September 22

Mom,

Nope, unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the temple dedication. I'm not sure if it was being broadcast all the way down here, I didn't hear about it at all in Blanding either. However, on Saturday we went into someone's house on the reservation and they had KSL playing and it was showing some stuff from the afternoon cultural celebration and I saw it real quick and said, "Hey! My little sister is in that!" That's such a cool experience for Aimee to be able to do that. I just told Elder V that the Calins are from Woodstock and his house is right on the boarder of Acworth and Woodstock! But they probably have never heard of each other because there are tons of people who live in the area.

I'm glad that Brother Judd was able to get that to you! It was so convenient for him to take all that stuff home! I almost forgot to put the SD card in the box then I remembered that I had been meaning to send that home.

This week has been a pretty good week. We went on exchanges with the assistants to the president and they are such good guys. Elder Harward is one of them and he and I were actually in the Business Scholars program together back at the U which is pretty funny, but we never really talked to each other much at the time.

Lots of miracles have happened as always. Truly, we see miracles every day as missionaries but a lot of them are pretty similar and they are hard to discuss over email. We taught a less active guy who lives in the area who has been attending another Christian church about how to discover which church is the right church and we taught him very powerfully and with a ton of unity as missionaries. It is so cool because Elder Vicznesky and myself are able to teach so clearly and distinctly by the spirit when we go to lessons, it's unreal to me. We were just talking after we taught that less active guy about how each of us said the things the other person was thinking and we were extremely bold with him but in a very loving way while respecting his agency. It was a lesson in watching the Spirit touch someone's heart and what happens when they turn from it. We saw it touch the heart of the man we were teaching and he was lighting up slowly and then we asked him a question and he pondered it for a moment and we could see as he decided to ignore the gentle whisperings of the Spirit because his countenance darkened. I am so glad I have learned how to go and teach by the Spirit as a missionary because I know that this will help me for the rest of my life as I serve the Lord as a home teacher and as I seek for opportunities to share the gospel in casual conversation with those around me. As well I am trying to learn more about the principle of councils and how to both preside over a council and how to participate in a council because I feel as if learning how to council about things by the Spirit is the key to having a successful marriage, family, and succeeding in a church calling.

There is a less active lady we have been teaching named Doris who is a lady of great faith. It was amazing, she was in Cortez a while ago and as she was walking she was hit by a car in the parking lot and it ran her over but she was safe and protected and she attributed it to the fact that she had the copy of the Book of Mormon which we had given her just a few weeks ago. It is amazing to be able to work among the Navajo because no one has as much faith as they do, and it was a testimony to me of the power of the Book of Mormon!

We met a new lady named Tiffany and we set a baptismal date with her for November 8th! She is such an awesome lady and she has been keeping her commitments to read and to pray and she said that she has talked about baptism with her husband and she feels like it is the right step, so we are super excited!

Awesome news for us as missionaries, we are going to be getting iPads by the end of the year! We should be getting more info next week so I'll have the info to tell you two weeks from now. Crazy! And we are going to be able to watch the new Meet the Mormons movie before it comes out in our zone conference a week from Thursday!!!

Life is good, being a missionary is awesome, I love the gospel. 

Love,
Elder Schaelling