The week before Thanksgiving . . .

We had district meetings this morning with the other missionaries this morning. It feels so good to feel of their spirits and testimony. We love to be with them and they show a great deal of respect for us. We went out to a Mexican restaurant here afterward. The Mexican food here seems to be more authentic here, at least it doesn't seem to have so much bad stuff.

The focus this transfer is teaching with the Book of Mormon. It is a good transfer and we love to teach with the Book of Mormon and do it continually. They have tried to give us different ideas of how to use it. The Book of Mormon has a spirit that no other book has. It shouts it's truth, (through the spirit,) loud and clear. It contains the answers to every question.

An up date with Judith. She was our media that we took Sister Stringer with us for. After we had the lesson on the plan of salvation, we visited. Judith found out that Sister Stringer is having an MRI on her knee from an injury. So Judith walks over to us and says to Elder Whiting, "Put your hand on her knee. Then she knelt down and placed her hands on her knee and is doing the healing thing that she has seen on tv. It was kind of unreal. Sister Stringer told us later that it was the second time that day she had people try to heal her. She just joked it off.

We were a little bit discouraged about it because Judith is so hung up on these tv shows, which are big down here. It's going to be difficult to teach her about the Priesthood and that these tv shows are not the real stuff. I did talk to Judith tonight and she asked about Sis. Stringer. I told her I didn't know how the MRI went. This is true. We will see how everything goes. She is a sweet lady, but hard to get thru to.

Alyssa. Alyssa did her camping thing and came to church on Sunday. She does not seem to trust the spirit. Or rather, should I say she listens pretty hard to the voices in her family who are her only support. They are pretty anti Mormon and will definitely not support her. She may not want to be baptized until she moves away from home to go to school, if at all. The Holy Ghost has witnessed it to her, but she does not trust her feelings.

Bill and Michelle. Bill still has a baptism date for Dec. 6. His friend is leaving tomorrow. Michelle has started a new job and is working on Sundays. Now we are reteaching her the commandments, etc. We keep in close contact with them, and they are relying on us pretty heavy. Michelle says it is the first time in 25 years that she has begun to realize that she needs to do things right and go to church on Sunday, etc. Things are pretty dysfunctional and a lot of it is due to their relationship.

Our Family Relations Class is going well. We are enjoying it and we have about 5-6 couples in the class. They are really good to participate and seem enthusiastic about the class. So even though we are not able to do the things we want to do, we feel like we are serving a different type of purpose here.

We were finally able to get back with Efrin this week also. They have a 6 week old baby and have not had him out yetm and would not let us come visit because they were afraid of germs. At least we know that was part of the reason.

It has been really cold here this week, down in the low 40's. People laugh at us because we wear coats, but at least we're comfortable.

Pres. Smith would not commit, last week, about what he is going to do with us. He said he wouldn't know until he prayed. He was rather allusive. We will just do what the Lord wants us to do. Although we are somewhat disappointed, we know that the Lord knows best what he needs us to do and we will do that. We will trust him.

We are trying to figure out things that we can do to keep busy during Christmas, when everyone is so busy, to serve others and help.