May 14. 2012

Hello All,

This week was a pretty awesome one although I don't have a lot to talk about, especially because I talked to a lot of you last night.

We have picked up a lot of investigators, and have found a lot of potential father led families also. I don't know why, but I get so much more satisfaction teaching a family than a single person. Probably just because families can support each other in the gospel, and a single adult has to rely on the incredibly dysfunctional branch to continue strengthening them. Another reason is that the family is the basic unit of the plan of salvation, and I really want to be the means by which a family gets sealed together before I leave.

We've been working hard, even though it sucks a lot of the time. We did have a zone conference this week centered on chapter one of Preach My Gospel, which is about our purpose as missionaries. I think it is because we've got some really apostate missionaries who really don't work very hard, and the President centered the conference on this in an effort to straighten out some of the missionaries who have strayed. He wasn't harsh or angry, but it was as if the entire mission is getting scolded. On a lighter note, even though Elder Peterson and I have only been companions for 3 weeks, and are both in a new area, our Zone Leaders picked us as the most valuable companionship in the zone which felt pretty awesome. 

Not much has really happened though this week other than our teaching and finding efforts seem to be gradually paying off. We are continually gaining more and more new investigators which takes away from the time that we have to spend contacting which sucks. And that makes me happy. 

Also, one of the area seventies came by and pretty much got mad at our branch for not helping us more and giving us more referrals. It was pretty funny to see.

That's it though. All week I have been just looking forward to calling home, and it was awesome. I'm so glad that I had the chance to talk to all of the people I did. I wish That I couldve talked to more though. I love you all and hope you all have an awesome week and had a very awesome mother's day.

Peace.

Elder Balmforth