Faith Precedes The Miracle

Hey Family,

It's always a great blessing for me to be able to share my experiences each week with ya'll and I am absoulutely certain that EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IS FOR A SPECIFIC REASON, not by chance...more on that a little later.

Thank you for the update on your weekend down south in Provo. From the looks and sounds of it, unbelievable memories were made where we will be able to look back on and say without question our Heavenly Father has blessed us through the Atonement enabling us to do great and amazing things. Hoorah for Israel! Ya'll are looking good by the way!

Well this was a crazy week for me. We worked really hard this week focusing on increasing our teaching pool here in the Whitewater Area by being out talking with everyone about the wonderful message of the Atonement. As Thursday rolled around we had added 11 new investigators to our pool. I testify that this is a result of His blessings upon us as we demonstrate exact obedience and unwavering faith in Him, trusting and placing no limits on what He can do! We taught a powerful lesson in President Harding's home with the L. family setting a date for them to be baptized on Feb 2. HOORAH FOR ISRAEL!

Due to the changes my last companion went through in a short period of time he was emergency transfered into another area. Moving into this area is Elder Demotropoulus who has been out for 4 months. Elder Demotropoulus will be my companion until the end of the transfer. I'm hoping with the Lords help I can inspire and lift him up to do great things! He is my 10th companion in 7 months. With each companion I have learned so much! I know the Lord has a lesson for me to learn and grow in with each one...THIS IS SO EXCITING TO ME!

I'll leave you with this cool story from my week. We were tracting late at night due to an appointment that was canceled on us. Late nights are usually a time a lot of missionaries don't like to tract. However I felt a distinct impression leading us to a specific area because someone in this subdivision was waiting for us. At about the 6th door we knocked on, a man answered and invited us into the home -- long story short -- he told us about how he was a convert to the church, however was not active. In fact his records aren't here in Georgia. Despite being less active he said he was ready to come back to church with his family who are not members. What was really cool about this is that his wife and kids are of Hawaiian ancestry from the North Shore (Hawaii) and they are all eager to come to church to learn how they can be together as a family forever. We are having dinner in their home tonight and will be teaching them how they can receive eternal life as a family! The Lord truly does provide miracles, we just need to provide the faith!

I love each of you so much and I am at peace seeing the Lord blessing ya'll in so many different ways.

Love, Elder Gautavai