And Then, If Thou Endure It Well

Q. Do you need anything right away? Zach and Denise Harding are coming to Atlanta...

A. Nope..That's awesome we are all meeting in Atlanta with President Harding this week Thursday...it'll be exciting. Looking forward to seeing the Harding's for the first time here.

Q. Have you eaten southern foods yet?

A. Yes I have had alot of fried catfish, fried chicken and alot of Zaxbys (Restaurant like KFC)

Q. Have you met any samoans or poly's?

A. Yeah I've come across a few samoans not in our area though.

Q. What do you do for P-days?

A. P-days I generally clean, email, study (finishing the Book of Mormon today) sleep, and play some sports with the other elders.

Hello Family!!

It's good to hear y'all are doing well. The pictures of the boys look great! Ya'll definitely fit in with the college athletes. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Yes including you, Kelee boi. Continue to work hard, prepare and have faith...fear cannot exist where there is FAITH. Praying for ya'lls success this week.

This past week was a challenging week for Elder Cotton-Betteridge and I as we ran out of car miles for the month with 3 days remaining (due to unexpected trips to the doctor and mission office with Elder Martinez earlier in the month) Our Ward mission leader loaned us some bikes--I'm talkin like old school, 1-gear beach-cruiser bikes to use for the 3 days. Here in Sharpsburg there is not much room for bikes on the road. It has been real crazy at times as cars zoom by. The area is so spread out we only covered about 30 miles of our area...

A lot of the appointments we had fell through, no one was really interested in what we had to say, even got called a few names. ha-ha but there is always lessons to be learned in everything we do. In fact the scriptures teach us that it isn't until after the TRIAL OF OUR FAITH that we receive a WITNESS (Ether 12:6). With that in mind we WERE the HAPPIEST individuals in Sharpsburg, Georgia for those 3 days. I kid you not; so many people stopped and asked why we were so HAPPY despite being in the very hot and humid Georgia heat in church clothes no-less riding beach-cruisers. We thought that was the blessing our Heavenly Father had in store for us but boy were we wrong.

Sunday at church a man by the name of B. walked in to the meeting house on his own and wanted to know more about "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." After going around with us and introducing him to the ward members he indicated he wanted to get the discussions started right away, that there was a "good" feeling he had the whole time he was there. He said he has had "burdens" in his life that he wanted to CHANGE. We are teaching B. tonight due to his eagerness to learn. If he had his way we'd taught him right on the spot..ha-ha Call it coincidence if you want, but I feel this is a blessing resulting from our FAITH in our Heavenly Father, our trust in Him and His plan and His preparing of others like B. to hear the gospel--I know that there is always something to be learned with obstacles and challenges. Also by enduring our challenges well (D&C 121:7-8), with an upbeat attitude we can like with B. be blessed with miracles. SOOOO COOOL!!

I also had the opportunity yesterday to team up with P. and go home teaching, WOW!! P. is so in tune with the Spirit and so plain in his testimony. P. is flat-out AWESOME!! In talking with him he realizes he has changed the course of his family for generations to come. As the only member in his family at this time, P. is the start of an eternal link all because he decided to ACT on the impressions of the Light of Christ within him.

Such a great week!!! Im excited for ya'll and hope ya'll are doing well in all your endeavors. It's good to hear about Dann and his family again. They are such great neighbors and friends send them my hello's! Mom, Kelee and Rylee should receive emails or letters this week.

Love Elder Gautavai