Tired!

Dad Oct 26, 2009

I feel horrible because I have been having the hardest time getting time to write you all. I think I'm just going to start sending tapes home.
Well this week has been another crazy one with all that has been going on. There have been a lot of things that have needed my attention and focus and it has really drained me and things won't slow down until I leave Fort Smith.
This past week I have been studying a lot of the New Testament and the parables that Christ taught. I have really learned a lot as I have read and pondered about the parable of the pounds and talents. It has really taught me a lot about stewardships and how it is the Lord expects us to handle things. Along with that I have learned a great deal about the priesthood and the family. Last Sunday the priesthood lesson was on families and relationships and it has raised a lot of thoughts and questions and all this week I have been reading and learning more and more about it.
So this past week I have really been able to see a lot of miracles and blessings. Just yesterday we ate with the Houston's and taught a wonderful lesson about levels of faith and had a demonstration using tea bags. The kids loved it! And what made the lesson even better was the fact that the Houston's had their neighbors over who wanted to learn more about the gospel. We didn't get to teach them about the restoration of the priesthood, or prophets, because we had twelve kids to entertain, but the lesson really helped the Claimsor's see how the Bible and Book of Mormon teach the same thing. We went from the New Testament to the Book of Mormon and used several scriptures to show and illustrate how they are both the word of God. I called and talked to Sister Houston today and we talked about something's that we can do to help teach and get this family involved in church and the whole time it was a very spiritual experience. I have always had the motto that the Lord knows who he wants in his church and this family will be joining the church very soon.
My favorite things to do now it to "stitch" the Book of Mormon and the Bible together during lessons to teach that they are the same word; I have seen time after time people change as we have made this apart of how we teach. I can give you several examples of times where people have come to the knowledge of the Book of Mormon being true during lessons while we are teaching. It seems like everyone we are teaching right now has had a witness and now what we have to do is help them with their commitment issues.
Bre S. is one of the fastest progressing people I have ever taught, it has really been a joy teaching here because in every lesson the words are given to us all to speak. She is going to be baptized the fifth of November and she has already read the book of Mormon twice in the past two days! For the past few days she texts us and asks us questions and we call her up and answer them for her. She is going to be playing basketball with us today along with some other recent converts and friends.
I promise that after this transfer I will be freer on preparation days to write more. I have tried finding better ways of doing missionary work rather then trackting and basketball has really been the key to all that is going on here. The only part of the congregation that it really strong here is the youth and with basketball we are really making it stronger. We have several less active kids showing up and other investigators coming and its amazing at how successful we have been at having basketball every Monday.
Well that's all for this week, I love you family!

Love
Elder Kelly Conrad

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