33rd Email: 16th Week in Morgantown

We had our last interviews with President Pitt this week. He'll be going home before we get another one! :( President and Sister Pitt are incredible, and I love them so much. President has such a great love for all the missionaries here, it's almost unreal. I'm going to miss them.

So, we've got this pretty awesome investigator named 'Bobby'. He came to a baptism this week, and he stayed up late thinking about it that night. We saw him yesterday and asked him how his Book of Mormon reading has been going, and he said it's been going great! He's read the first book of Nephi three times! He said when something stands out to you, you should read it several times because then your understanding gets deeper and deeper. The part that really stood out to him was Lehi's vision of the tree of life. Seven years ago, 'Bobby' had a dream that he was up kind of in the mountains, and he was holding tightly to this rod. An iron rod. There was a bit of cliff in front of him that apparently had something behind it everyone wanted to see. He knew that in order to see what was on the other side he would have to let go of the rod and jump, and he just couldn't do it. He felt so ashamed. Other people around him were letting go of the rod, but he couldn't! Then there was a river of water with a bunch of dead bodies floating in it, just like in Lehi's dream! He realized from reading Lehi's vision that he doesn't need to be ashamed for holding to the rod. He's supposed to hold to the rod! Pretty cool.

Well, we had a lot of appointments fall through this week, but that's okay! We're still going strong! It's easy to get discouraged because we're constantly being told that if we are diligent, obedient, and have faith, we will see success. So when we are doing all those things and don't see success, it's natural to feel as if we must be doing something wrong, or something just isn't right. This morning I was reading in John 15, and Christ talks about how he is the vine and we are the branches. We can't produce fruit without his help. But if we do have his help, he promises that we will have success. "I am the vine, and ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." So where is our fruit? Sister Christensen and I talked about it for a while this morning, and maybe we are bringing forth much fruit, but we just can't see it because we're looking for a different kind of fruit. Maybe we think we should be teaching more lessons, or bringing more people to the waters of baptism, but Heavenly Father just wants us to plant seeds, or strengthen the members, or even just learn things and grow in a way that will help our future families. Whatever the case may be, I trust Heavenly Father. I just hope I'm doing all that I need to be and should be doing. I hope I'm abiding in Christ and he is abiding in me.