Hello my family!!

Well this week turned out to be quite awesome, and conference only added to it. We've currently been struggling in this area trying to find some consistent investigators; consequently tracting and I have become close friends. Ha but guess what? It's really been paying off. This week we had not 1, not 2, but 7 NEW investigators! Definitely one of the biggest testimony building weeks for me. At times I've wondered if all the "elect" they talk about have already been found, but apparently the field is still white. Ha so I'll tell you all about it from the beginning.

On Tuesday we were on our way to a lunch appointment when we decided to visit Yvette. Sister Warren is a member of our ward and had told us that she had a friend she'd like us to visit. It was in the middle of the day and we were certain that she wouldn't be home, but we decided that we might as well try. Well she was home, and when she saw that we were "Chris' friends" she invited us right in. She has lived most of her life away from God, and is currently in the process of trying to find ways to learn more about Christ. She's honestly on fire to learn as much as she can about the scriptures, and we were able to watch the Restoration with her. She really enjoyed it and loved that we were "Young men spreading the word of God" haha. When we were leaving we went to shake her hand and she just gave us both big hugs. She told us that she was going to try and watch some of conference online, so we'll be visiting her again this week.

Another amazing visit was with Gina Sastre. She's on some old teaching records from 2005, and so it felt like a far-fetched chance, but we stopped by last week to see if she even lives there. Well she did, surprisingly, and invited us back a couple of days later. We went back over on Thursday, and talk about being blown away! This lady is insanely smart, she lives by herself, took all of the discussions five years ago, has been baptized into just about every christian (and non christian for that matter) church, but couldn't bring herself to take the plunge. She told us all about the missionaries that she had in '05, and she absolutely adored them. Even today she's friends with one of them on Facebook. She told us that she's done so much religious research that she feels spiritually burned out. It's hard for her to make up her mind about any of the religions anymore because she's able to see it from all sides. Haha it was pretty funny talking to her and hearing that. But something that was pretty great was when she told us that "when I talk to you, it feels like there's a light that comes with you. I haven't felt that since the other missionaries were here. I'm not sure if it's your message, or maybe just the training that they put you through, but you definitely have it". For someone so religiously educated, there seems like a simple answer to that confusion...haha so we're going to try and help her find that answer for herself.

Now about two weeks ago we were tracting and ran into Joan. She's in her early 60's and is trying to raise three granchildren, ages 12, 11, and 10. We were talking to her and she told me that she used to cut hair, but her health got bad and so she's been unable to work. Well I told her that I'd need a haircut soon, and she got really excited and gave me her number. In case you're wondering, Yes, I did shamelessly go to her for a haircut in order to have a teaching opportunity with her. But guess what? It paid off! Haha not only did I get a good haircut, but her grand kids ended up loving us! They're all very smart kids and were asking pretty deep questions about religion. They don't currently attend a church, but sounded interested in learning more. After my haircut was done we were probably there for an hour talking about church and fielding questions that they had. When we had to go one of the grandkids (their names are Karys, Kelsey, and Khyser) said "No, I want you guys to stay!" haha music to a missionary's ears. We promised to visit them again this week to pick up some business cards from Joan, and to teach a short lesson. It was a pretty awesome experience.

Conference was the cherry on top of the week. It was great to receive guidance from the leaders of our church. I loved how they stressed the importance of having a prophet and listening and applying his guidance. That's something I'm really going to focus on doing. Have an "attitude of gratitude". Catchy? Yes. Something I can work on? You know it. Ha well my time is about up, so know that I love you all! Thanks so much for all you do, and I'll keep praying for you!

Love you all,

Elder Kade Bartschi