The Lords Work

Dear Family,

Well this has been one amazing week. Sorry I'm writing today instead of Monday, due to the holiday on Monday the library was closed. This past week has been the week without a car. It has been rough sometimes because we're stuck out in Montara. Well anyways we had zone conference this week. We thought it was Friday, but it really was Thursday... We found out Thursday morning and had to book it over to the church and made it there thanks to a ride from a member. We made it there only about 5 minutes late. It was a pretty hectic morning but zone conference was amazing. We learned a lot about the "golden nuggets" we can find in Preach My Gospel. Many of the speakers emphasized being obedient even to the little things. This was a real reinforcement to following the rules. So we have been struggling trying to get investigators to come to church, and Jeanie is moving soon. So this week we have been praying to find new investigators, and to get them to come to church. That is even what i fasted for on Sunday. Well Sunday rolls around and no new investigators... we got to church everything was the same, no investigators. We sat down and sacrament started and about 5 minutes later a man from another ward that meets after us comes and calls us out to the foyer. We go out to the foyer and there is a woman there we have never met. She says "hi, my name is Marvella, and i want to join your church...!" i was shocked. I knew the Lord answers prayers, but this was huge. She had a relative marry a member of the Church 12 years ago, and met their family. They were so nice to her, and great people. She told herself if she ever joined a church it would be ours. Marvella then proceeded to come to sacrament meeting with us, came to our gospel principles class, and went to Relief Society. During our gospel principles class we talked about Faith in Jesus Christ. She loved it. We talked to her after all the meetings and set up to meet with her that Tuesday(yesterday). We even committed her to a baptismal date. I was the one who committed her, and was relieved when she accepted. My heart was racing after it happened. The Lord truly answered our prayers.

So yesterday (Tuesday) we had the real first lesson with her. She had taken home the gospel principles book, and the Book of Mormon from church on Sunday. We started talking to her about what she had read. She said she had read about 15 pages of the Book of Mormon. That was pretty good, but then she picked up the Gospel Principles Manual and said "i was able to read all of this..." The Gospel Principles manual basically covers everything we believe as a Church. She said it all made sense to her and she really liked it. The doctrine felt right. She is going to read more out of the Book of Mormon now and pray about it. We taught the first lesson, and i recited the first vision from memory, and started to get a little teary eyed. The spirit hit me so strong of the truthfulness of the First Vision. We wanted to talk to her a little about the Word of Wisdom to end with because investigators have to live it for 2 weeks before their baptism. We brought it up and she said "oh you don't need to worry about me, I don't do any of that nicotine, cigarettes, coffee, tea, i don't even drink caffeine." Once again i was amazed. She was so ready to receive the gospel, and the Lord had prepared her to. The spirit was leading the whole time. It has been a testimony builder that Heavenly Father prepares people to receive the gospel. He leads His work. This truly is his Church here on the earth today. I know that the words may be coming out of my mouth, but i am not the true teacher. That the spirit teaches what they need to know. There are ups and downs out here, but that is life. We push through and try to spend every day working harder, and being better through our Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all, and hope the best for you.

Love, Elder Daniel Shurtz