Reynoldsburg

Wow it sounds like you had a really full week!! I happy to hear that you are all doing good though you have a lot that you are doing. Happy Late Birthday Emma and Jackie. I wish that I could have been there to spend those days with you. Well the weather here is extremely unpredictable. It has been raining a lot and one day was surprisingly cold. For the most part however it has been very humid which has made the 60 some odd degrees really nasty. I still am happy that its warm and not really cold. I say that now but by the end of this summer I will be looking forward to the cold.

  

We were able to meet with Jacob and he is still wanting to join the church, he has been reading the Bible and Book of Mormon. He even has been taking steps to stop smoking all on his own. It was kind of a weird visit, but if he still wants to be baptized we will help him along the way, if we can meet with him regularly. He said he wanted to come to church this Sunday but didn't answer the door. So we are extremely confused by him and his actions.

We have also had some cool contacting experiences. We were stopped by someone who was driving by in a car and asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We told him we were Mormon's and he said that he was interested in talking to us and wanted to learn more about what we believed. He also told us that he already had a Book of Mormon and had read a little of it and said that he couldn't see a difference between it and the Bible. That was funny. We then were knocking on doors near a members house and we ran into a man named Anthony. He also asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We told him we were not and he then continued to ask us if we talked about Jesus. We said that we did. He then began to say that we were in fact Witnesses of Jehovah. He was a really cool guy and said we could come back. I love the black people here because they actually want to talk to us about religion.

I really liked the story that you shared from the New Era and the experience that Jacob had. We have to stand up for what we believe no matter the opposition is. If we do the blessing we will receive will be great and we will know through the Holy Ghost that what we believe is true. When someone rants to you and attacks your beliefs just remember that the only reason they hate our religion is because its true and it teaches change and people don't like change. One scripture that has been sticking out to me lately is the one in Nephi when he says that they people will say, a Bible, a Bible we have a Bible and we need no more (that's not word for word but its close). I have have been told many times on my mission that the Book of Mormon is not true. One man took the time to tell me that the Book of Mormon was of the devil and was not worth toilet paper. That all we needed was the new testament. Funny enough he was foaming from the mouth. All that did was make me believe more.

I hope that you all are looking for missionary experiences, and that you have good encounters with people. It truly is great way to strengthen your own testimony and it also gives the person you talked to a chance to hear the restored gospel of our Heavenly Father. I love our Heavenly Father and I know that he wants us to be happy. I know that what I go out and share with people everyday is true and that it can and will bring them closer to God, because I have seen it in my life and in the lives of others. All we need to have is faith, because through our faith we can have an even stronger witness if we endure to the end. I love you all.

Love Elder Young