From Alec: Hello Saints in Eagle

Hey fam,

so i saw that you used karene's email to write me but i hope this will still be fine.

The work is going great! the area isn't necessarily progressing at the moment but that is because of the holiday weirdness, but we (elder Case & Me) are progressing so the area will soon follow suit.
i'm glad that my room could be of service (Ben & Laurie). man, now i know how Jon felt when i'd get his clothes from his closet! but you can totally use them ben - those flannels are bomb - especially for cold weather. (like...minnesota) oh and elliott has free rein on those little cars (as long as jon is ok) he'll probably enjoy them more than i ever would!

Caitlyn: that was a pretty good joke, i can't say i've heard that one or even one like it - and i'm getting old so that is saying something! ;)
did you get to go to the New Years church dance thing? i remember really liking that - there was just so many people and so much things you could do.

That Baby blessing sounds awesome - we're actually teaching this less-active man who wants to be able to give his baby a blessing, so it is a great motivation as it should be, things like that make us step back and realize there might be more to life than the world might make us think. I know what you mean with that people usually need just a little nudge to do good things - we are all children of God and have the spirit of Christ, so we know what is good, and most people want to do good things - so usually we just need to bring the spirit and show clearly the path for people. it's kindof like that saying in a way too: "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink".

to answer dad's question: we have basically a mix of member finding and our own - but the real good ones that are the best and most effective is when the members help - for a huge number of reasons that you can see if you read PMG. and something that i share with lots of members is (well part of it) D&C 123 (way awesome chapter) but especially the last verse. what i get from that is not that we have to be superman (ha or superwoman for karene, nor wonderwoman;) but we are asked to "cheerfully do all that is in our power". reach out to those we could know better and have faith that the lord will use you as his instrument, not necessarily because you are the best - but because you are there and i know we're where we are on purpose! it's like a talk a general authority gave when i was a kid - that we should be like pocketknives, we're not always the sharpest or biggest tools, but what is important is that we are "handy" that we are always there and ready to do what we can.

to answer another question - we're supposed to teach about 20 lessons a week , and in this area we do about 13 or so (always trying to improve though!) that includes lessons taught to less-actives/investigators/ members. but like i said, always trying to improve. oh and we don't tract. :) in this area we do a little - but my last area we spent like 10 minutes tracting the whole time i was there, and so far we haven't done any here. it is a little pointless in this area - our square mile has been knocked quite a bit already.

well i hope you're all having a good time and a great week, family and relationships are what eternity is all about so definitely enjoy your time together.

it is funny how really we are all like ammon, our strength is weak - and if anything gets done in missionary work it is because of the spirit/us and the investigators themselves. i was talking with elder Case, and we came to the conclusion that the people who take the right steps and listen to us - we don't even really have to do anything! they just are sensitive to the spirit and make amazing choices themselves and also the members help as well. another thing that's been on my mind is how the fruits really set apart those things that are of God. if you really think that the church sends out 19 year old males to teach people, you'd think "that would NEVER work!" and you look at the church organization: you give random everyday blokes church callings in which they are to teach and nurture people spiritually. It would just FALL apart! if you really think about those things. the spirit, and the love and direction of our heavenly father make this all possible, it is so funny how truly dependent we are on him for any of this to happen, but it is on purpose - just like leonidas and his 300 soldiers in the old testament. i just can't help thinking "for in his strength i can do all things"! just like ammon said. another cool thing along those lines is that we were teaching this now-active girl the last lesson and i realized when the closing prayer was being said, that there was Elder Case and Me two 19 year olds, the girl who is 18, the WML who is like 23, and two others like 22-25 (somewhere in there). what would go on in a normal situation of those ages? a party, that's what. but in this situation we were all sitting around joking with each other and teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how he calls prophets to help us.

"ye shall know them by their fruits"

Elder Hoopes