September 22

Dear Family,

We had a rocky start of the week--a lot of investigators were calling to drop us--and I didn't really know them too well so it really set in on Thursday when we did our weekly planning and found out we had only three investigators in our teaching pool! Nevertheless, I realized there is nothing we can do about it except for press on and measure our success by the number of invitations we extend, the amount of work we put in, the amount of Christlike love and service we have, having the Spirit testify through us, etc. On Saturday, however, we were able to set up three return appointments, so that was exciting. (Maybe we can double or triple or quadruple our teaching pool in the next couple of weeks.)

We had an awesome lesson with a less active woman. Her husband is in the ward council, one daughter on a mission, and the son about to leave for his mission in a month. She has a really tough shell and I think missionaries in the past have been afraid to bring up the gospel with her because she is very sarcastic and can be a little critical. :) And she can read people really well. But somehow the Spirit took over, and she mentioned that she had a really rough upbringing and so I was able to connect with her and really share my testimony of how the gospel has healed my family and the Atonement has worked in me. I know the Spirit in the lesson was really strong, and I definitely felt it working through me. I think the key is always to be sincere. I know we can make a difference with her, even if we don't see it at first.

Our recent convert Joanne also brought up how she doesn't feel she can pay tithing that same evening, which was a little scary, but we just prayed the whole lesson for inspiration. After tithing and the house payment, it would leave her with about $110 a month and she has a young daughter. We just kept promising her blessings and invited her to really try it in faith for a month and just wait for Heavenly Father to pour out blessings. (The church is taking care of food.) So we'll see what happens.

Sister Brook is awesome. She is from Ottawa, Ontario and speaks French! We run into so many French-Canadians out here and I feel like it is because she can really connect with them. She is 20 (two months younger than me) and has gone to two years of university and this is her third transfer. She's 5'2" ish so my first short companion. :) She's studying film design at Carlton and her mom was baptized after she had her third baby (there are five), so her dad isn't a member. She is so good at talking to people!

That's all. We've definitely seen miracles and Shawnee is still going to be baptized! I am pretty sure Judith will too; the Elders over there haven't gotten back to me.

Love you all. Really, I do. :)

Sister Thomson.