From Alec: May 7, 2009

Hello everyone,

We had what was called a Training Blitz on Monday and Tuesday, where we met from 7:30-12:30 at a church building and had trainings and such, then we had a zone leader be a coach (Elder Gomez from south Jordan, UT) with us the rest of the day, giving us feedback. It was great! But because of that our Prep day got pushed to Wednesday, hence the late email. Hey Mom, I am totally fine - all I have is a little cough right now. And I actually didn't have a headache at all in the picture, just a stuffy nose and no voice. But I am fine now, and yes, we will be drinking plenty of water! I am relatively used to hot now, it almost feels good if you do it right (lotsa water and shade whenever you can).

Well things are going well down here - last Friday, Elder Morgan and I felt like there was someone who the Lord wanted us to set a baptism date with before the weekend ended. We met with a kid on Saturday and he is great, and we set a date with him for the 16th of May. He came to our ward for the first time the next day as well!

We have been really trying to meet with J. and R. who come to church almost every Sunday on their own now, they just have all their kids and grandkids living in the same house so it is CRAZY all the time. Thus we cannot meet with them, but we will start tomorrow meeting with them at 2 (when their grandkids nap). Hopefully they can feel the Spirit!

We still haven't been able to meet with T., but we can't blame him as prom was last week, but we really need to set a new date and bring him unto Christ! (by dunking him - hehe; Jon would always say that on his mission.)

We also got a new investigator yesterday, L. We'd talked with her before but she actually called us (got the number from a convert we meet with) and said she wanted to meet with us. She does need a little financial help, but she did seem very sincere about needing guidance as well, and she wants that especially as her two sons will be coming back to live with her, and she wants them to have a good influence.

It is pretty neat because of all of the work that is going on in our area, it seems the Lord is blessing us. My trainer (Elder Howell) was the zone leader here but got moved when I moved here. He saw me at the training blitz and asked how the area was going. I said great and told him about O. He seemed happy because he said that the missionaries before me were really letting the area "die", and were not street contacting people (at all). That really struck me about how much our Heavenly Father blesses our puny best efforts and makes up the difference. He so wants to bless us, and all He asks is that we keep His commandments. And then when we do that, He immediately blesses us! I was just reading in Mosiah 4 - how because of that we will forever be indebted to God. We are "less than the dust of the earth". Keep the prayers up, I can feel them often helping us. D. needs to understand he can progress even if his wife won't, C. needs to get to church and be married so that she and her daughter can be baptized. J. also needs help so that she can have the strength to keep the commandments and feel the blessings and love. Can we do it? No. As Elder Holland said, "We are sent out to save the world, and we cannot do it. But we do know Someone who already has." Love you all and hope you have a great rest of the week!

Elder Hoopes