only other investigator at this time that is really progressing is Lorena. She has her baptism date scheduled for September 19th. She is doing quite well and has a strong desire to learn and grow and progress. The hardest part with her right now is that with her son, Jesus, who is 3, it makes it really hard for her to stay to all 3 hours at church because he is really active and doesn't like to stay in his class. Yesterday finally he stayed there but she had to stay in his class with him, but the members are finally starting to be more helpful with him, so I hope in the coming weeks she will be able to get a better feel for Sunday School and Relief Society, not just Sacrament Meeting. She is reading in the Book of Mormon really well and has questions every time we visit her about what she has read. We taught her the other day about the Word of Wisdom and she hasn't drank a cup of coffee since. I am very excited for her. Otherwise we are just trying to find other investigators and this week we are going to focus a lot in those new investigators we found last week and try to help them to progress! Really the work is slowly moving along here! Sometimes it is hard, but really I have seen the hand of the Lord in our work as we have worked to do our part. I know that He is blessing us for our efforts to do what He wants us to do to find those who have been prepared to receive this gospel. I want to leave you all with my testimony of Joseph Smith. I know that he was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration. I know that in 1820 God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ appeared unto him and called him to be a prophet in our day and to restore once again the Gospel on the Earth. I know that through him, Jesus Christ has restored His church here on the Earth and that we now have the fulness of the everlasting gospel. I know that the Book of Mormon was a key part of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith translated that ancient record by the power of God and that it is truly the word of God. I know that if we will study and live the principles in the Book of Mormon that we can become closer to our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. It has strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ. I love that book and I know it is true. I love each and every one of you and I hope you all have a great week! Take Care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie