Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!

I'm glad to hear everything is going well, and from the sounds of things, you're all really busy. Ha I thought I was tired, but I'm still getting about 8 hours of sleep a night. I wasn't sure how I'd like being on such a set schedule, but I've grown to appreciate it. I'm sure you'd like to try it sometime :)

Well, we had a good week here! We started it out with an exchange, but I ended up staying here for it. Elder Moffett went up to Hudson, and Elder Weston (from Rockland, ID) come down to Seminole with me. He was fun to be with and we got to talk "Idaho" for a little while. Ha Elder Moffett is convinced that it's a different language when I talk to someone from our side of the state because we can always find connections of some sort.

Anyways, while Elder Weston was here we set a baptismal date with Paige! We went over to the Klemm's house for dinner, and afterwards we talked about the things that we've been teaching her. She's still not 100% sure where she wants to go to school, but she decided that May 15 is when she'd like to get baptized. We had kind of set that date in passing last week, but once we brought up the topic of baptism with her this week you could really feel the Spirit. She knows that the church is true, it's just going to be a matter of her taking the leap of faith and going through with it. I'm really praying that she will continue to progress towards the date.

We also taught Mike a couple of times this week. He's still continuing to do really well, and has accepted everything we've taught him. On Wednesday we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he really enjoyed all of it. He said that he's really been experiencing an increased amount of peace and happiness in his life. I really like teaching about faith and repentance, because it's the basis of everything we do. We will always have that opportunity to increase our faith, and repenting is a great way to do that. Mike has really been taking it upon himself to learn more about the church on his own as well, and was asking us about things like CTR and giving blessings. We then had a lesson with him on Friday, and taught about the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, and the law of tithing....otherwise known as the "big three" haha. He already had an idea of what they were before we taught them and has been trying to already implement them into his life. He said that he has stopped drinking wine with his dinner, and is working on not having anymore coffee. He's set on getting baptized on Mother's Day, and he ordered himself a triple combination off the church site. His testimony of the Book of Mormon is growing and he said it feels like it's something that is building each day.

Church was really good yesterday! Mark and Patsy showed up, which we were really excited about. They're the couple I told you about a few weeks ago who had moved down from Indiana. He's a member that hasn't been in a long time, and she was raised baptist and her dad was the minister. Well we saw them on Thursday night, and they promised that they'd be to church on Sunday, and sure enough they came. Patsy has a really strong set of personal beliefs, so I wasn't sure how she would take it, but it turned out well. Sacrament meeting was great and focused on the life and resurrection of Christ. Patsy took notes during all of it, and then invited us over for dinner tonight. She said to be ready for a bunch of questions, so I'm excited to hear what she thought about all of it.

Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you and thanks for the birthday gifts! Speaking of my birthday, it was a lot of fun. Ha it actually didn't feel too much different then a regular day, but Sister Typner (an awesome lady in the ward) got me a cake, and we went to Olive Garden for dinner. So it was definitely a good day.

I love you guys!

Elder Kade Bartschi

Hey, this is a story that was read on Sunday during Sacrament meeting. It was really awesome, and a good one to share.

"DON'T LEAVE IT ON THE DESK"

Kind of long – but an excellent Easter Story

There was a certain Professor of Religion named Dr. Christianson, a studious man who taught at a small college in the western United States . Dr. Christianson taught the required survey course in Christianity at this particular institution. Every student was required to take this course their freshman year, regardless of his or her major.

Although Dr. Christianson tried hard to communicate the essence of the gospel in his class, he found that most of his students looked upon the course as nothing but required drudgery. Despite his best efforts, most students refused to take Christianity seriously.

This year, Dr. Christianson had a special student named Steve. Steve was only a freshman, but was studying with the intent of going onto seminary for the ministry. Steve was popular, he was well liked, and he was an imposing physical specimen. He was now the starting center on the school football team, and was the best student in the professor's class.

One day, Dr. Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. "How many push-ups can you do?" Steve said, "I do about 200 every night." "200? That's pretty good, Steve," Dr. Christianson said. "Do you think you could do 300?" Steve replied, "I don't know.... I've never done 300 at a time" "Do you think you could?" again asked Dr. Christianson. "Well, I can try," said Steve. "Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project in mind and I need you to do about 300 push-ups in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it," said the professor. Steve said, "Well... I think I can...yeah, I can do it." Dr. Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday.. Let me explain what I have in mind."

Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, the professor pulled out a big box of donuts. No, these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone was pretty excited it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in Dr. Christianson's class. Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want to have one of these donuts?" Cynthia said, "Yes." Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?" "Sure!" Steve jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk. Dr. Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk.

Dr. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked,"Joe, do you want a donut?" Joe said, "Yes."Dr. Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?" Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle, Steve did ten push-ups for every person before they got their donut.

Walking down the second aisle, Dr. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team,and in as good condition as Steve. He was very popular and never lacking for female companionship. When the professor asked, "Scott do you want a donut?" Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own push-ups?" Dr. Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them." Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then." Dr. Christianson shrugged and then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"

With perfect obedience Steve started to do ten push-ups. Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!" Dr. Christianson said, "Look! This is my classroom, my class, my desks, and these are my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And he put a donut on Scott's desk.

Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow. Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Now the students were beginning to get a little angry.Dr. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?" Sternly, Jenny said, "No." Then Dr. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten more push-ups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?" Steve did ten....Jenny got a donut.

By now, a growing sense of uneasiness filled the room. The students were beginning to say, "No!" and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks. Steve also had to really put forth a lot of extra effort to get these push-ups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.

Dr. Christianson asked Robert, who was the most vocal unbeliever in the class, to watch Steve do each push up to make sure he did the full ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. He sent Robert over to where Steve was so Robert count the set and watch Steve closely.

Dr. Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students from other classes had wandered in and sat down on the steps along the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. When the professor realized this, he did a quick count and saw that now there were 34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it. Dr. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next. Near the end of that row,

Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set.

Steve asked Dr. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?" Dr. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your push-ups. You are in charge now. You can do them any way that you want." And Dr. Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student, came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled in one voice, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!" Jason didn't know what was going on. Steve picked up his head and said, "No, let him come." Professor Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten push-ups for him?" Steve said, "Yes, let him come in. Give him a donut." Dr. Christianson said, "Okay, Steve, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now.Jason, do you want a donut?" Jason, new to the room, hardly knew what was going on. "Yes," he said, "give me a donut." "Steve, will you do ten push-ups so that Jason can have a donut?" Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down.

Dr Christianson finished the fourth row, and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time sweat was profusely dropping off of his face, there was no sound except his heavy breathing; there was not a dry eye in the room.

The very last two students in the room were two young women, both cheerleaders, and very popular. Dr. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?" Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you." Professor Christianson quietly asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?" Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda. Then Dr. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a donut?" Susan, with tears flowing down her face, began to cry. "Dr. Christianson, why can't I help him?" Dr Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, Steve has to do it alone; I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut whether they want it or not. When I decided to have a party this last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Steve here is the only student with a perfect grade. Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push-ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push-ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes." "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a donut?"

As Steve very slowly finished his last push-up, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 push-ups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor. Dr. Christianson turned to the room and said, "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross, plead to the Father, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' With the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him, He yielded up His life. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk, uneaten. "

Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted, but wearing a thin smile."Well done, good and faithful servant," said the professor, adding, "Not all sermons are

preached in words." Turning to his class, the professor said, "My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not His Only Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, for the whole Church, now and forever. Whether or not we choose to accept His gift to us, the price has been paid.""Wouldn't you be foolish and ungrateful to leave it lying on the desk?"

Happy Birthday Whit!!

Happy Birthday Whit!

Ha I feel like I've been writing "happy birthday" pretty frequently. Britt, Braydy, Dad, Whit, and I seem to fall right in a row. I'm glad you were able to spend it in Reno though! That tournament is a blast to go to, and it's pretty handy being able to celebrate birthdays there.

Well we've had an awesome week here! Most of that is due to working with Mike. It's crazy to think of how quickly things can progress and change in a week. We had two lessons with Mike this week, and the first one was on Tuesday. Since the first lesson we had with him with a little jumbled, we thought it would be best to go back over some of the things we had taught. So we recapped some principles and then watched "The Restoration". Well about five minutes into it the disc started stalling and skipping pretty badly. Fortunately, we had another copy and so we stuck that one in. About ten minutes into this one we realized it was the DVD player that was ruined, not the disc. I just kept praying the entire time that "I don't care if it skips at this part, but PLEASE don't let it skip during the First Vision". Of course, everything went fine until the first vision. Haha at that point the player absolutely freaked out. Miraculously the subtitles kicked on so you could at least read what was happening.

Mike was still really nice after the lesson and when we asked him about Joseph Smith, he told us "well I don't see why it couldn't happen". We challenged him to ready 3 Nephi 11 and he said he'd do it. Also we scheduled another lesson for Thursday of the same week. This time we taught the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. The longer Elder Moffett and I are together the smoother our teaching goes. E. Moffett also has a cool visual for this lesson that really helps things. Now Mike is really easy to read when he's confused because he'll squint his eyes and furrow his eyebrows. So when he does that we continue to teach and explain until that look goes away haha. It's a pretty fool-proof method. Anyways, the Spirit was really strong during the lesson especially when we were testifying of the atonement. Mike is really motivated to change his life around and this is exactly what he's looking for. At the end of the lesson we asked him what he's been feeling and thinking when he reads the Book of Mormon and when we teach. He expressed that he feels a peace and calm that he's never had so consistently before in his life. We knew then to ask him if he would be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? He thought for a second and then said with a smile that he'd like that. We set the date for May 1st. Following that he told us that he had to reset his password at work this week....can you guess what he set it to? "Heavenly Father Confirm the Book of Mormon". I'm telling ya, at that point I got goosebumps and knew that he was somebody that had been prepared to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. This Sunday was Stake Conference which was pretty cool. I've served in 3 of the 6 wards (Gulfport, Palm Harbor, and Seminole) in the stake so I saw a lot of people that I knew. It was really cool to see a lot of the people that I've been able to visit with and get to know. Mike came on Sunday and asked us if it would be possible to move his date. His wife isn't interested at all in learning about the church, but she'll be out of town that weekend and he'd really like for her to be there for it. We asked him when would be better and he said he'd like for it to be on Mother's Day. The priesthood in the ward is singing a song for the women then and he said that he wants his wife to be there for that as well. From the sounds of things that will work out perfectly.

We have a lesson tonight with Paige, and hopefully we'll be setting a date with her as well. She's decided on a college, St. Leo's in Zephyr Hills, and so hopefully with that not stressing her out she'll be ready to think about this. We're praying that it work out.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all you do, and I'll keep you posted on everything happening here!

Love you guys!

Elder Kade Bartschi

President’s Letter

18 April 2011

Dear Sisters and Elders,

It is a privilege to be under call from a prophet to serve in this day. I love being immersed with you in this greatest of all causes at the greatest time in our earth’s history. I pray that you will always remember who we are serving, why we are serving and how we must serve.

God is a God of promises. Some come in our Patriarchal blessings, some are written in the scriptures and some are written in our hearts. Some we don’t even know yet. Every promise and every dream that is right will be yours if you consecrate and sacrifice your time, talents and hearts in this ministry. For the sake of the work and for those you serve, don’t waste time. We need to have a sense of pace and urgency in our work. I hope you are enjoying your reading of the Book of Mormon and looking for His promises to us. Many of you have shared some of those promises with me:

If you keep the commandments, you will prosper in the land.

His arms are stretched out still

If you hold on to the rod of iron, you will be protected from the fiery darts of the adversary.

During this Easter season, it is particularly nice to read the promises of the prophets when they teach of our Savior. ‘all those who have hearkened unto their words (prophets) and believed that the Lord would redeem his people...For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions…. Behold the bands of death will be broken…..he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead ….for all those what have believed in their (prophets) words, or all those that have kept the commandments….

I bear testimony that He will keep His promises for God can not lie. I know that He is the living Christ and we can grow closer to Him through our study of the Book of Mormon.

“Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows….He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities…and with His stripes we are healed. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in his bosom. The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.

The words which praise Him anciently continue to praise Him today. I testify now that He will continue to pour out His spirit upon each of you who fully embrace the culture of our mission and this cause- to find, teach and baptize. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your labor. Thank you for your love. Thank you for remembering. I love you.

President Summerhays

Emailing Again?!

Hey Family!

So it feels like I was just emailing to you. Time keeps picking up out here, and it's hard to believe that it's already Monday again. I'm glad things are going well back home though! Haha I'm pretty excited about the addition to the family farm: Blizzard. Hopefully it goes better then our geese idea. Also, thanks for the pictures! I love seeing everybody.

We had a good week here in Seminole. We had a lesson wit

h Mike, the guy who called us last week and attended a session of conference. He's probably in his 60's and is a HUGE Glen Beck fan. Haha that's how he heard about the church and decided to look us up. He's from Texas, so he has the accent, and has the tough cowboy exterior to him. We had our lesson over at the church, and so we gave him a quick tour of it. He was impressed, and when we sat down to have the lesson he asked some pretty straightforward questions. He wanted to know about tithing, the "rules" that our church follows, and how he could become a member of our church. Haha it was pretty awesome. It was definitely one of the more disorganized lessons that I've ever been apart of, but you could still feel the Spirit. I think the order went something like this: Tithing, Word of Wisdom, Restoration of the Gospel, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc. We jumped around a lot in order to answer his questions, but he wa

s really sincere in what he was asking. When we taught about the Book of Mormon he really soaked it in. He promised that he would take Moroni's challenge to heart and read and pray about it. One of the ward members, Brother Beckman, was there for the lesson and did a great job of befriending him. Mike came to church on Sunday, and immediately Bro. Beckman came and grabbed him and had him sit next to his family. There were some really awkward experiences though....ha I've never been so sensitive about what people say in my entire life. When we went into gospel principles and Mike introduced himself, our ward mission leader says "Oh, Mike! We were talking about you this morning in our meetings before church. Glad you're here!". He definitely meant well, but Mike was a little thrown off. Ha but overall it was good. We set up another time to meet with him this week, and we'll let you know how it goes.

We had a hard time making contact with many of our other investigators this week though. Paige was really busy with work and school, but we got to talk to her at church. It feels like we're entering "now or never" mode with her. The member family that she's living with is having their son move back in next month, which means Paige is going to have to move out. It's a really big bummer, and we're hoping that she is able to take the step of baptism before then. Having the gift of the Holy Ghost will benefit her life more then she knows right now. She's facing a lot of life decisions right now and it's really hard on her. It's crazy for me to imagine doing that without the support system of my family and the gospel. We're praying hard for her, and know that the Lord has a plan and it will all work out in His time. Tony has totally dropped out of contact. We've called and left notes at his house, but we haven't heard anything back yet. Polly is kind of a work in process. She feels the Spirit and recognizes it at church meetings and when we talk about the gospel, but she isn't taking any steps to progress yet. We'll keep working with her though.

We had a pretty funny experience yesterday though...we were out visiting some less active members of the ward, and stopped by a lady's home. She was there and we ended up talking for about an hour. It was a good visit and she was glad we had stopped by. When we were walking back out to out car, I noticed something white and curly in our back window...haha I look closer and see that a little white dog was hanging out in our car. Haha were laughing really hard about it, and neither of us see how it could have climbed in. I never even saw it when we pulled up, but I guess he snuck right in. I'll attach some pictures of it ha.

Well I hope you all have a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Kade Bartschi

The first picture is of a frog that we found one night as we got back to our complex. Elder Moffet was trying to catch it, and it ended up jumping on me and climbed up my pants haha

This is our stowaway dog :)

Oh and the "light saber" picture is for Braydn. Ha she always wants me to do the "cool missionary pictures".

President’s Letter

Dear Sisters and Elders,

I have had some remarkable experiences in interviews this past week. The testimonies you shared were filled with Spirit and Power. I loved hearin

g about your experiences in reading Preach My Gospel. Thank you for your diligence in carrying out this assignment. Those of you who were obedient in completing this reading will be blessed with the fulfilling of the promises found therein.

The Doctrine and Covenants emphasizes that the first assignment from the Lord to Joseph Smith was the translation of the Book of Mormon. All other work he was to accomplish was dependant on his fulfilling this assignment. D&C 5:4

After losing the 116 pages of manuscript, Joseph’s power to translate was taken away for a small season. When that power was restored, Joseph began the translation once again starting on April 7^th and finishing the translation on June 30^th. Joseph felt an urgency to complete this assignment for the Lord. As a mission, we are reading the Book of Mormon within this time frame, underlining the REquirements in red and the BLessings in blue. These are the promises within the Book of Mormon. As you are obedient to this assignment, you will witness that God is a God of promises and that they apply to us. There will be many that will touch your hearts individually, for your investigators, your ward members and for your families. You will feel the power of this ‘book of books’, the ‘most correct book on the earth today’. It will change your life as you ponder, pray and ask with real intent about how these promises work in your life. This reading will help clarify the Gospel of Jesus Christ and lessen the confusion and dissension about what is true. It will instruct us in what we need to know, and how to use these scriptures to build up the church.

As you read the Book of Mormon at this time, try to feel the increased strength Joseph felt on a daily basis with each word of translation. I pray that it will once again strengthen and solidify your testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ, and strengthen your resolve to open your mouth and share this message with those you come in contact with as you work effectively all day every day. Remember This to remember Him. Feel Joseph’s urgency!

Have a great week of finding and teaching. May you feel of God’s joy. I love you and believe in you. I really do!

Love,

President Summerhays

President Summerhays Letter

April 4, 2011

President’s Letter

Dear Sisters and Elders,

General Conference is always so edifying. Like most of you, my love for President Monson increased and I again received the sweet witness of his prophetic mantle. I also received witness of the enormous privilege of our missionary service in this specific time . I felt so grateful to be serving with you. I love you.

Conference began with the choir singing, “Glory to God on High”. We need to remember that is really why we are here-to bring glory to God on high by bringing souls to Christ. Christ came to the earth to obey the Father and to bring Him the glory and allowing us to return. The opening prayer included the plea that we would be able to apply what we would learn in conference.

I was inspired by the humility of Elder Holland as he reminded us of the responsibilities of the General Authorities to teach us in our diversity. They go forth in their callings, not of their own strength, but in the Strength of the Lord. Therefore they go forth in peace, confidence and happiness. I have witnessed that many of you are doing that as well.

Elder Ballard confirmed that we as a mission are on the right course. He said that as our members are filled with the love of Christ, they will want to work with the missionaries. Missionary work requires the help of every member. Missionaries cannot do it alone.

Elder Walter Gonzalez (who is the General Authority for our region) pleaded for those who were once among us to please come back. We have been doing that too. His promises will be fulfilled as we make and keep sacred covenants.

Elder Bednar gave the church members magnificent promises related to receiving personal revelation as he compared the light of a light switch to the light of the rising sun. Our ability to humbly receive revelation in faith will largely determine our ability to see miracles in this work.

We can do so much more as we plead in faith and go forth “in the strength of the Lord.” We can do so much more than we could otherwise. We must all strive with all our hearts to tap into this power. Faith includes confidence in the mission and power of the Holy Ghost. Through faith you receive answers to your prayer and personal revelation to guide you in the Lord’s work.… (PMG p 117)

I have never felt more confident in you and in this work.

Much was said about God’s promises to us. Elder Carl B. Pratt reminded us that the Lord remembers and fulfills all of His promises based on our obedience to the commandments. Cecil Samuelson said that those who pay the price will receive God’s promises. Elder Nelson reminded us that ‘angels are round about us to bear us up’.

Joseph translated the plates from April 7 to June 30. It will be our goal to read it in that time.

As we read the Book of Mormon we will be specifically looking for His promises. (look for more information from your Zone Leaders at ZDM). I witness to you that God is a God of promises and pray that as you see His promises in the Book of Mormon, and if needed, may you insert them into your daily missionary life. The promise is sure-if you can do that here on your mission you can do it for the rest of your lives.

I want to add my testimony. I feel such an overwhelming love for my Savior, Jesus Christ after hearing so many witnesses of Him from His special witnesses. I love you and I believe in you.

President Summerhays

General Conference Week

Hey family!

That's awesome that you've been in California this weekend. Ha I'd rather have the desert heat then the tropic anyday. But I hear Florida beaches are hard to beat, so we'll have to compare the two someday haha.

So it's been a pretty good week here. Some parts of it felt really slow, but I guess that's bound to happen every now and again. We had some crazy weather this week, which didn't help too much. I'm not sure if you heard, but on Thursday we had a really out of season storm. They had 70 mph winds, along with a ton of rain, and then tornado warnings to top it all off. We ended up having to stay inside almost all of Thursday becasue of that, but a tornado actually did touch down about five miles from our apartment. It was awesome to see all of that from the indoors though. Haha I went out on our back patio and took a video during some of it and I'll have to send it to you. Anyways, on Friday we had a zone leader meeting and so we went down to Sarasota for it. They asked Elder Moffett and I to sing during it, so we did Lord, I Would Follow Thee. It turned out well, and the training we got that day was great. We're focusing a lot on accountability in the mission and I think it'll bring good results. We seem to set goals sometimes that we forget about 10 minutes after we set them, so this way we'll be keeping them at the forefront of our work.

Conference this weekend was amazing! Hearing their council for us is an awesome experience because it always seems personalized. We've been promising our investigators this week that if they watch conference with a question in mind it'll be answered. On Saturday during the morning session we got a call from a number we didn't recognize. It was during one of the songs so we slipped out to answer. It turns out that this guy, Mike, had been on the mormon.org website and was curious about learning more. We explained that this weekend is a little bit different and we'd be hearing from the prophet and leaders of our church. He was excited about that and said he'd be there on Sunday morning. Well on Sunday morning we got to the church early to meet with Paige. She's really hard to get ahold of at times, so we were excited about the chance to. We started off the lesson talking about tithing, and then like so many of our lessons lately it turned right to baptism. She kept expressing the concern that she wasn't ready. Paige is really afriad of the chance that she'll fall away from the church if she joins and then goes to a college without many members. She has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, so we know that she's ready. After trying to help her understand that we had to bring the lesson to a close, and asked her to pay special attention to the talks today and see if she gets her answer. Well President Uchtdorf was the first speaker, and his talk was handsdown written for her (and I'm sure others in the same situation). Waiting on the Road to Damascus was his topic, and he mentioned the "investigator waiting at the waters of baptism". I couldn't believe how well it was answered. After the session we talked to her, hoping she recognized what she'd heard. Sure enough, she know that her concerns had been addressed. We also found out that she applied to BYU-I and has been accepted! Haha I'm pretty sure that if she goes there she'll be held on the path. I'll keep ya posted though. Also, Mike did show up to the Sunday morning session as well. He's a really nice guy and he enjoyed what he heard. We have a lesson set up with him on Tuesday to teach him more about the church. Polly also attended that session of conference. I don't know if I've mentioned her before, but the missionaries started teaching here about a year ago but she wasn't making much progress and ended up getting dropped, but we've started working with her again and she really seems to be picking it up. Hopefully that continues.

Other then that, things are moving along. We haven't heard from Tony in a little while, so we're still trying to figure out what's going on there. Also we talked to Mark and Patsy this week and they're doing well. They were supposed to come to the afternoon session yesterday but didn't end up making it. We'll be checking up on them this week so I'll keep you posted.

Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kade Bartschi