Elder Henry Feb 6, 2012

Dearest Mother,
     Way exciting about the new bishopric.  They will all do a fantastic job, and yeah totally makes sense for Brother Lowe to get called to be the new bishop.  Brother Marrott and Brother Morgan will do great things for the ward I'm sure as well.  It will be very strange though to come home to a new bishop.  I'm so used to seeing Bishop Mansius on the stand that I'll probably be confused for the first couple weeks I'm home (of course that may be because I won't be able to speak any English either :P).  I hope Bishop Mansius will be able to fulfill his dream of serving a couples mission.  I can't wait for him to be able to serve around the missionaries and bless their lives with his service, he's done such great things for the ward and I absolutely love him :).  
     Thank you so much to Sister Latta for the quit smoking information.  I'll be sure to check it out and hopefully it will help my investigators out :).  I'm really excited for the packages.  I'll try my best to send everyone thank you notes, but let them know how much I appreciate the packages in advance.  They make a missionary's week ^^
     I'm running out of time so I better cut to the chase.  Elder Dixon and I are getting along great.  He's pretty stereotypical Missouri Boy, a bit of a southern drawl in his speech, loves everything football, kinda gruff guy, strong, and hard working.  I love him to bits, and even mentioned to President Bubert that I don't want him to leave!  His visa for New Zealand could come any day.  He's a really hard worker, and very friendly.  He can start up a conversation with anyone, very outgoing, and we have had so much success because of what he brings to this companionship.  I honestly couldn't ask for a better companion.  
     Steve R. is still struggling with his smoking, but we are working hard, talking with him 1-2 times a day, and bringing members to help support him.  He loves church, and his kids love it to.  His wife would come, but is waiting for Steve to quit smoking before she really commits to coming to church.  We dropped in the middle of her birthday party this last Thursday, and had a designer baker cake.  Like something that comes from cake boss type cake.  It was AWESOME!  He's opened up a lot more about his smoking to us, but he's out of town this week on business.  Hopefully this will help him to break away from the friends at work who are helping him out to smoke.
     Steve H. is about the same.  I'm not quite sure why he doesn't want to be baptized, other than maybe his wife is making such a big deal about it and he doesn't want to be told what to do.  He knows Joseph Smith is a Prophet, and he knows the Book of Mormon is true.  Yet he doesn't feel like he's ready to be baptized.  I don't know what's going to trigger things and make it click in his mind that he needs to be baptized, but I'm sure it will happen.
     We had another lesson with Haig this week and he accepted a baptismal date!  Of course he didn't come to church this week... but I think that was more the fault of the missionaries than his fault.  We didn't explain very well why we wanted him to come to church, and we haven't been able to get any members to the lessons with him, so not a whole lot of incentive to go.  But we do have things lined up for this week, so he should be progressing pretty soon.  He's a great man, and is really in tune with the spirit, we just need to do our part as missionaries to help him progress. 
     We picked up a new investigator named Gaston this week.  We knocked on his door, and he told us,"You know, I've been thinking a lot about Church recently.  I feel like I'm missing something in life and I think it's church".  He's 25 years old, newly married with a 7 month old baby.  He accepted baptism, but didn't set a date.  We have a lesson with him on Wednesday, so I'll have more about him and his wife next week. 
     We also met with a guy yesterday who's a WWII buff ;).  He's a high school teacher, and we met him on the street last Tuesday/Wed.  He was interested in meeting with us because his Mormon students throughout the years have made a real good impression on him.  He wants to know why all his best students are Mormons.  Goes to show you that people notice.  They may not mention anything about it to you, but they notice and they are curious.  I hope Mr. Rast has the same experience with Spencer and I.  I hope one day he's working in his yard with his log splitter and two missionaries walk up and start talking to him, and he says, "You know I had two students named Spencer and Michael, and they made a real impression on me and they were Mormon.  Come back this Sunday and talk with me."
     Not much news with any of our other investigators.  I love you very much, and look forward to your emails every single week :).
Love,
Elder Henry